Tetra Pack

Tetra Pack was founded by Ruben Rausing and built on Erik Wallenberg's innovation,
a tetrahedron-shaped plastic-coated paper carton, from which the company name was derived.
In the 1960s and 1970s, the development of the Tetra Brik package and the aseptic packaging
technology made possible a cold chain supply, substantially facilitating distribution and storage.
From the beginning of the 1950s to the mid-1990s, the company was headed by the two sons
of Ruben Rausing, Hans and Gad, who took the company from a family business of six employees,
in 1954, to a multinational corporation.
Tetra Pack is currently the largest food packaging company in the world by sales, operating in
more than 160 countries and with over 24,800 employees (2017).
In November 2011, the Tetra Brik carton package was represented at the exhibition Hidden
Heroes – The Genius of Everyday Things at the London Science Museum/Vitra Design Museum,
celebrating "the miniature marvels we couldn’t live without". The aseptic packaging
technology has been called the most important food packaging innovation of the 20th century by
the Institute of Food Technologists. The Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences called
the Tetra Pack packaging system one of Sweden's most successful inventions of all time. As of
2011, 20 percent of Tetra Pak cartons are recycled globally.
Aseptic technology

➢ Tetra Pack uses aseptic packaging technology.

➢ In aseptic processing the product and the package are sterilized separately and then
combined and sealed in a sterile atmosphere, in contrast to canning, where product and
package are first combined and then sterilized.
➢ When filled with ultra-heat treated (UHT) foodstuffs (liquids like milk and juice or
processed food like vegetables and preserved fruits), the aseptic packages can be preserved
without being chilled for up to one year, with the result that distribution and storage costs,
as well as environmental impact, is greatly reduced and product shelf life expanded.
While the original idea was to provide hygienic pre-packaging for liquid foodstuffs, Tetra Pack is
now providing a range of different packaging and processing products and services due to its
acquisition of Alfa Laval in 1991, consequently supplying complete systems of processing,
packaging, and distribution within fields as various as ice cream, cheese, fruit and vegetables and
pet food.
In addition to its various packaging products, Tetra Pack thus provides integrated processing and
distribution lines for different kinds of food manufacturing, including packaging machines and
carton paper, equally providing distribution equipment like conveyors, tray packers, film wrappers,
crates, straws, and roll containers. The company offers automated production equipment and
technical service.
Environmental policy
Tetra Pack products have been identified as solid waste problem by many NGOs and
environmental groups. Unlike aluminum cans or glass bottles, it cannot be recycled in municipal
recycling facilities.
Tetra Pack published a set of sustainability targets, which included maintaining its CO2 emission
levels at the same level until 2020 and increasing recycling by 100 percent. Previous Tetra Pack
sustainability targets (2005–2010) were met and exceeded. Maintaining current CO2 emission
levels until 2020 would result in a 40 percent relative cut in emissions at an average growth rate
of five percent per year, according to Food Production Daily.
Food for development
Tetra Pack was early in engaging in community projects and the company has supported school
milk and school feeding programmes for 45 years. In the late-1970s, Ruben Rausing worked on
Operation Flood, a joint venture between the World Food Programme, the World Bank, and Tetra
Pack to supply Western milk surplus to Indian households.
School milk in Thailand
The Food for Development programme (FfD) was initiated to improve nutrition and health and
alleviate poverty globally. FfD programmes mainly focus on school nutrition and school milk for
children, but also on projects to improve agricultural practices and dairy handling, training farmers
to enhance efficiency, productivity, and food safety. Tetra Pack works with local governments and
NGOs to secure and develop the programmes.
School milk
The school milk programmes are part of the Food for Development projects and aim at providing
milk to school children to help improve nutrition. Tetra Pack supplies the cartons for the school
milk at cost and does not make any profit on sales. UNDP and World Bank case studies of Tetra
Pack school milk programmes in Nigeria showed that vitamin deficiency, energy, growth and
cognitive skills were improved and that children were more interested in their school work after
taking part in the programme.
Disaster relief
Tetra Pack has supported disaster relief—e.g., after the Haiti earthquake, Pakistan floods, and
Russian wildfires in 2010, and Japan's Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami and Thailand floods in
2011, and during the 2010 Pakistan floods and Thailand in 2011. In China, Tetra Pack helped
improve food safety, sustainability and best practices in the dairy industry after the 2008
contamination scandal; although Tetra Pack had nothing to do with the scandal, seriously damaged
the market for packaged milk in China. As the Financial Times stated, it was not solely a
philanthropic act but a way of securing the future for the market, helping the industry become
safer, more sustainable and more efficient. The training programme was reported to be very
successful with substantial elevation of standards in dairy handling and farming.