Babybel Shifts to Sustainable Paper Packaging, Enhancing Eco-Friendly Cheese Branding

Since late 2020, Babybel has used a bio-based, home-compostable cellophane. The company announced it will transition to paper packaging.

This shift goes far beyond changing materials, it is a structural transformation. Packaging plays a critical role: preserving product quality over time, ensuring microbiological safety, and withstanding temperature variations. Babybel’s iconic red wax shell remains unchanged, as it is essential to product protection, integrity, and taste, the company said.

Through a robust test-and-learn approach, including factory trials and real-world validation, the new paper packaging now meets the industrial performance requirements for large-scale production across all Babybel sites worldwide.

The commercial rollout of Babybel’s paper packaging has begun in the United Kingdom. The United States, Canada, and Northern Europe will follow in 2026, before a global expansion across all 50 markets starting in 2027. At that time, 100% of Mini Babybel will use certified paper, ensuring sustainable forest management and full traceability.

Aligned with its mission to provide healthier and more sustainable food for all, Bel places the reduction of its environmental footprint at the core of its strategy: from ingredient sourcing and logistics to industrial processes and packaging. The Group is thus accelerating the development and deployment of responsible packaging solutions, prioritizing renewable and recyclable materials while guaranteeing food safety and quality.

"Transforming our production and consumption models is one of the greatest challenges of our time. At Bel, we choose to put innovation at the service of more responsible and accessible food for all. This ambition sits at the heart of our growth strategy and guides the evolution of our brands, our industrial processes, and our packaging. Babybel has been part of families’ lives for more than 70 years. Its uniqueness lies in both its universal appeal and its ability to evolve with changing uses, food cultures, and societal expectations. Today, its packaging enters a new chapter, one that strengthens what makes Babybel® iconic: a practical, convivial, and instantly recognizable portion. By advancing its packaging, we are taking a structural step in our journey, embodying the combination of responsibility and performance that defines Bel’s DNA," Béatrice de Noray, Executive Vice President in charge of Growth at the Bel Group, said:

Adds Delphine Chatelin, director of RID at the Bel Group, "Transitioning Babybel to paper packaging is a true technical and industrial challenge. It is not simply about replacing one material with another, it requires rethinking the entire protection system to ensure product quality and safety from production to consumption. Our objective is to offer consumers the same iconic and enjoyable experience while meeting their expectations for sustainability and convenience, with packaging that is environmentally responsible and perfectly adapted to the product’s lifecycle."