Starpack serves up a feast of awards for food sector.

The Starpack Industry Awards 2008 gala dinner and ceremony, held at the Cafe Royal in May, served up a feast of awards for the food manufacturing sector with almost 20 Gold, Silver and Bronze Stars recognising excellence and innovation in food packaging.

Starpack is organised by IOP: The Packaging Society and this year's lead sponsor was WRAP, the Waste & Resources Action Programme.

Environmental and Sustainability developments also received full acknowledgement with the number of entries in the Environmental category increasing threefold over 2007. WRAP, whose high profile campaign 'Hate Waste--Love Food' could have been the theme for much of this glittering occasion, expressed satisfaction at the amount of progress being made by the packaging sector.

"This shows that the importance of environmental performance and sustainable packaging which are now squarely on the boardroom agenda of major bran& and retailers," said Mark Barthet, special advisor to WRAP, which also sponsored the Environment Awards category.

Head judge Steve Kelsey, strategic innovation director, PI3 Design, said: "fire great response to the environmental category and the increasing innovation we are seeing in bringing sustainable issues into the heart of the majority of packaging solutions reflects positively on the packaging supply chain."

However, the judges' favourite, taking both a Gold Star in the Technical Development and the Consumer Products categories, as well as bagging the Special Award for Consumer Convenience was Crown Food Europe with its EasyLift[TM] easy open end. The development gives a generous gap between the can lid and ring pull for easier access to the product, white for more physically impaired consumers it allows special 'hook' tools to be used more efficiently and easily.

Nestle Purina Petcare Europe is currently using the new 73mm ends on its 400g cans of petfood in the Netherlands. But new markets for this user-friendly product are expected to open up soon, particularly in the food sector.

"Crown Food Europe has 'grasped the technical nettle' in a world where half of Europe's adults will be over 50 by 2020," said the judges.

In Best Food Design, Crown Speciality Packaging received a Gold Star with a coffee tin for Fortnum & Mason s 300th Anniversary Boiling Coffee. The judges said: "The pack offers quality presentation as well as good functionality and provided an excellent fit with the Fortnum & Mason brand."

Easypack and POP Display Group came up trumps with a Gold Star in the Retail Ready and Display & Collation group for "an effective self. vend solution which means the product is always &splayed at the front of the pack".

Contact IOP--The Packaging Society on tel 01476 514594 or visit www.starpack.uk.com