GelatoPack, a recent start-up company, could provide a breath of fresh air in the food delivery packaging market with a new development. The packaging of the same name offers a world premiere in the packaging world. Awarded the German Packaging Prize 2022, the box has two separate cooling zones that keeps ice cream at parlor-fresh quality while protecting sensitive toppings from freezing for up to 60 minutes even at temperatures of 40°C in the shade. This opens up a completely new distribution channel for delivery services and ice cream parlors. The packaging, made from renewable raw materials, is completely recyclable and reusable. Now, founder Andreas Siebrecht is looking for investors.
According to the awarding jury, GelatoPack is a “unique and also sustainable reusable solution” which, with its different cooling zones, guarantees for the first time the delivery to customers and the out of home sale of decorated ice cream cups from the gelateria without any loss of quality.
The patented reusable packaging made of sustainable and insulating corrugated cardboard has a removal aid that is also patented and works inside with two reusable cold packs.
Specially developed in collaboration with the Bavarian Center for Applied Energy Research (ZAE), the food-safe coolant liquids in the cold packs ensure that the ice cream in the lower part of the packaging is kept at a temperature of -14°C, which corresponds to the cooling temperature in an ice cream parlor counter. In the area above, a donut-shaped cold pack ensures an optimal refrigerator temperature of 3-6°C for toppings. This prevents the fruit from freezing and the whipped cream from melting.
The cardboard packaging can hold ice cream cups of various sizes from 300 to 500 milliliters. A bicycle delivery backpack can thus hold up to 18 GelatoPacks. Optimized for storage and shipping costs, all components such as cups, dome lids and cold packs are also stackable.
Recycling included in the design
„The corrugated cardboard used consists of 100 percent waste paper. And can – at the end of its life – be returned to the material cycle for wastepaper. The material used for the cold packs and cups is compostable and recyclable bioplastic. It is made of polylactic acid (PLA), which is obtained from corn (maize) byproducts and is free of bisphenol-A (BPA) and melamine,“ says founder Andreas Siebrecht.
Seamless return and recycling of all of all GelatoPack components is also ensured, according to Siebrecht. „While the corrugated cardboard goes into the normal waste paper cycle, the cups and cold packs, which are collected according to type, are recycled, and cold packs are transported in a climate-neutral way to a nearby recycling company. The granulate recovered from recycling is used to produce new cups, cold packs or other bio-based plastic products.“
