New SAGA Cook & Chill Paper halves food spill

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Did you know that food waste has a bigger environmental impact than food packaging? Metsä Tissue’s SAGA brand is tackling this global problem with its new-generation SAGA Cook & Chill Paper. This new product has been specifically designed for cook & chill processes in institutional kitchens. Tested in authentic environments, SAGA Cook & Chill promises to start its own small green revolution by halving food waste levels in institutional settings. In addition, this handy innovation saves money, labour and dish-washing.

Saving effort, money and the environment

With the cook & chill process, food is prepared, cooked, cooled, transported, re-heated and served in large gastronorm (GN) pans. In institutional settings, the number of meals prepared per day runs into the hundreds or even thousands – and the costs, too, are calculated on a bulk scale.

In such settings, SAGA Cook & Chill Paper offers a number of special advantages. First of all, it achieves major savings by reducing spillage when food is served. Lining dishes with GN-sized SAGA Cook & Chill prevents the food around the edges from burning. The entire portion is thus consumed by the diners instead of being thrown away as waste. Practical tests confirm that the total food spill using SAGA Cook & Chill is only half that of conventional paper-less processes.

The paper also saves labour and time by making dishwashing easier. You get away with less scrubbing and soaking, as the food does not stick to the pan.

All these savings and efficiency enhancements contribute to reducing the carbon footprint of the entire process – a green favour that will certainly be appreciated also by food-buying customers.

Easy and cost-efficient

SAGA Cook & Chill paper is easy to use. The same sheet can be used throughout the entire process from preparation through to service.  “The main new advantage over other baking and cooking papers is that SAGA Cook & Chill is  hard-wearing: the paper retains moisture up to 48 hours, and lasts the distance of the entire cooking and serving process. It won’t tear when serving, but stays where it should – in the pan,” says Raija Mörö, SVP, Baking & Cooking.

The Baking & Cooking team is offering a tool to help customers quickly calculate the savings gained with SAGA Cook & Chill paper. The cost of the paper is minimal compared to the savings achieved through reduced food waste.

The product development was carried out with kind assistance from Lahden Ateria, a meal service provider for the City of Lahti, Finland. The feedback from the pilot kitchen was extremely good and Lahden Ateria will continue cooking with SAGA Cook & Chill as a routine practice.

For more information, please contact:

Raija Mörö, SVP, Baking & Cooking
Tel. +358 (0) 1046 47610
Email: raija.moro@metsagroup.com

Metsä Group is a responsible forest industry group whose products are part of people’s everyday life and promote sustainable well-being. Metsä Group produces high-quality products mainly from renewable Nordic wood. The Group’s core businesses areas are tissue and cooking papers, board and paper, pulp, wood products as well as wood supply. Metsä Group’s sales totalled EUR 5.3 billion in 2011, and it employs approximately 12,500 people. The Group operates in some 30 countries.

With its high-quality tissue and cooking papers, Metsä Tissue makes life more comfortable for consumers, customers and end-users every day. Metsä Tissue is a leading tissue paper products supplier to households and industrial consumers in Europe and the world’s leading supplier of baking and cooking papers. Our main brands are Lambi, Serla, Mola, Tento, Katrin and SAGA. With production units in six countries, we employ a total of about 3,300 people. Our sales in 2011 were EUR 970 million.  Metsä Tissue is part of Metsä Group.

SAGA is a new, high-quality brand for consumers and professionals in baking and cooking markets globally. With its smart, user-friendly features, SAGA makes it easy and inspiring to prepare, cook and serve tasty and healthy food. The sustainable and biodegradable SAGA offering consists of multipurpose food-grade and greaseproof cooking and baking papers. SAGA is a registered trademark of Metsä Tissue.