Medicine remains difficult to obtain in remote villages in sub-Saharan Africa. Consequently, 15% of the mortality in this area for children under 5 years old is attributed to dehydration from diarrhoea, an easily treatable illness. In some regions, mothers might journey three to four hours to obtain medicine from a health clinic that might be out of stock.
But … the big question is: How do you get the medicines at the right spot and in a continuous flow in these faraway and remote rural areas, as the supply chain is a headache.
Click to view slideshow.

Except that Coca-Cola is virtually everywhere. You can find bottles of Coke anywhere in sub-Saharan Africa, and in the same places where children are dying.

ColaLife came up with a brilliant idea: Hitchhiking or piggybacking, whatever you want to call it, off the Coke supply chain, in other words using Coke’s omnipresence to bring people lifesaving anti-diarrhoeal medicine. Of course this requires a special designed packaging. And that’s what they created.

ColaLife, an independent non-profit UK-based agency with the idea to leverage the vast Coca-Cola supple chain network, collaborated with pi 3, the structural design and engineering branch of London-based  Pi Global Partners Ltd., Amcor Flexibles and thermoformed packaging designer Charpak Ltd. in Huntingdon, England to developed a structural, self-contained packaging for an anti-diarrhoeal kit to nestle into the unused space surrounding crated Coca-Cola bottles.
When Coca-Cola is deliveres to a store, the AidPod, as the new packaging is called, rides along with it. The medicine is sold for USD 1.00, a price mothers in Zambia say is affordable, according to ColaLife.

The AidPod is at the heart of the ColaLife model. It is a wedge-shaped, structural, self-contained packaging for an anti-diarrheal kit, designed to nestle into unused space between bottle necks in a crate of Coke.
The AidPod contains several doses of anti-diarrhoeal medicine packaged in single-dose sachets, zinc supplements and a pamphlet with educational material. It also contains a soap packet in the reusable lid of the container to promote hand washing. The container itself is also a functional 200-milliliter measuring jug that can be used to mix the medicine with water and act as a clean, reusable drinking cup.

The recycled PET package is heat-sealed with a waterproof film that can withstand severe impacts, is tamper-evident and prevents contamination.

The organisation is running trials with the AidPod in Zambia.

May 16, in Wilmington, Delaware DuPont celebrated the silver anniversary of its global packaging awards program last night, granting top honours to the AidPod.
This unique packaging and distribution program captured the premier Diamond and the Special 25th Anniversary ‘Food Security’ award.

It is a brilliant idea and a prime example for non-profit organisations to deliver life-saving products to rural communities.

In general there is little movement in the world of beverage cans, in terms of new designs or technological developments. Of course there are the most fantastic graphics, but the market seems to be happy with the shape, size and design of the beverage can as it is.
Interesting enough in the last month we have seen two developments in reshaping the beverage can. I know many a packaging designer has modelled an “out-of-line” beverage can in the past.

One of the most expressive was the can designed by Dzmitry Samal, a Belarusian designer, currently based in Paris, who came up with the Facet Can, a 33cl concept can in aluminium. But as with all others which tried to reshape to beverage can, this Facet can didn’t come off the drawing board either. All these personal initiatives of designer haven’t led to any commercial activity. But now there is the BowTie-shaped can of Budweiser this month introduced in the market.
Furthermore we will see a development of a dual-can. Only the basic design is available and nothing serious in the market yet. To be frank, I don’t see a market for this type of beverage can, but who am I to foresee the future.

There are two more developments, one in the printing section of beverage cans and the other, a very important one, in the material section.
Let’s start.

Bowtie-Shaped Can
Is the Facet 33cl beverage can one of the many never-released shaped designs, the Budweiser BowTie is very real.

Budweiser will introduce a striking and original new beer can. The bowtie-shaped aluminium can that mirrors Budweiser’s iconic bowtie logo, is introduced in May this year, but only in the USA and in an 8-pack and will not replace the traditional Budweiser can.

To make the new can possible, Anheuser-Busch engineers needed to solve a number of technical challenges, and major equipment investments were required at Budweiser’s can-making facility in Newburgh, N.Y. Significant capital investments also were required to upgrade packaging lines at the Budweiser breweries in Los Angeles and Williamsburg, Va., the first breweries with capability to package this unique can innovation.

Newburgh, about 60 miles north of New York City is where proprietary equipment is located that shapes the can. As aluminium can be stretched only about 10% without fracturing, the angles of the bowtie should be very precise. Creating the can requires a 16-step process, i.e. 10 steps to form the bottom half of the can, with an additional 6 steps to form the top portion.

Due to the can’s slimmer middle and sleek design, it holds 11.3-oz. of beer and has about 137 calories, approximately 8.5 fewer calories than a traditional 12-oz. can of Budweiser.

Well what do we say about this “world’s most unique and innovative can” as it is claimed this way by Budweiser? Is it the first step into an interesting development in shaping beverage cans or is it just the whitewashing of a stealthy price increase (assuming that 11.3-oz bowtie cans against 12-oz Budweiser in cylindrical cans go for the same price).

Sterling Anthony, a consultant, specializing in the strategic use of marketing, logistics, and packaging, wrote in Packworld a very interesting analysis, titled: “Analyzing Budweiser’s bowtie can – Has Budweiser gotten bent out of shape over nothing, or are contoured cans the shape of things to come?”
It is interesting reading.

From the mammoth brewers to the craft brewers, where Samuel Adams, the largest craft brewery, comes up with a new beverage can design and offers it to the whole craft brew sector.

Samuel Adams Beer Can
The founder of the country’s largest craft brewery, the Boston Beer Company (BBC), informed the Brewers Association that he plans to allow other craft brewers the use a patent-pending beverage can package, that BBC designed, without any royalty or license fee.

The company worked with Ball Corporation to create a new can design that boasts a wider lid and mouth, which is believed will increase air flow and position the drinker’s nose closer to the hop aromas of the beer. Boston Beer is still working out the details with Ball, its can manufacturer, but anticipates that any craft brewer will be able to purchase this unique can from Ball sometime this fall.

Brewers are calling it the “Sam Can,” and its extended, curved lip and wider lid are designed to allow aroma out and enhance the palate of the brew. The Sam Can will be available in 12-packs nationwide by early summer, the Boston company says.
The move follows a trend embraced by craft brewers who like aluminium, in part, because it’s cheaper than bottles, more compact for shipping and does a better job of protecting the product from damaging sunlight.

Dual-chamber beverage can
The inventor of this dual-chamber beverage can argues that at present time the beverage cans are known for its contents approximately corresponding to one consumption. When the consumer wishes to make a combination of two different drinks, she/he must use the contents of two containers, i.e. bottles or cans.
In his opinion this might cause a problem, firstly due to the need of purchasing two beverage containers and secondly, because the amount of drink obtained exceeds the normal amount consumed, while in case of several consumers, they all are forced to consume the same mix.

I am not sure I can go along with his argumentation, as I am not so sure the consumer is thinking along these lines. But whatever the case, his reasoning led to the invention of a dual-chamber beverage can.

The invention enables solutions in the mixed beverage market, holding two drinks separately that can be consumed on separate occasions or together forming a mixed drink for one or several consumers. To achieve this goal the can has the peculiarity of an internal vertical wall inside, forming two independent compartments with the purpose of containing one or two different drinks.
Valves beneath the tab tops allow only the drink being consumed to leave that compartment, while the other compartment is automatically sealed until consumer drinks from that compartment.
Therefore the respective valves connected to the area of the location of the easy opening device allow the exit of the drink contained in one compartment when the can is inclined towards the corresponding side of said compartment keeping the other exit closed.

As said it is a design and the inventor is looking for interesting parties.

We go back to the real world and have a look at a recent development in material for beverage cans, as Novelis developed a 90% recycled aluminium for beverage cans.

Novelis’ 90% recycled aluminium for beverage cans
Novelis developed aluminium sheet, called Evercan, with 90% recycled content enabling beverage can manufacturers the ability to have a product made of 70% recycled material. When combined with the can end made of a different alloy during the can making process, the Evercan results in standard 12-oz aluminium cans certified as made from a minimum of 70% recycled content.

For Novelis, the world’s largest recycler of aluminium, this is an important step toward delivering on its ultimate vision of an aluminium can with up to 100% recycled content.

Recycling aluminium requires 95% less energy, and produces 95% fewer greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs), than manufacturing primary aluminium.

And for the last item we look into printing, as in recent years printing of beverage cans has taken large steps to perfection. With the Dynamark technology of Ball Corp. it is getting a step further.

New printing process for beverage cans
With this variable printing technology dubbed Dynamark available from Ball Packaging Europe, beverage producers can obtain 24 different can designs in one production run. From logos and portraits to graphics and messages, all the elements in the livery can be changed and modified to appeal directly to a targeted audience and grab attention at the point of sale.

Ball Packaging claims that the newly developed Dynamark technology can be integrated in the existing printing process for all sizes of steel and aluminium cans. It enables up to 24 different monochromatic graphic elements to be added to a defined vacant area of, or supplemental to, the basic design. Dynamark allows variability in the graphic design at normal production speed.

In the next article we have a look at developments in PET bottle design.

I have argued over and over again that recycling is money. Furthermore it is well-known that I strongly object to any microbial additives used in plastic packaging to claim bio-degradability. Additives used in PET, which has a working and profitable recycling business, would ruin the sector. Or as one PET recycler stated: “Even in small percentages, like one-tenth of one per cent, these are just catastrophic for us. They melt at different temperatures. They ruin our product”.

