Nestlé’s assorted candy mix brand Quality Street is trialing a paper tub in collaboration with Tesco. More than 200,000 paper tubs will go out to seleced Tesco stores in the UK this festive season, carrying around 150 tons of the sweets in total. 

once empty, the tub and its wrappers can be put in household recycling.

“We know there are some Quality Street fans who, controversially, like to put their wrappers back in the tub once they’ve eaten them. With the paper tub, they can put the paper wrappers back for a good reason — it can go straight into the recycling,” says Cheryl Allen, head of sustainability, Confectionery Europe at Nestlé.

The paper tub comes in Quality Street’s signature purple and is embellished with gold foil. Its integrated re-close feature allows it to be securely closed once opened.

Before going on sale, the tub has been subjected to “significant testing” to ensure food quality and freshness while being transported and stored, Nestlé highlights.

“We’re looking forward to seeing what Quality Street fans make of the paper tub. A lot of care and hard work has gone into the trial and we’re proud to be the first major manufacturer to trial a paper tub at Christmas,” says Jemma Handley, senior brand manager for Quality Street.

“The beautiful design has been devised specifically for a paper product and we love how it looks, and of course, shoppers can expect the same great-tasting Quality Street sweets that they know and love inside.”

Feedback-driven improvements

Quality Street will evaluate the tub’s popularity with shoppers and feedback from supply chain and in-store teams at Tesco as the brand continues to innovate around improving the sustainability of its packaging.

“Of course, with all potential packaging changes, we want to get it right, so this trial will bring us valuable information to inform our next steps as we keep pushing to reduce our use of virgin plastic,” says Cheryl Allen, head of sustainability, Confectionery Europe at Nestlé.

In 2022, Quality Street moved to recyclable paper packaging for its twist-wrapped sweets. Quality Street reportedly removed almost two billion pieces of packaging material from the brand’s supply chain by replacing the double layer of foil and cellulose with a single paper wrap.

Scaling traceable cocoa

Nestle UK & Ireland announced earlier this year that it would use traceable cocoa ingredients in all its UK-made chocolate. Quality Street is now made using cocoa mass specifically sourced from cocoa farming families under Nestlé’s Income Accelerator Programme.

Building on the work of Nestlé’s Cocoa Plan, the program launched in January 2022 to help close the living income gap of cocoa-farming families and reduce child labor risks within the supply chain.

After a successful test with 10,000 cocoa farming families, the program has scaled up to 30,000 families across Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana. By 2030, it aims to reach an estimated 160,000 cocoa-farming families in Nestlé’s cocoa supply chain to create impact at scale.

Alongside the Quality Street paper tub trial at Tesco, the plastic tub, tin, pouch and carton are still retailing across the UK this Christmas.

In other recent confectionery pack advances, UPM Specialty Papers collaborated with packaging leaders to craft a digitally printable food-safe confectionery pouch. The pouch is recyclable in existing fiber recycling streams and offers enhanced barrier properties.