Babybel's paper move fails some tests
- Bel Group is rolling out recyclable paper overwraps for Babybel cheese, starting in the UK, with the U.S., Canada, and Northern Europe due in 2026. - Bel says the switch should save 850 tons of plastic and 2,500 tons of CO2 a year, but only after years of R&D and factory changes. - The bigger point is that paper works in some food packs, but barrier needs, coatings, and recycling rules still make it a messy trade-off.
Babybel is changing one of the most recognizable food packages on the shelf — the little wrapper around its wax-covered mini cheeses. Bel Group has started replacing Babybel’s cellophane overwrap with recyclable paper, with a UK launch already underway and wider rollout planned through 2026 and 2027. That sounds simple. It isn’t. The whole story is really about a bigger packaging trend — paper replacing plastic in more places — and why that trend keeps running into hard physical limits. (groupe-bel.com) ### What did Babybel actually change? Bel is not touching the red wax shell. That stays. The change is the outer overwrap around each mini cheese — the layer that had been a bio-based, home-compostable cellophane since late 2020 and is now being swapped for paper. Bel says all Babybel products across 50 count(groupe-bel.com)pe in 2026. (groupe-bel.com) ### Why does that sound better than it is? Because “paper” reads as clean and obvious to shoppers. Paper feels recyclable in a way films and laminates usually do not. But food packaging is not just a branding surface — it has to block oxygen, humidity, grease, and temperature swings while surviving transport and high-speed packing lines. Once paper has to do those jobs, the clean story gets messy fast. (groupe-bel.com) ### Why are barriers the whole game? A food pack fails if the food goes stale, leaks, picks up moisture, or becomes unsafe. That is why paper often needs extra “functionalization” — basically coatings, adhesives, seal layers, and other treatments that make it act less like plain paper and more like engineered(groupe-bel.com)ing or composting. (foodpackagingforum.org) ### So did Babybel solve that problem? Bel seems to have solved it for this specific use case, or at least solved it enough to commercialize. The company says it spent several years in R&D, tested papers from different suppliers, validated the format in factories, and invested millions to adapt (foodpackagingforum.org)as an industrial rewrite. (groupe-bel.com) ### Does paper automatically mean more sustainable? Not automatically. Sometimes yes — especially if it cuts fossil-based plastic, lowers emissions, and fits a real recycling stream. Bel says the Babybel shift should save 850 tons of plastic and 2,500 tons of CO2 annually. But those gains depend on the full c(groupe-bel.com)annot process it well, the sustainability win shrinks. (packagingdive.com) ### Why do recycling systems matter so much? Because packaging is judged where it ends up, not where it starts. Paper packs with hidden coatings, inks, adhesives, or seal layers can be sorted differently, recycled into lower-quality outputs, or treated as problematic in existing streams. Even when a pack is technical(packagingdive.com)till be a bad fit in practice. (foodpackagingforum.org) ### What does this mean for the wider paper push? Basically, Babybel is both a success story and a warning label. It shows paper can work when a company spends years engineering around the limits. But it also shows why “just switch to paper” is not a serious packaging strategy. The real opportunity is more selective — use paper where the barriers, machinery, and end-of-life systems can actually support it. (groupe-bel.com) ### Bottom line Babybel’s move matters because it makes the paperisation trend concrete. But the lesson is not that paper wins. The lesson is that packaging still obeys physics — and the best material is the one that protects the food, runs on real equipment, and has a believable afterlife. (groupe-bel.com)
