Maya Simler, CEO, founded Playin Choc in London, in 2017, thanks to her love of chocolate and the need to create a dairy free recipe that kids would love, including her youngest son, Max.
Self-assembly toys
She came up with the idea to sell her confectionery with a selection of environmentally friendly self-assembly toys based around endangered animals.
Each toy is made from 100% recycled cardboard, printed with vegetable inks and targets children aged three and over.
At the same time, Simler wanted sustainable packaging for her confectionery using biodegradable materials.
As a result, she turned to Tisomi because it can package the chocolates using compostable film on its flow wrapper machines.
Simler said the main obstacles for choosing a packaging manufacturer were concerns about the temperature of the machine; if it was too hot it could melt the compostable material and if the packaging was too thick it would not slot into the machine or the chocolate itself would melt inside the flow wrapper.
After months of research and testing, the company decided to buy its own flow wrap machine and have it customised to take compostable film made out of wood pulp and cellulose.
It also had to be Soil Association approved because Playin Choc products are organic.
Non-plastic stickers
“Our packaging and toys are made from recyclable and recycled card but we also had to make sure we used non-plastic stickers so we use recycled and recyclable stickers to seal our boxes,” said Simler.
“To wrap our mini chocolate bars we didn’t want to use plastic and we were concerned that compostable film could not be flow wrapped.
“By partnering with Tisomi the film looks and feels like plastic and has the characteristics of air and water protection but will dissolve in the ground over three months with no harmful effects to the environment.”
Dominic Simler, director, Playin Choc said Tisomi supplies versatile equipment designed to handle intricate parts and tricky dimensions to support the confectionery industry.
“By working closely with Playin Choc it has delivered a flow wrapper which is reliable, efficient, easy to operate and hygienic,” he said.
“They were very knowledgeable and were quickly tuned in to what we wanted to achieve.”
Chocolate is traditionally flow wrapped and cold-seal technology can increase packaging speeds for temperature sensitive products.