Finnish food company Fazer has revealed its plans to switch to a thinner alternative for the plastic currently used in the wrapper of its wrapped praline products.

The company will begin the transition at the end of this year and expects the change to significantly reduce plastic usage in its confectionery production.

The changes will be implemented across Fazer’s popular wrapped pralines, including its Karl Fazer, Geisha, Fazermint, and Dumle products, as well as others.

Fazermint will be the first praline product to be rolled out in the new packaging solution, followed by Geisha.

The transition will enable the company to save up to 40,000kg of plastic annually without compromising on the appearance and quality of the pralines.

Fazer claims to have reduced its annual plastic usage in packaging by approximately 300,000kg through various packaging initiatives since 2018.

The company has reduced package sizes and material thicknesses and replaced plastics entirely with other sustainable materials in order to achieve this goal.

Fazer Confectionery packaging development and technology director Katja Santala said: “Changing packaging materials for more sustainable ones is a demanding process. Our responsibility is first and foremost to ensure the quality of the products, but also, we need to consider sustainability from a holistic point of view.

“We did extensive testing on our pralines before we decided to reduce the thickness of the plastic by 18%. In addition to the product quality, we need to make sure that the new packaging runs in production as smoothly as the previous one: compromising on production efficiency would be unsustainable.

“The impact of the change is much more significant than it might sound - twisted pralines are a big category for Fazer and include some of our most international products. The change will hence not only impact many products, but also many markets, including our growing travel retail business.”