Don’t forget, recycling as an end-of-life option fares much better in the U.S. than bio-degradation. As long as there is a viable market for recycled material, it should be recycled and re-used, not wasted away. Additives claim to make a plastic bio-degradable or compostable, but that’s not true. Additives are simply breaking the plastic into smaller and smaller pieces so it can’t be seen. The plastic is still there. And by the way they are not adding nutrients to the soil, the way natural materials do. It only breaks down without any profitable goal, except that companies can use the ‘green-washing’ label.

And as usual the green-washing is confusing the consumer. The consumer, full of good intentions, isn’t aware that the claim “bio-degradable” means, that the bottle shouldn’t be deposited into the recycling stream for PET or plastic in general, as it shouldn’t be in the recycling stream at all.
But how can the consumer know? It’s therefore that with pleasure I read an article in Plastic News (which I partially will quote here) relating about the (in North Carolina and Alabama) proposed laws that would require containers made from bio-degradable or compostable plastic to be labelled “non-recyclable”.

Introduced, last month in North Carolina and Alabama the bills would prevent any plastic containers, including beverage bottles, sold or distributed in those states from being labelled compostable, bio-degradable or degradable unless the container is also clearly marked “not recyclable, do not recycle”.

According to regional recycling experts, the proposed laws aim to prevent contamination of the plastics recycling stream and protect what has become a robust and growing industry in the Southeast. The laws would cover resins containing degradable additives, as well as compostable bio-resins like polylactic acid.
“We came to the conclusion that we had this very important part of our economy that we needed to protect, that we needed to grow, and we didn’t want anything to slow that growth down”, said Scott Mouw, state recycling program director in North Carolina.

More than 6,000 people in the Southeast work in manufacturing businesses that depend on using recycled plastic feedstock to make consumer-ready goods. About 60 facilities in the region contribute USD 3 billion in value to the domestic economy, according to the Southeast Recycling Development Council Inc., a non-profit coalition of 11 states including North Carolina and Alabama.

The North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources took an in-depth look at degradable plastics. The staff researched degradability claims made by manufacturers and the potential advantages of the material, and gathered the opinions of trade organizations and other industry players. The department also talked with reclaimers and recyclers in the region, many of which had serious concerns about degradable plastics, including their ability to detect it in the recycling stream and the costs of accommodating degradable material.

One North Carolina recycler is quoted, saying: “This is potentially a nightmare for us. It’s going to diminish the faith that people have in this material as a feedstock and the products that are made from it.”

According to the Southeast Recycling Development Council, degradable additives prevent resin from being reliably recycled and manufactured into new products, and are not useful in reducing marine debris or controlling litter. Other industry groups, including the Association of Postconsumer Plastic Recyclers and the National Association for PET Container Resources, echo that position.

“If we’re trying to recycle resins, we need durable resin, not degradable resin. Recycling and degradability are really not compatible,” said the council’s executive director, Will Sagar. “Neither one of these bills is banning [degradable] bottles; just labelling them so the consumer knows not to put them in recycling”.
He added that there might be good uses for degradable plastics, such as agricultural film, but those uses don’t include PET bottles that are being recycled.

Conflicting messages of compostability, degradability and recyclability can confuse consumers, creating more problems for recyclers.

“The public is very confused about plastic bottle recycling, about recycling in general, so clarity is really important”. Scott Mouw illustrated his point with a water bottle from Project 7, a brand of Costa Mesa, Calif.-based Products for Good Inc. made from PET with a biodegradable additive from Enso Plastics of Mesa, Ariz. The bottle’s label says it will break down in a landfill in one to five years, but can also be recycled like regular PET. “When confronted with mixed messages, consumers don’t know what to do”, he said.

I really hope that more states will follow the lead of North Carolina.

Our world is moving towards a quick and convenient way of living. But for this quick and convenient way of living the consumer is setting quite a range of requirements as condition for the products he intends to consume. Consequently packaging design has to follow suite.
Whatever packaging you design it has to convey “contemporary convenience and relevance for an increasing well-informed and health-seeking consumer in the on-the-go, in other words in the snack category”.
Isn’t that a “contradictio in terminis”, as common wisdom has it that snacking is a deleterious activity, eroding healthy eating habits?  And that, calories consumed during snack times are empty at best, crowding out healthier food portions that might be consumed during regular meals?

Market research of the NPD Group in Chicago tells us, that just the opposite is true and that, consumers following the healthiest diets snack twice as often as those with less healthy diets. The fastest growing behaviour is the morning snack time, the one most driven by healthy nutrition attitudes. Foods with a better-for-you positioning are particularly popular with this group, states the report.

With the number of single-person households increasing rapidly and being busier than ever before and always on-the-go, this frantic consumer lifestyle, urge food and beverage manufacturers to set their sights on the single-serve portion market.

With, according to Mintel, the definition of “meal” changing, consumers have become less regimented in their consumption patterns and consume nearly any type of food or drink at any time of day, causing the definition of ‘mealtime’ to become blurry.

This “blurriness” is overly exposed in the supermarkets, where food manufacturers fill the shelves with a range of ever-more creative single-serve food products. In this overwhelming clutter and choice, purchase decisions are driven primarily by what people see or miss to see. Thus, visual equities, including unique new usage occasions, ownable shapes, colours, and icons, are more important than ever to help shoppers navigate the expanding aisles.

Furthermore delivery systems also play an important role in food and drinks and ensure a more efficacious product. Developing more advanced delivery systems enhances the on-the-go experience of the consumer.

And that brings us to the on-the-go market. If you look at the snacking occasions, morning versus afternoon versus evening snacking, those occasions are driven by different motivations and very different choices. The fastest growing behaviour is the morning snack time, the one most driven by healthy nutrition attitudes.
And that’s logic when you look at how many times we have to run without having time to consume an old-fashioned breakfast. Consequently breakfast snacking on-the-go often is a “wet” experience consisting of a fortified, nutritional beverage or as one company defines it: It’s the ultimate morning “pick-me-up” that gets you started.

Driven by the healthy nutrition requirements of the consumer, this “wet” breakfast “pick-me-up” category runs from fortified vitamin, flavoured beverages to teas and cold coffee and any combination (even weight loss) in between, with pro/pre-biotic milk formula in high demand, as well as probiotic juices. Consequently the shelves are overloaded with bottles and cans, with little or no differentiation in shape and design. The creativity sits in the product, but the consumer can’t see that, as they all just look like coloured waters.

And that brings us to a new packaging format, the Single-Serve Cap, setting a packaging category of its own. Let’s have a look at the single-serve cap first, before we outline its uniqueness in the market.

The Single-Serve Cap
On the face of it the Single-Serve Cap™ of the Californian company Tap-The-Cap looks like any other dispensing cap as it has to dispense a supplement (vitamins, flavours, nutrients) through a bottle neck opening and into the bottle. But it is much more than the dispensing caps as we know them.
One of the most intriguing features of the Single-Serve Cap is its configuration to automatically connect to bottle necks with a circumference between 26mm-32mm. That translates into all known water bottles and brands in the market worldwide.

And as, generally speaking, bottled water is typically sold at lower price points, companies creating a nutraceutical supplement don’t have to design and manufacture a bottle and ship heavy loads of water everywhere. They just sell the Single-Serve Cap™ holding the nutraceutical and profit from the fact that the consumer can consume its own preferred water brand, buying it around the corner. Even the bottle of premium water, positioned as a higher-end product, can be accommodated by the Single-Serve Cap.
And what do you think of a cocktail shot with a tropical flavour. Buy a Single-Serve Cap with the cocktail shot, a bottle of juice and enjoy your freshly made tropical cocktail on-the-go.

A huge improvement for all consumers, who like to add “value” to their own preferred water or juice brand! But there is much more, as I said before, the Single-Serve Cap is a category of its own, it is a unique single-serve solution with a wide range of potential applications.
Let’s have a look at a market segment nobody has thought about before.

In the medical world, hospitals, nursing homes and similar institutions where time is money and labour saving of utmost importance, it’s well known that nurses spend a lot of time in distributing medicines, as they often come as pill or capsule, needing a glass of water to dissolve and help the elderly to drink. All time consuming. What’s simpler than use a Single-Serve Cap filled with the exact quantity of medicine, a reusable PET or glass bottle, and plug the Single-Serve Cap on top, shake and let the patient quietly drink the solution in time (as if it were a baby bottle).
The nurse can spend her time doing other more important jobs.

There is another advantage
In tablet form, often, medicines pose a concentrated assault upon the stomach when swallowed. Research shows that people would rather prefer to drink their supplements, pharmaceuticals and nutraceuticals than taking a pill or capsule, especially when it comes to children and the elderly. Furthermore medicines rapidly degrade in an aqueous solution. Thus, if one is to gain the maximum benefit, it must remain in a dry form immediately prior to ingestion.

On top of this, it is generally claimed that pills and capsules have a very short window of absorption when traveling through the body.  Just the intake of a glass of water, after the intake of a pill, will, if the patient is fortunate, absorb 10-15% of the medicine. Liquid absorption is much higher: around 80-90%.

In other words the Single-Serve Cap™ isn’t only a potential time-saver in the hospital world, but the patient also benefits from a better medicine intake.

We have seen that the Single-Serve Cap has a wide range of applications and with a bit of imagination every company can see one of its products in a Single-Serve Cap to conquer the growing on-the-go market.

For more information contact: info@tapthecap.com or visit the website: http://www.tapthecap.com

(This is a sponsored article)

At this moment there are three hot topics in the packaging world. The first one is the dispensing cap, which we find mainly on top of a water bottle for inserting a certain dose of vitamins. It is a packaging format which over the last years attracted an increasing number of beverage companies, but now moves to other applications.
The second hot item is the self-heating packaging, up till now concentrated around coffee and tea beverage cans and more recently soup, but without doubt we will see it moving to the solid food segment of the on-the-go market. And that brings us to the third hot item in packaging, which of course is the convenience of the on-the-go packaging, a fast growing market segment which spreads wider and wider from ready-to-eat meals and lunch snacks into convenience packaging for outdoor activities.
It is interesting to see all these three topics combined in one innovation. And I must say quite revolutionary and unique.

