Amcor’s award-winning AmPrima recycle-ready flexible packaging for shredded cheese is now in market with Fonterra Oceania, marking a commercial shift away from multi-material laminates in one of dairy’s most technically demanding formats.
Amcor has secured two 2026 WorldStar Global Packaging Awards for its AmPrima Recycle-Ready solution for shredded cheese – but the bigger story for the local market is that the mono-material pack is now in circulation across Fonterra Oceania’s retail and foodservice ranges.
In Australia, the recycle-ready format is used for Fonterra’s Perfect Italiano shredded cheese packs and carries the “Check Locally” mark under the Australasian Recycling Label, signalling alignment with local soft plastics recycling guidelines.
According to Fonterra Oceania GM Sustainability Rosie Cotter, shifting the shredded cheese range to AmPrima represents a practical step toward the company’s packaging sustainability targets.
“By transitioning our shredded cheese range including well-known brands such as Perfect Italiano to Amcor’s AmPrima recycle ready packaging, we’re helping to ensure more of our packaging can be recycled after use,” Cotter said.
By replacing conventional multi-material laminates, the move is expected to remove an estimated 270 tonnes of non-recyclable material from the Australian market each year, while maintaining product protection and shelf appeal.
Tackling a technically demanding format
Shredded cheese has long been considered one of the more complex flexible packaging applications. The format requires high oxygen and moisture barrier performance, strong sealing integrity and the ability to run at speed on existing production lines. Traditionally, that has meant multi-layer structures incorporating materials such as PET or PVDC – combinations that are difficult to recycle through established soft plastics streams.
Phil Van Houts, R&D director ANZ at Amcor Flexibles Asia Pacific, said the challenge was to simplify the structure without compromising performance.
He described AmPrima as a mono-material polyethylene film engineered to deliver the barrier and sealing performance required for shredded cheese, while maintaining pack integrity on high-speed lines.
“With AmPrima, we’ve created a simple, recycle-ready solution. It’s a step forward that helps our customers make the transition without changing how they operate, while maintaining pack performance, appearance and food-grade standards,” he said.
Crucially, the transition has been achieved without altering pack appearance or functionality for consumers.
While global recognition through WorldStar reinforces the technical achievement, the commercial rollout with Fonterra Oceania signals a broader shift underway in flexible dairy packaging – from complex laminates toward recycle-ready mono-material structures.
The solution was developed through collaboration between Amcor’s Asia Pacific and North American teams, highlighting the increasingly global approach to materials innovation in flexible packaging.
With soft plastics stewardship and recycling infrastructure under development in Australia, the move to flexible material structures that align with ARL guidance reflects a design-for-recycling strategy gaining momentum across the sector.
And this commercial rollout of AmPrima signals a meaningful step in the transition toward recycle-ready dairy packaging in the ANZ market.