But before we can discuss this new innovation, we have to have a closer look at the convenience to feed our babies and toddlers with a milk powder baby formula when we are on-the-go. Over the last few years we have seen interesting innovations in packaging for this type of product, however all of them maintained the “wrestling” of the parents with a box of powder, a measurement spoon, a baby bottle and a nipple, after which (sometimes painful) wrestling the parents have to look for a heating facility, before finally the baby can enjoy its “meal”.

Well, the answer came in the form of a self-heating packaging, including a milk powder dispenser, the necessary spring water and a baby nipple.
The new innovative packaging is developed by Dutch start-up Aestech in Eindhoven and is a self-heating packaging for semi-liquid food, particularly baby food.
Contrary to existing self-heating packaging, mainly metal beverage cans with pre-mixed coffee or tea, this self-heater has a separate chamber in which the milk powder is stored, while the heating-element is located at the bottom of the largest chamber, which holds the spring water.
In other words it isn’t a pre-mixed product as the ingredients, as vitamins and milk powder, are stored separately from the spring water, staying dry till the moment of consumption, maintaining the “power” of the supplements.

Although already patented, this self-heating packaging still is in development, or more clearly in its “working prototype” stage. And you can see that when looking at the images. Consequently I couldn’t restrain myself of making some critical comments.

The dispensing chamber
After removing the cover seal, the activating button can be engaged through which the film seal between the powder dispensing chamber and the compartment holding the spring water tears in a straight line.
Instant coffee or tea powder as dry matter drops into the water without any problem. However milk powder in baby formulas, being sticky, is more critical. Although the instruction stipulates that the packaging should be shaken several times to obtain a perfect mixture of water and powder, it is doubtful that all the dry matter from the dispensing chamber will end up in the water.
In my opinion the straight tearing line should be replaced by a circular one, like we often see with dispensing caps for vitamin beverages, to have the certainty that all dry matter drops into the liquid below. The tearing along a straight line is too critical to guarantee, that all baby formula has mixed with the water. (See my detailed articles “Developments in Dispensing Caps – An Overview” 01, 02, and 03).

The heating element
To be sure that the heating element is fully surrounded by the to-be-heated liquid (the bottom as well), the heating element, made from aluminium, is standing on small columns. This is of utmost importance, not only to guarantee the best possible heat transfer, but also to prevent the heating element with its somewhat brusque thermal reaction to melt through the bottom of the plastic packaging.

This design is a deviation of the common practice with the self-heating beverage cans, where the heating element is an integrated part of the bottom of the packaging and where the activating button, consequently, also is located. In the Aestech design the activating button is at the top of the packaging and the heating element is separated from the bottom by free-flowing liquid.
Of course the baby formula application in this is of importance as much less energy is needed to bring the milk product to the correct temperature of 37°C (100°F), in contrast to the roughly 62°C (143°F) for coffee. (See my detailed articles: “Self-Heating Packaging Containers” 01 and 02).

The construction
The packaging consists of four compartments or chambers. The top compartment (or dispensing chamber) with the activation button holds the dry matter (milk powder and vitamins) and is sealed airtight with a foil. The space between the dispensing chamber and the heating element is the compartment which holds the to-be-heated liquid, p.E. spring water. The heating element is fully immersed in the to-be-heated liquid to guarantee an intensive contact between the liquid and the element and to prevent a direct contact with the heating element by the consumer.
The heating element itself is filled with a certain quantity of calcium oxide that thermally reacts with water to calcium hydroxide heating up the element. The water needed for this exothermal reaction is located in the tube, which runs from the heating element to the activating button at the top of the packaging.

Instead of calcium alternative heating resources can be used, such as fine iron powder which supplies oxidation heat, or saturated salt solutions which release crystallisation heat.

How it works
By pushing the activation button at the top of the packaging the foil which seals the dispensing chamber will rupture and the dry matter (milk powder) will drop into the compartment below, which holds the drinking water.

By pushing the above said activation button a second action will occur simultaneously as the pressure will push the water in the tube into the heating element. Consequently an exothermal reaction with the calcium oxide will take place. The heating element heats up and the heat is transferred to the milk powder/water mix around the heating element.
After approx. 2 minutes and a bit shaking of the packaging the baby formula has reached the appropriate temperature of 37°C (100°F), the nipple can be put in place and the baby or toddler can enjoy his/her meal.

I am well aware that this innovation needs some modifications before it is market ready, but nobody can deny its uniqueness and clever design. I hope to see more of these packaging innovations this year.

In 2012 we have seen several dual-chamber bottle designs and other attempts to please the consumer on-the-go with two related products which have to be kept separately till the moment of consumption. More often than not that ended up in complicated bottle constructions and consequently a higher price for the bottle.
See my article: “Dual-Chamber Bottles”

To illustrate my point I ask your attention to the ball shaped PET-bottle from Emergent Technologies and Plastic Technologies. It is a two-compartment PET container, in which the larger, top compartment holds the liquid, while the bottom holds the snack item. Additionally, both can be used for dry products and/or non-food items.

The second or bottom compartment is created by drawing the base upwards which forms a small cavity into which a heat-sealed portion cup, containing solid, granular or powdered products, can be inserted and held by friction. The base opening can then be closed using a variety of heat-seal or pressure-sensitive materials or methods. The top compartment relies on a traditional finish and closure.
It looks as a simple solution. But in reality it is complicated to manufacture. Read more in my article: “Two-Compartment PET-bottle”.

The alternative solution of course is the stacking of containers to create a dual-product offering. And I am of course not talking about the simple shrink sleeve to create a promotion of two products for the price of one. What I am talking about is an offering of two products, which belong together creating one consumer product or which are an addition to each other, enhancing the consuming experience.
One of the first was Italy’s Barilla in 2006 with its Pasta Barilla sauces in a shapely new twin-pack of two, stacked glass jars bundled in a PETG shrink sleeve.

This was followed by the introduction of the dual-plastic cup with its easy-fit insert. The crystal clear PET cups and its flat or domed lids create an easy grab and go package. Designed to aid fresh or even processed food packaging applications, the Cup Insert is ideal for use with multi-ingredient pairings such as yogurt and granola parfaits, fruit or veggies with dip, green salads and much more.

Recently we have seen the stacked PET-cup for wine. Attracting new consumers is crucial for winemakers, and so the ubiquitous 750-ml glass wine bottle got competition from new types of packaging primarily intended to make wine more accessible to new consumer groups.

In 2010 French Château Roubine introduced a foil-sealed 175ml single-serve ready-to-drink PET-glass manufactured by 1/4 Vin in France, providing a similar appreciation of the wine flavour as with a classical glass. (For more about the Château Roubine wine glass read my article: “Wine in a Ready-to-Drink Glass”.

Stacked Wine
Enlarging the idea of the single-serve ready-to-drink PET-glass for wine, Stacked Wines LLC., launched in March 2012 a wine packaging, which comprises four interlocking, stackable stemless PET wine glasses bundled in a shrink-sleeve label. The design looks, wrapped in its shrink sleeve,  like a standard 750 ml bottle of wine separated into four stemless wine containers made from plastic.

Central to Stacked Wines concept is the Vinoware technology, which combines packaging constructed of oxygen-barrier PET, with a filling and sealing process that eliminates oxygen from the package headspace and ensures a vacuum seal, enabling a 12- to 14-month shelf life.
Each container is engineered on top and bottom to snap “like a Lego” into another Stacked wine glass. The 187 ml glasses are sealed with an aluminium composite lidding material, while four containers are snapped together for one product unit. The four-pack is unitized with a perforated PET shrink-sleeve label.

It is a clever design and with some imagination you can see endless possibilities and combinations. Imagine 2 white and 2 red wines, 3 wines and one cup with a snack, any combination of still beverages with one or more snacks. As I say the combination possibilities are endless. There only is one problem. The 4-pack has to be wrapped in a full-shrink-sleeve. This might give attractive printing options, but blinds the view upon the products and increases the costs.

BTC Concept in Paris/France created the solution: Sleeveless stacking of PET-bottles. And not only that, they enhanced the marketing options.

BottleClips
With its BottleClips, BTC Concept invented an innovative system that makes small bottles look big. With one simple twist of the hand, bottles get stacked and interlocked to become a one and unique packaging.

The concept is responding to the new consumption patterns: mix beverages with snacks, customization. The BottleClips are suitable for beverages and for many other applications, they allow for the assembly of products, multi-brand or multi-flavours without a secondary packaging.

The bottles connect and disconnect to infinity, to be mixed, shared or exchanged.

The major innovation at the heart of BottleClips is the clipping system, which is integrated into the bottles by the injection blow-moulding process of PET, PE, or PP.

BTC developed its prototypes with reference to a 500 ml volume to match a combination of three bottles with the height of a 1.5 litre classic bottle. The company claims that the system is declinable to containers the volume of which can be up to 1 liter with customizable shapes (identical or not). At a similar cost to conventional bottles of the same volume, BottleClips can be implemented on a standard production line, with specific developed moulds, according to BTC Concept.

The preform of a non-carbonated 500 ml BottleClip weighs 24 gr, but BTC’s objective is to go below 20 gr and to blow-mould in BioPET.

I am sure that we will see more innovations and design for dual-product packaging in the near future. It is becoming too interesting a market to be ignored by the beverage and snack manufacturers.

Last year I wrote several articles about dispensing caps for bottles. All of them have the intention to add an extra nutrient ingredient to the liquid inside the bottle. There is one new development especially designed for the pharmaceutical and medical market, i.e. the effective dosing of a medicine. For this “remarkable” we go to Texas/US.

Aspin
Aspirin is the most widely used analgesic preparation in the world. It is available without prescription and is marketed under a host of trade names. It also seems to have many other benefits to human health beyond its pain-relieving properties, namely as an anti-inflammatory agent.

One drawback in the use of aspirin is its harsh effect on the stomach lining. Aspirin is the common name of salicylic acid (C.sub.9H.sub.8O.sub.4). In tablet form, it poses a concentrated assault upon the stomach when swallowed. Antacid buffering agents are often incorporated in the tablets to lessen the damaging effect.

Unfortunately, the most commonly used forms of aspirin rapidly degrade in aqueous solution. Thus, if one is to gain the maximum benefit of aspirin, it must remain in a dry form immediately prior to ingestion. In response, some manufacturers provide analgesics in a power form packaged in a tear-open packet. This packet is then poured into a glass of water so that it may be dissolved and then drunk. For many active people, this is inconvenient.

       As with all dispenser caps, the additive is retained in an isolated condition within a sealed chamber inside the bottle cap, but in fluid communication with the liquid, such as water, within the bottle. The Aspin cap has a downward extending protrusion to breech the seal of the chamber, thereby releasing the additive retained within the bottle cap, which than mixes with the water.

This is basically nothing special and in line with almost all other known dispensing caps. However looking at the images, the special features and advantages of this cap will be readily apparent to those with a bit of knowledge of the existing caps in the market.
The Aspin dispensing cap for bottles easily lends itself to child-proof arrangements.

From Texas we fly to the Republic of South Korea, where we find an aerosol made from paperboard.

The Eco-friendly cosmetics packaging
You don’t see a lot of eco-friendly packaging in the cosmetics world, although times are changing and the necessity to jump on the eco-bandwagon is slowly getting weight in this (in packaging terms generally seen as) wasteful world.

The Airless Paper Blow from Korean cosmetic company Yonwoo Co., Ltd is an eco-friendly 100ml airless pack that conforms to the four R’s: Refill, Reuse, Reduce, Recycle.

Provided by Quadpack, the Paper Blow features an overcap and outer bottle made of recycled PCR paperboard, fitted around a tube-like PE pouch attached to a 0.50cc airless pump with a ring neck for easy filling. These are blow inserted into the paperboard bottle using surface friction, for an extra-tight fit. The pump system is the same as an airless tube – the PE pouch collapses in on itself as the formula is used up, preventing air to re-enter.

The PCR outer sheath means that no secondary packaging is necessary, reducing the overall use of materials. Paper Blow is refillable and for decoration offset printing is available (up to eight colours) using thin paper, which can be laminated before being labelled onto the outer bottle and cap.

Read for more details my article: Developments in aerosol technology – part 02

We stay in Asia, cradle of many an interesting packaging innovation, and fly from Korea to Singapore, famous for its efficient and above all clean environment. And that shows in its packaging innovations.

Eat Me, Use Me
Stand-up pouches are more and more used for snacks. The problem for the consumer is that various snacks leave a residue not eaten by the consumer. We see this phenomenon with the shells of peanuts, wraps of toffees and chocolates etc. What is the consumer to do with this litter?

Containers Printers Pte Ltd in Singapore created the solution by designing the two-way stand-up pouch. As the consumer opens the packaging, an additional stand-alone stand-up pouch is formed. This acts as a litter bowl for unwanted waste. No longer does the consumer require a dust bin to consume, he or she can now be on “the move” and consume simultaneously without littering the street.
The unique feature of this two-way stand-up pouch is that it is not only convenient to use but also environmentally friendly.

Still running around in Asia, we end up in Japan. Here at the Tokyo Pack 2012 Toppan Printing showed its newly developed Sosogi Jozu, a stand-up pouch with improved pouring characteristics.

Sosogi Jozu stand-up pouch
The Sosogi Jozu, which means “easy pour”, is a stand-up pouch of which the ease of pouring the content has been improved.

Stand-up pouches are widely recognized as a packaging format that is environmentally friendly in terms of resources. They are becoming very popular for refilling products in the toiletries market, such as shampoos, conditioners, and detergents.

However, there have been demands from consumers to improve the opening and refilling procedure. Because stand-up pouches have a structure that includes a welded seal at the top, to form a spout the consumer needs a scissor to cut a part of one of containers before he can start pouring the content. This isn’t the ideal way to pour into a bottle as a refill, so that in order to solve this problem, manufacturers tried to improve the pouring experience by embossing texture onto the spout section film or using plastic parts such as fitments or pouring spouts.
The Sosogi Jozu, developed by Toppan Printing Co., Ltd., has a pouring opening created by folding back the top section of the pouch instead of sealing it. By adjusting the shape of the so-formed spout, it has also been possible to improve the ease of opening.

We stay in Japan and have a look at the Alpet Es Eco Sprayer, another spout fitment for a flexible packaging.

‘Alpet Es’ Eco Sprayer
This trigger spray system, developed by the Japanese company PacPlus Co. Ltd, is for professional germ elimination and it features a unique cartridge pouch with a connector. Users do not need to refill, but instead just screw the spray head to connect/disconnect the cartridge.

The contents can be pumped out to the very last drop and the pouch becomes flattened. The company claims that this system enables users to spray at all angles. For anti-bacterial alcohol liquid application, the film construction is carefully selected. This eco-friendly packaging solution dramatically saves time, waste volume as well as the material cost.

From Japan we fly to Russia for our nicely in-packaging-boiled breakfast egg.

Kian Gogol Mogol egg carton
We have seen quite some new developments in self-heating and/or self-cooling technology for packaging. Some time ago I gave a full overview of packaging innovations in self-heating technology. It is a market very much on the move and moving from beverage cans to other packaging formats. In my previous article I already mentioned the self-heating stand-up pouch and now we come to something special.

The Russian design firm Kian came up with an egg packaging, called Gogol Mogol, which is more than just an egg carton. It “boils” the egg in the packaging.
This unique egg carton concept is made out of recycled paperboard, while the packaging also holds a means to “boil” the eggs stored inside, as Gogol Mogol egg carton comes with a not-specified substance under the first paperboard layer, separated by a membrane which can be removed when a small label is pulled off. This causes the substance to mix and followed by a chemical reaction, which is enough to heat up the egg stored inside.

Within a few minutes, when the consumer opens the cover of the egg packaging, he/she has a boiled egg. It is quite a unique concept that combines an egg package and a way to cook it as well.
It is a very interesting development in self-heating, but whether it will be available as a commercial product still remains to be seen. It will be a pity to see this innovation going to waste.

We all know that at this moment in Russia it is terribly cold. I heard of temperatures reaching minus 50 or 60 degrees C. In this environment you urgently need a hot cup of coffee and/or a cup of soup. For that coffee on-the-go we jump from Russia to Sweden and for the soup we travel to Germany. First the coffee.

Coffee brewer for on-the-go
Danish coffee brewer Nordic created a disposable coffee brewer, that works right inside its own stand-up pouch. Inside the pouch is a filter with 26 g of freshly ground coffee. To brew 3 cups of coffee, all you need is to open the pouch, pour ½ litre of hot water into it, and let it brew for 5-8 min.
The filter will effectively separate the brewed coffee from the grounds and when you have served the first 1½ cup the remaining coffee will be under the filter and the brewing process will stop. This means that the coffee will not go bitter over time like in a French Press.

Although the Coffeebrewer clearly uses more packaging material per cup of coffee than most other on-the-go coffee brewing solutions it deserves a place in the remarkable series of 2012 for its effectiveness and innovation.
For more details about this packaging innovation read my article: On-the-Go – Just Add Some Hot Water.

As said the last of this part of the “remarkable” series we found in Germany. The Maggi “Moment Mahl“ soup is a splendid example of on-the-go convenience.

Maggi “Moment Mahl“
The Nestlé Product Technology Centre in germany designed a practical collapsible-cup packaging for instant soups. The packaging is remarkable due to the combination of a flexible stand-up pouch that contains the product and a folding paperboard part that turns into a convenient cup upon squeezing the top rim of the pouch.

Special of the packaging for “Moment Mahl“ soups is that the soup bowl is already integrated in the pouch. The consumer just has to tear off the top edge of the foil and squeeze the surrounding paperboard ring at the marked locations until the cup clicks, creating a stable soup terrine. Then he/she pours boiling water into the cup, stirs, waits three minutes, after which the soup can be enjoyed.

We are halfway our world tour. In the next issue we visit among others the USA, Australia, China, Germany, and Poland.

As is tradition we have seen a wide range of award ceremonies in the world of packaging. I wrote a critical article (Packaging Awards and the Self-Congratulatory Syndrome) about the lack of technical packaging innovations in most Award Ceremonies. Of course there are exceptions, luckily. I selected 24 packaging innovations, which in my opinion are the remarkable ones of the year 2012.
It is not surprising that developments and innovations in flexible packaging are dominant, as the flexible packaging is (slowly but surely) becoming the number one packaging format in the world. Of the 24 innovations selected by me 12 are flexible.

Let’s make a world tour and start with a Christmas, New Year’s attraction first.

The Peeled Banana Ice Cream
In November a snack bar next to the Musée de Louvre in Paris started selling products in edible packaging from WikiCell Designs. The edible packaging idea claims to be a reaction against the over-packaging of foods, which generates a huge amount of waste.
That concept is the brainchild of Harvard University professor David Edwards and Robert Connelly, who wanted to recreate natural foods such as fruits enclosed in an edible skin.
Ice cream enveloped in an edible skin was another idea. And that brings us to Brazil.

In Brazil Christmas and New Year are celebrated on the beach. Brazil has many a beautiful sandy beach and they are intensely frequented during this season as it is full summer holiday in the south (Rio, São Paulo etc). Ice cream is very popular over here, so Nestlé thought it wise to introduce a special banana ice cream. That sounds nothing special, except that the product is encased in a gelatine layer that can be peeled as a real banana. This is one of the first industrial examples of the edible skin packaging.

We stay in South America for the next innovation.

The Coca-Cola Bag
In July last year I wrote about the introduction of the Coca-Cola bag in El Salvador. Some clever chap in El Salvador found the most brilliant answer I have ever seen by offering plastic bags in the form of the iconic Coca-Cola glass bottle, even with its logo.
The internet was rash to call the Coca-Cola Bag a hoax, but all comments missed the point.

What is the case. In almost every Latin America country, the Philippines and Indonesia, and without doubt in many other low-income countries, it is common practice to pour soft drinks of any brand, and even beer for that matter, in a simple plastic bag the moment you buy it at a vendors stall or kiosk. I live in the north of Brazil and I haven’t seen anything else in the twenty years I am here.
The reason is simple. The vendor of soft drinks has to secure his glass bottle against all odds. Charging a refund (whatever the value) doesn’t help him, as the distributor of soft drinks wants to see empty bottles. He will replenish the vendor’s stock only in relation to the number of empty bottles he trades-in. No empty bottles means: no replenishment with full bottles. An eye for an eye is translated into an empty one for a full one.

Street vendors, street stalls and kiosks all over the world found the solution for the glass bottle, which they couldn’t let taken away by the consumer. They introduced the plastic bag, and unanimously and without question, the moment you buy a bottle of soft drink, they pour the soft drink into a plastic bag, stick a straw in and hand it over to you.

The problem for the drinks company however is that with the plain plastic bag the brand name disappears. The consumer is walking away with an anonymous soft drink. That’s why this is such a clever idea, as the bag in the shape of a Coke bottle keeps the brand image alive.

For more info read my article: The Coca-Cola Bag

We continue our world tour and end up in Mexico where we found the Mixpack.

Dual-Chamber Stand-Up Pouch: Mixpack
Last year I wrote several articles about dispensing caps for plastic or glass bottles. The advantages of storing ingredients separately are, I presume, well known. The most obvious one is the improvement of the shelf life of mixed products that are not stable or deteriorate rapidly.  I foresaw the introduction of similar systems for the flexible packaging, as it is becoming one of the most important packaging formats. And here we are in Mexico where Simonalbag S.A., in cooperation with DuPont, patented the Mixpack.
The Mixpack is a flexible multi-layer stand-up pouch with an intermediate seal which forms two compartments. Each compartment can hold a powder and liquid separately and be mixed just when it is consumed. The intermediate seal is designed in such a way that with little manual force it can be broken allowing the contents to mix.

For a video about the manufacturing of the pouches click here.

The dual-chamber flexible pouch seems to be the development of the year. We will have a look at another one and jump to Belgium, where ScaldoPack introduced a remarkable development in the self-heating/self-cooling segment of the market.

ScaldoPack Self-Heating/Self-Cooling Pouch
I wrote about this innovation last month. Scaldopack’s innovative self-heating (quicklime) for liquid food and beverages has a flexible twist. Although not the first one to try-out a self-heating flexible packaging, ScaldoPack certainly is the first one that comes to market with it.

The product consists out of a “pouch-in-a-pouch-concept”. The inner pouch serves as the reaction chamber while the outer pouch carries the consumable product.
The consumable product can be heated by pressing the reaction chamber. By doing so, the exothermic reaction is activated, adding 35°C in about 5 minutes to a 200ml consumable product.
The company claims that the temperature increase can be adjusted from +5°C up to +40°C, following customer requirements.

As was to be expected the existing manufacturers of self-heating beverage cans expressed their doubts about the viability of a self-heating pouch. Read about it in detail in my article: Self-Heating Packaging Containers – Part 2.

So that’s enough for today, more to come tomorrow. Remember I selected 24 remarkable packaging innovations introduced during 2012, so we still have some to go.
to be continued

Field of opportunities or graveyard of dreams? Examples of some of the many commercially unsuccessful self-cooling packaging – Source: Packaging Materials & Technologies Ltd

As said in my previous article the self-cooling trail is literally littered with technological failures. There are thousands and thousands of patents about self-cooling containers and still we haven’t seen any reliable one in the market. In this issue we will have a look at the self-cooling developments and a look into the future of self-heating/self-cooling technology.

The self-cooling technology boils down to two options: endothermic chemical reactions and heat pump technology using water vapour as the heat transfer fluid.

Endothermic reactions tend to be weak. By contrast water evaporation can be a powerful cooling process, as evaporation of 10 ml of water can theoretically cool 330 ml of water by 18°C.

The self-cooling system of the Ice Can

In Italy Freddo Freddo, the sister product of the earlier mentioned Caldo Caldo, employs the endothermic reaction between sodium thiosulphate pentahydrate and water.
I suspect that ScaldoPack is using an identical cooling system, in other words identical salts and water, as its cooling track is not that forceful.

Heat pump technology is finding commercial success in Europe for party keg sizes of beer. German CS-Metallbau GmbH developed a self-cooling refillable keg using Zeolite/Water-Vacuum Adsorption Technology. Zeolite is a non-toxic mineral that exists in nature. In dry conditions it adsorbs large quantities of water. Under vacuum the process makes it possible to produce ice.

But this article was intended for single-serve beverage packaging and not multi-litre packaging. So let’s have a look at the developments in that category.

Instant Cool Can
In 2006 a partnership of Tempra Technology and Crown Holdings introduced the Instant Cool Can. The Instant Cool Can was said to be a 100% safe and environmentally friendly self-refrigerating process that cools using brilliantly simple water evaporation. Tempra stated that in fact, it’s proven to lower beverage temperature by a minimum of 30°F (16.7°C) in just three minutes.
The design used thermal, insulating and vacuum heat pump technology, according to the description. The self-contained can was about the size of a 500 ml beverage can, holding approx. 300 ml (10 oz.) of beverage. This includes the beverage container itself, and the integral self-cooling device.
The can never made it to the market and is one of the additions to the “Gallery of Failures”.

Chill Can
Why did I refer to this Instant Cool Can. Well, recently, to be precisely in February this year, the online BeverageDaily.com proclaimed that “US firm Joseph Company International is launching the world’s first ‘self-chilling beverage can’ using licensed technology, even tested by NASA”. The test markets are “selected convenience stores” in Southern California and Las Vegas.

Mitchell Joseph himself told BeverageDaily.com how the technology worked: “There’s an inner unit called a heat exchanger, an HEU, and inside is an organic, renewable vegetable source done from activated carbon made from coconut shells.
The adsorbent that goes on there [....] reclaims CO2 that is already in the atmosphere, bringing it in and clearing the air away from it, and using that as the source of CO2.
Once you push the button on the bottom of the can, it then releases the CO2 from the activated carbon – it’s not absorbed, it’s adsorbed – then that becomes the last stage of your refrigeration system basically”.

The story is a bit wary, but it comes down to: “The can uses CO2 reclaimed from the environment and activated carbon ascertained from a renewable vegetable source”. Whether it works I can’t tell you. I haven’t seen it in the market. To be honest I haven’t been in Southern California or Las Vegas recently, but I haven’t heard of it anymore either. For the time being I believe that Joseph’s claim, that the Chill Can would “revolutionise the beverage industry, and the way the consumer perceives a cold drink”, looks a bit premature.

What’s left? Let’s have a look into the future.

The Future of Self-Heating and Self-Cooling
First we go back to 2006. In that year at the Solar 2006 Conference in Denver researchers of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute detailed that they’re making progress in developing a thin-film technology that ultimately could turn beverage bottles into climate control systems.
The ABE system being developed by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute accomplishes the jobs of both cooling and heating, yet operates silently with no moving parts, using a thin-film technology that adheres both solar cells and heat pumps onto surfaces.
“The ease of application would make it possible to seamlessly attach the system to various surfaces”, RPI researcher Steven Van Dessel said. “It also may be possible to one day use the ABE system to create packaging materials for thermal control, which could lead to things like self-cooling soda bottles”.

Active Building Envelope (ABE) systems
Active Building Envelope (ABE) systems make use of solar energy and are a new technology for space heating and cooling, which integrate photovoltaic (PV) and thermoelectric (TE) technologies. In the ABE systems, a PV system is used to transfer solar energy directly into the electrical energy. This electrical energy is subsequently used to power a TE system.
Depending on the direction of electrical current applied to the TE system, ABE systems can operate in a heating or cooling mode, and can compensate for thermal losses or gains that occur through a building’s envelop or other thermal enclosure.

It is not surprising that we haven’t heard a lot about this interesting development after the first announcement. Research projects tend to consume a lot of time and the accent often lies on a range of industries, in this case from aerospace (advanced thermal control systems in future space missions), to the automotive industry, where it could be applied to windshields and sun roofs, giving the ability to heat or cool a car’s interior. Furthermore I read that attached to various building surfaces the system possibly renders conventional air conditioning and heating equipment obsolete.

In this lucrative field of potential applications the use of the system in packaging technology is certainly pushed somewhere in the background.

But whatever the case it is a development that we need to keep an eye on as it surely will surface in the future self-cooling and self-heating packaging formats.

ScaldoPack self-cooling stand-up pouch

Up till this point we have only spoken about self-heating or self-cooling of liquids, i.e. beverages. However the increasingly convenience-orientated consumer requires a means to heat all types of food and beverages including high viscosity liquids and solid products, i.e. thick soups, snacks including wraps, fajitas, stuffed pita bread, ready meals, pasta, rice and stews. To date the technologies for self-heating have been confined to quicklime/water reactions (with the exception of HeatGenie), where heat output is lower but the reaction is safer. But heating times can be long for solid food products since heat is transferred from the heating source to the product purely by conduction. The existing heating systems also have the risk that the solid food in contact with the heating unit is burnt, while the outside surface of the food is still cold.

Note:  Although HeatGenie uses a different fuel source, the result doesn’t fare better in cases of solid food.

Direct Steam Heating
Although the company is victim of its failed developments and dissolved as of 11 Feb 2011, we have to take a look at a new heat transfer process Thermotic Developments came up with. The so called direct steam heating, ensuring excess water is present during the lime/water reaction, is a highly efficient system which transfers heat to the product by injecting steam directly into and through the food. Steam is a very effective medium for transferring energy, with 1g steam delivering around 2KJ of energy.

Crown Fresh Can

This is a very important development for heating ready-meals. So important that Crown, a company apparently very much interested in the field of self-heating and self-cooling, included the steam process in its vision of the future self-heating containers.

Ahead of the Pack Expo Las Vegas 2011, the PMMI (Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Institute) challenged the design community to envision how packaging will drive consumer purchasing decisions in 2020 and submit their ideas of what consumers will see on retail shelves in the year 2020.
Crown Packaging Technology took a shot at the future with its entry “The Fresh Can” visualising the upcoming and very promising trend of self-heating/self-cooling of on-the-go meals.

The Fresh Can
Shelf stable ambient foods, including vegetables, pasta, soups and ready-to-eat meals, can be heated in seconds thanks to in-can steaming technology from small self-heating pucks in the base of the package or heating by induction on ‘smart surfaces’. Steam heating provides improved taste and freshness and the all-metal construction is 100% recyclable. Metal packaging also saves energy by eliminating the need for refrigeration and freezing and reduces food waste by controlling portion size.

The interesting point in this concept is not the self-heating in itself, but the fact that Crown thinks in terms of steaming. In general, self-heating packages are using calcium oxide and water for the thermal reaction in a closed environment separated from the food stuff and this energy source is not sufficient for thoroughly heating of solid food.

Of course, Crown as a manufacturer of metal containers, talks about steaming ready-meals packed in metal containers. In my opinion there is no limitation to metal containers. Personally I see a bright future for self-heating in plastic/paperboard containers. Don’t forget we already do steam ready-meals in plastic containers with an auto-venting lid.

So here ends my story for today. Watch the developments in solar thin film as a new energy source for self-heating or self-cooling technology and watch the developments of self-steaming containers for ready-meals and other solid food products.

HeatGenie
HeatGenie is a different story. As said HeatGenie’s approach to self-heating is unlike other self-heating technologies involving mixing quicklime or other chemicals with water.
HeatGenie is a patent-pending solid-fuel technology. The heating element contains aluminium and silica, two benign materials, which in an intimately mixed powdered state can undergo a chemical reaction to give off a large amount of heat.
Aluminium can react with a source of oxygen to release large amounts of energy through oxidation.  Silica is the source of oxygen in the HeatGenie units.

The HeatGenie self-heating component integrates into the bottom of a metal packaging. The can supplier is HeatGenie’s packaging partner Crown Holdings (www.crowncork.com), which supplies a 12-oz (355 ml) metal can designed to accept the 1½-oz (42 gr/45 ml) heating-unit that will heat a 10-oz (295 ml) product volume to 145°F (63ºC) in two minutes.
To activate, consumers simply press a button at the bottom of the package. The button is a thermo-mechanical device that when activated generates a localized hot spot on the surface of the fuel that starts the oxidation reaction and creates heat. Once the fuel is spent, the heating process stops.

The amount of heat generated and the rate that heat is released into the food or beverage can be precisely calibrated based on the mix of the fuel in the HeatGenie heater. This is important because the specific properties for a given food or beverage impacts its heating characteristics. For example, coffee heats faster than a soup which has more and varied density.

The company claims that with the solid-fuel system heating times are four to six times faster and the heater itself is eight times more compact than the traditional self-heating systems. As an example, a one ounce HeatGenie heater can be used to heat eight ounces of coffee from room temperature to serving temperature in less than two minutes.

It is no surprise that the company claims full recyclability of the self-heating can.

We reach the point of the most recent development and leave the self-heating beverage can. ScaldoPack introduced last month at the Brau Beviale 2012 in Nuremburg /Germany the self-heating stand-up pouch for beverages.

ScaldoPack Self-Heating/Self-Cooling Pouch
Scaldopack’s innovative self-heating (quicklime) for liquid food and beverages has a flexible twist. Althoug not the first one to try-out a self-heating flexible packaging, ScaldoPack certainly is the first one that comes to market with it. And that at the recent Brau Beviale, probably the most important beverage exhibition in the world.

The product consists out of a “pouch-in-a-pouch-concept”. The inner pouch serves as the reaction chamber while the outer pouch carries the consumable product.
The consumable product can be heated by pressing the reaction chamber. By doing so, the exothermic reaction is activated, adding 35°C in about 5 minutes to a 200ml consumable product.
The company claims that the temperature increase can be adjusted from +5° degrees up to +40° degrees, following customer requirements.

The advantage of a flexible pouch is evident. It only uses 15 gr of packaging material, which makes it an eco-friendly packaging, especially compared to metal can alternatives in the market. Furthermore, and I have argued this before, a flexible packaging is easily stored in a back-pack, overcoat or purse.

As was to be expected the existing manufacturers of self-heating beverage cans expressed their doubts about the viability of a self-heating pouch. In the relevant LinkedIn group the following comments were posted:
MS from the UK • This has been tried before by myself and others. The problem is always that the CaO water reaction can reach temperatures of 300°C which is above the melting point of the packaging. It seems like another pipe dream that is unlikely to reach production.

JS from the USA • I tested and made several hundred different pouch designs with quicklime. The one main issue is; if the consumer [...] activates the pouch you get a meltdown just like the old Wolf Gang Puck cans did. This will create a hazard for the consumers. Not good for the Self-Heating industry to have a pouch that can meltdown.

I asked a comment from ScaldoPack and they wrote me the following:
We have solved these and many other concerns by controlling the reaction so the inside temperature of the reaction chamber does not exceed 95°Celcius. Then there is no longer any concern, as you do realize a pouch can’t handle any form of pressure so we couldn’t tolerate steam.
Over 60k self-heating pouches have been made and used by end customers. None of them ever complained about the bad function.

Note: I haven’t been able to test the self-heating pouch, but for me the technology to control the exothermic chemical reaction must be possible, consequently the ScaldoPack self-heating pouch gets the benefit of the doubt. Time will tell us.

Self-Cooling/Self-Chilling
ScaldoPack has another interesting development as the company also introduced a self-cooling stand-up pouch. The same activating system is applied, so that pressing the centre of the pouch starts in this case an endothermic reaction. The cooling is obtained by the dissolution of salts in water. It is said to cool down a 200ml consumable product some 13° degrees Celsius, in about 3 minutes.

This is a very interesting development, as the road to self-cooling/self-chilling has been much more bumpy that the self-heating one. The self-cooling trail is literally littered with technological failures. There are thousands and thousands of patents about self-cooling containers and still we haven’t seen any reliable one in the market.

Group of self-cooling failures

In the last issue about self-heating/self-cooling we will talk in depth about the self-cooling technology and its developments and have a look into the future of the self-heating/self-cooling technology.
-to be continued-

Consumer who want it the way they want it and want it now, are no longer just sitting in London, New York or Los Angeles. They’re also in São Paolo, Moscow, Taipei and Shanghai. As lives around the globe are becoming more complex and time increasingly a luxury, on-the go consumption is on the rise world-wide. Just in the last three years, the demand for convenient eating options has gone up to 40%, and the habit to “sip a drink while walking” became with 35% almost as popular. Increasingly sophisticated consumers expect high levels of convenience, including related to the environment.
Based on the products on show at Pack Expo 2012, it’s clear that convenience is one of the hottest trends, especially in beverage packaging. Apparently for the consumer, it’s all about convenience, ease of use and ease-of-recycling. In response to these requirements consumer goods companies have focused on active, smart and higher-value-added packaging that boost consumer safety, user convenience, shelf appeal and recyclability.

But convenience with a smart or active technological touch costs money. It’s obvious that the value vs. convenience equation in self-heating and self-cooling packaging translates into the usefulness and valued functionality versus the preparedness of the consumer to pay for it. For this type of smart packaging the functionality is obvious and it is not difficult to appreciate the usefulness of a self-heating or self-cooling beverage. But the 1,000-dollar question is what is the consumerprepared to pay extra for the convenience of hot or cold drinks or hot food away from home, on the road, at the beach?

To make things more complicated self-heating/cooling beverages, like so many packaging innovations, have a rough and bumpy history and the reviews on the internet aren’t very positive, even often plain negative, although that has more to do with the quality of the beverage than the non-functionality of the self-heating/cooling device. Nevertheless the general result is negative.

Unfortunately the consumer is well-aware of this bumpy history and is, for the time being, leery to unconditionally give this packaging format the “let’s try it”.

In this article I will only talk about self-heating (self-cooling is reserved for a separate article later). We will see the developments of Hot-Can from Malaysia, the Fast Drinks from Spain, and the Heat Genie from the USA. All in metal cans. Recently the Belgian company ScaldoPack entered the arena with a self-heating stand-up pouch. A really interesting development.

The History of Self-Heating Technologies
The only viable form of heat engine for self-heating is an exothermic chemical reaction. A number of options are available with varying degrees of heat output, but the most reactive are also the most dangerous, using potentially toxic chemicals and producing undesirable gaseous by-products.

The exothermic chemical reaction of choice for consumer packaging is lime reacted with water because it generates substantial heat output, lime is cheap and readily available, and the by-products of the reaction are environmentally acceptable. The Ca(OH)2 (calcium hydroxide aka slaked lime)component in the self-heating cans combines itself with the CO2 found in the atmosphere to form calcium carbonate and water, reducing the very gas that’s known to be one of the main players in the greenhouse effect.
An alternative reaction is the hydrolysis of calcium chloride, which has the advantage of producing no reaction by-products, but generates a lower heat output.
Note: HeatGenie uses a solid fuel source, different from the above mentioned ones. Later in this article more about the HeatGenie solid fuel.

One of the most successful self-heating containers was launched in UK test markets during 2001, as a joint venture between Crown Cork, Thermotic Developments (company dissolved as of 11 Feb 2011) and Nestlé. The 210 ml “Hot When You Want” Nescafé canned coffee heated, with an occasional shake, to around 40ºC above ambient in about 3 minutes. Although the trial was said to be a success and demonstrated that there was a significant market for such a product, Nestlé aborted the project in 2004.

By contrast, in many Mediterranean countries, small quantities of strong espresso coffee drunk at medium warm, not boiling temperatures is frequently the beverage of choice. CaldoCaldo, an Italian development, uses the exothermic reaction between anhydrous calcium chloride and water to meet this need. After the substances are mixed, the consumer shakes the container for 40 seconds so that the hot solution swirls around the aluminium cup containing 40 ml of beverage, producing a temperature rise of around 23ºC. Although a niche market the hot drinks sells across the Mediterranean in sports venues, motorway rest areas and many other outlets with variants as coffee, cappuccino, chocolate, coffee with grappa and tea with lemon.

The pioneer in taking the self-heating formula to the USA market was Ontech, which introduced the Hillside Beverages and convinced back in 2004 WP Beverage Partners to introduce the 10-ounce (295 ml) Wolfgang Puck gourmet lattes in self-heating cans. Based on the lime/water reaction, the largely plastic container was portable, fitted into a cup holder and heated the coffee to around 60ºC (145ºF) in six minutes and kept it hot for some 30 minutes. The foam label added a degree of heat insulation.
Unfortunately, it was technically not a success and many a law suit was thrown around. Hillside Beverages (OnTech) went out of business in Nov 2008.

Let’s have a look at the current players in this market. We start with Fast Drinks from Spain.

Fast Drinks
The 200 ml 2GO SHC (Self-Heating Can) of Fast Drinks in Spain was launched in April 2005. The can is a welded tinplate can and consists of a number of readily-available components such as three-piece welded and expanded tinplate can bodies and a full-aperture easy-open end to reveal the press-button that starts the heating process. Using ready-made standard components from third parties reduced the development costs of this self-heating system. The graphics are applied to a shrink film label.
The system consists of three compartments that are separated within the can: the first is the packaged beverage; the second, calcium hydroxide; and in the third, water. Once the calcium hydroxide is dissolved within the water, it generates, in just 3 minutes, a large amount of heat (up to 40 degrees Celsius, 104ºF), which heats the beverage that is located in the first compartment of the can and allows for it to remain hot for up to 20 minutes.

There are two sets of ring pulls on the can, one on top and one at the bottom. Pulling the bottom reveals the heating-module (see photo) which should be firmly pressed on the centre to start off the reaction that makes the heat, as it mixes the water with the calcium oxide.

The company claims that its technology is the only one that is retortable after that the heat-module is assembled. This technology translates in a few simple processing steps: Assembling, Filling, Retorting, Labelling and Packaging.

Furthermore the can, being made of welded tinplate, is said to be 100% recyclable, as well as the Ca(OH)2 (calcium hydroxide) used to create the heat reaction as I have argued above.

Bottom of Fast Drinks left and Hot-Can right, after removing the protective seals

Hot-Can
In contrast to Fast Drinks which uses three-piece tinplate containers with components supplied by third parties, Hot-Can of Malaysia uses Drawn Wall Ironed aluminium cans made at its own can making plant near Kuala Lumpur. The graphics are applied to a shrink film label.

As said most self-heating technologies use slaked lime in a small canister to which water is added to create the energy that raises the temperature of the drinks by about 40oC. In Hot-Can’s case, the double chambered aluminium can contains the beverage in the outer chamber and the water and calcium oxide (quicklime) separately in the inner chamber. The canister, fitted in the base, is part of the drawn aluminium can body, taking up about 120 ml of the overall 330 ml, leaving a nett volume of 210 ml. This is said to simplify the manufacturing process, making it more cost effective, so long as high volumes are produced.
When the button at the bottom of the can is pressed in, the water mixes with the quicklime, starting an exothermic reaction that heats the contents of the outer chamber in less the 3 minutes.
This is the same process, by the way, as used by Fast Drinks, and also by Nestlé for its Nescafé self-heating can project which was aborted about ten years ago.

As the others, Hot-Can claims full recyclability of its aluminium cans, as it only produces natural bi-products: water, calcium carbonate, and calcium hydroxide.

In the next issue of the article we talk about HeatGenie, whose approach to self-heating is unlike other self-heating technologies involving mixing quicklime or other chemicals with water. Further we shall have a look at the new development of a self-heating/self-cooling stand-up pouch ScaldoPack.
-to be continued-

The article intends to give the bottled water suppliers some ideas for alternative containers to the widely used multi-gallon bottle, as many producers and users of multi-gallon water bottles are now looking for BPA-free alternatives to polycarbonate (even though there is no legal requirement yet for them to do so).
PET is one of these possible alternatives, and it is interesting to see that recently Sipa not only set out to develop a lighter multi-gallon container, but one with an embedded handle for a better functionality. But about Sipa and its new bottle later in this article.

Developments in Multi-Gallon Containers
A large part of the bottled water market is covered by the multi-gallon containers. A market segment in which few breath-taking developments are seen and expected, as so many multi-gallon bottles are in circulation and even more significant and dominant so many water coolers. Nevertheless some developments are there and worth to take a serious look at.

We all know the multi-gallon bottle with the traditional long neck. But from a supply-chain point of view they are very inefficient. They are difficult to stack and occupy a lot of space.

Stacking
In 2006 Nestlé introduced the 3-liter bottle with a short neck and with a deeper-than-usual concave indentation at the base of each bottle. This enables efficient stacking. The neck of the bottle below fits into the base of the bottle above, significantly reducing the required amount of stacking space and eliminating any need for interlayers.
Although in place with 3 litre bottles, it must be possible to blow mould a similar indent in a 4 to 5 gallon bottle. Of course the neck design has to be revised with some compromise between the necessity for a water cooler and the maximum possible indent in the bottom of the bottle.

Deep Grip
The new bottle also is designed with an ergonomic grip that makes it easier to hold, carry, and pour.  Everybody is well acquainted with large bottles with huge handles or grips. In general handle designs are incompatible with PET due to the difficulty of blow moulding around the grip. The handle or grip is often manufactured separately from a different material, often PP, and later inserted into the bottle or container mould around which the PET bottle is blow moulded. This is a difficult process to execute, as one of the trickiest elements is to make sure that the grip is perfectly placed inside the mould.

The so called Deep Grip is the result of a collaboration between Plastic Technologies Inc. (PTI), Sidel and Procter & Gamble (P&G). Using injection stretch blow moulding (ISBM), the grip depth is more than 1 inch (2.54 cm) on each side with a web thickness of less than .01 inches (0.25mm). The technology provides flexibility on handle location, shape and diameter, and can be used on containers as large as 6 litres or 1.5 gallons, and with diameters of 220 mm or 8.6 inches.

Left: A Greif 5 gallon water bottle with handle – Right: An Appe water bottle with DeepGrip

The grip is deep enough for the average-sized hand to completely close around and still not have the fingers of the person holding the bottle touch the container wall. It allows consumers to pour liquids easily from multi-serve containers.

Sipa PET-bottle
In this context we have to go back to Sipa and have a closer look at the most recent development in the multi-gallon bottle.

The starting point was a 690 gr container with a polypropylene handle that is already on the market in the USA. Sipa has been able to take 25 gr off the total weight (now it is 665gr). It developed a preform with a lightweight neck and base, and added material in the area of the body where the handle is attached during the blow moulding process and which therefore needs to be more mechanically resistant than elsewhere in the body. The new version has a special PET handle in place of the polypropylene one, so when the time comes for recycling, there is no need to separate the two parts, simplifying the procedure. I have to stress that in contrast to the Deep Grip the Sipa handle is placed in position in the old fashioned way as are the PP handles.

The new design is suitable for production on a Sipa SFL 2/2 two-cavity linear stretch-blow moulding system. Trials have shown that output rates of 250 bottles per hour, per cavity are possible. Around three times as many as achieved with polycarbonate bottles.

In Brazil, where I live, the 20L water bottle is a common item in every household, simply because we can’t drink water from the tap. Like everywhere else when you walk the aisles of a supermarket you see a standardized collection of multi-serve bottles. Except for the colours of the labels, there is no innovative design in multi-gallon water bottle with a few exceptions as shows the 5-liter blue Ouro Fino bottle.

“Life in Box”
But there is more. Officially launched in 2007 the, translated as “Life in Box”, 22-liter (5.8-gal) octagonal bag-in-box of mineral water is marketed by Mineração Mantovani. The BIB packaging comprises a corrugated box with two die-cut handles made by Klabin and a laminated, valved bag supplied by DuPont Liqui-Box engineered for bagged water applications.

The two-ply bag has a 3.8-mil bi-axially oriented nylon outer ply and an inner ply that is a 2.5-mil contact layer of polyolefin. DuPont supplies the premade bags in both 3- and 5-gal sizes equipped with a dispensing tap.

The bag-in-box format is a perfect solution for regions with an underdeveloped logistics structure as the packaging doesn’t have to be returned to the bottler. They are claimed to be economically viable, which refers to the per-litre price of the new box when it reaches the market. The target was a per-litre price between that of Mantovani’s two most popular containers, a 20-litre bottle and a 1.5-litre PET bottle.
The corrugated exterior, as well as the internal plastic bag and the pouring valve are recyclable.

Besides the environmental benefits, the corrugated box prevents light from getting in and insulates the water from heat to help impart a sensation of “fresh water” for much longer than clear bottles.

H-pouch and Tap-It
In the wine sector you see a multi-litre stand-up pouch fitted with a tap. The problem here is that the packaging (pouch and tap) is too expensive for the ordinary mineral water market. However now there is a solution as last year Tap-It Liquid Solutions in Stellenbosch, South Africa, launched its Tap-It dispensing tap. The Tap-It liquid dispensers are reusable plastic taps, which have been specifically designed for use with bagged liquids.
The unique spiked design of the plastic Tap-It enables it to pierce a sachet of liquid, while immediately sealing it off from external contamination with a spring locking mechanism. The tap at the opposite end of the spike controls the flow of the liquid from the sachet without spillage.

Of course when you want to promote your water with a reusable Tap-It, you need a suitable flexible packaging. In contrast to the traditional stand-up pouch, S-Pouch Pak Co. of Taiwan made a tube as body and sealing not one but two gussets (one at the bottom and one at the top) into the tube.

The pouch not only looks like a bottle but stands more perfect and stable and doesn’t tip over when half emptied as most of the triangular tapered traditional stand-up pouches do. This design can be filled up to 90% of the pack height, which offers a reduction in pouch size of up to 20%, resulting in 15-20% material reduction. With a one-hand carrier-handle at the top, the h-pouch is easy to carry with one hand, while the pouch is suitable for packing 2,000ml to 5,000ml.
The Tap-It reusable tap can easily be punched into the side-wall of the h-pouch allowing for a controlled distribution of the mineral water.

SmartBottle
In 2010 I came across the SmartBottle from ExoPack. This design features a four sided sealed pouch that is blow moulded into a “bottle”. After filling, the four side-seals form the four vertical corners of a lightweight, semi-rigid, threaded “bottle”.

At that time the packaging was not yet commercially available, but was tested in volume sizes ranging from ½ gallon, up to 5 gallons.
In comparison to the production of the rigid gallon jug, the company claims 50% less energy, 60% less plastic, and 70% fewer CO2 emissions from transportation.

Recently the SmartBottle is introduced into the market by Kraft Foods. It is a stand-up pouch, made from a flexible nylon-polyethylene blend film, with dual handles, and a rigid screw cap closure that replaces the traditional rigid plastic container for salad dressings.
The packaging is more compact than rigid jugs, and flattens when empty, which can provide easier disposal and lower waste-removal costs. When it comes to recyclability, the original rigid bottle is actually easier to recycle, as this new packaging format may not be accepted for recycling in all areas.
I am not sure whether it is now an exclusivity of Kraft Foods, but with a bit of development the SmartBottle might even fit any water cooler.

I know the mentioned packaging options might conflict with the existing water coolers, but think in terms of outdoor activities if you want to differentiate your market and jump off the overloaded supermarket shelves.

Market research organization NPD Group claims that US consumers are less likely to skip meals than they were five years ago, but they are more likely to describe breakfast, lunch and dinner as ‘mini-meals’, with the average number of items consumed at dinner, for example, falling from 5.3 in 1985 to 4.1 today.
But as variety at traditional mealtimes has narrowed, snacking in between meals has increased. Over half of Americans (53%) snacked two to three times a day, the market researcher found, and those with the healthiest overall diets were most likely to snack frequently.
Adults under 45 years old claim they have busier lifestyles than Baby Boomers and Seniors, making snacking and the consumption of fast food far more common due to the portability and convenience of these foods.

Any company that hopes to conquer a share in this market tries to find a way to stand out in a crowded field. And that shows in the packaging. The last months have seen a wide array of innovative packaging for take-away lunches, snacks and single-serve meals, all targeting the growing number of one-person households, the busy bees as well as the aging baby boomers.

Let’s have a look at a selection of this wide array of innovative packaging. We will see the Malmö Aviation compostable breakfast boxes, the Bio-Plus Earth salad boxes, the paperboard dispensing pouch for Spätzles, the PleatPak (for burgers and sandwiches) and the Magic Bag (for French fries and finger foods), the self-cooking breakfast egg from Russia, the Lundberg Family Farms new pouches with Press-Lok closure technology and as last the Patakukkonen, a Finnish traditional oven baked kukko.

Compostable Breakfast Boxes
The Swedish airline Malmö Aviation launched breakfast boxes made of paperboard. The materials used in the boxes are the virgin fibre-based paperboards from Iggesund. The outer shell of the box is made of ordinary Invercote, while inside the serving tray is made of Invercote Bio to hold the fresh food. This tray is in turn flow packed with a modified atmosphere to increase the food’s shelf life and help prevent fogging. Invercote Bio features a bioplastic coating.

The combination of paperboard and bioplastic which are certified compostable to European standards means that the tray can go into the same waste stream as the food scraps. They can all be sent directly to an anaerobic digestion plant to produce biogas without the need for prior sorting.

Bio-Plus Earth recycled paperboard containers
Whole Foods launched two sizes of paperboard deli containers with a new coating that replaces 100% polyethylene with one that combines PE and calcium carbonate. The containers for use with its salad bar and hot food selections consist of a compostable wood fibre-based clamshell, and two sizes of the Bio-Plus Earth recycled paperboard containers from Fold-Pak.

The Bio-Plus Earth containers with Smart Planet’s EC-40 coating contain up to 60% less polymer content by weight than 100% low-density PE coatings while providing superior barrier properties to moisture, oil, grease, and fatty acids.
Once implemented, the new containers will have replaced 1.5 million units/year.

Although for Whole Foods the introduction of these new containers represent a reduction in the use of plastics, the company claims that the use of Smart Planet Technologies’ clear EarthCoating is an “in-the-meantime solution”, while its suppliers, including Smart Planet, work on developing a coating that can be certified compostable, Whole Foods ultimate goal.

Paperboard dispensing pouch
The Italians aren’t the only pasta-lovers. The German answer to pasta is Spätzle, a typical part of Germans identity and cooking-culture. Although Spätzle are served and enjoyed throughout Germany, they are considered a specialty of the Swabian (Schwaben) region.
Who comes from this Southern German region needs Spätzle, preferably every day. The problem is to make a good dough. Spätzle are made from flour, eggs, water, and salt. Compared to Italian pasta, the Spätzle dough is moister and softer. Because of this, the dough cannot be rolled out.

The answer is given by frizle AG, which presents the dough conveniently packaged. The concept, designed by VerDeSoft GmbH is a “stand-up pouch” made from virgin paperboard laminated with foil, integrating a dispensing function for paste-like dough in boiling water. In other words, the Spätzle- (pasta) press function is an integral part of the packaging.

To realise this the stand-up pouch, made by Martin Spiegel Kartonagenfabrik GmbH & Co. KG, has to be hold over a pot of boiling water, the foil seal at the bottom removed and the packaging squeezed.  Through the holes in the bottom the dough drips into the water and the finished noodles can be skimmed off after a minute and served.

The company claims that the noodles are freshly cooked with a unique texture and flavour in a few minutes, and are not comparable with dried or precooked products.

Russian Egg
What is a breakfast or quick lunch without an egg? However for on-the-go it is a difficult product, when you want to eat your egg freshly boiled. That’s why even everyday items need sometimes to be seen from a different perspective. And that indeed did the Russian design firm Kian, which came up with an egg packaging, called Gogol Mogol, which is more than just an egg carton. It “boils” the egg in the packaging.
This unique egg carton concept is made out of recycled paperboard, while the packaging also holds a means to “boil” the eggs stored inside, as Gogol Mogol egg carton comes with a not-specified substance under the first paperboard layer, separated by a membrane which can be removed when a small label is pulled off. This causes the substance to mix and folowed by a chemical reaction, which is enough to heat up the egg stored inside.

Within a few minutes, when the consumer opens the cover of the egg packaging, he/she has a boiled egg
It is quite a unique concept that combines an egg package and a way to cook it as well. But whether it will be available as a commercial product still remains to be seen.

PleatPack and the Magic Bag
GreenDustries is changing the way people eat fast food with its two proprietary packages: the PleatPak (for burgers and sandwiches) and the Magic Bag (for French fries and finger foods). The PleatPak and Magic Bag are manufactured to perfectly fit the contours of the food it is intended to contain.
The packaging eliminates messy stains and cold, soggy food by using its pleated technology, providing the consumer a sanitary way to eat out of the PleatPak and prevents condiments from spilling. It allows the sandwich to be eaten comfortably and neatly with just one hand. The company claims that the PleatPak also is the best solution for the nearly 70% of fast food consumers who order from the drive-thru window, many of whom eat in the car.

The Magic Bag stands on its own, spreads out to form a pouch, transforms into a basket and is the ultimate packaging solution for French fries and all other finger foods. It allows the consumer to eat in the most convenient way, whether he is sitting at a table, walking, in a car, or sharing with his friends. The Magic Bag provides superior heat-retention keeping the food warmer and crispier throughout consumption.

With its tailored design, the PleatPak and Magic Bag use less material in their construction than competitive products.  GreenDustries claims to have one of the smallest carbon footprints for on-the-go food packaging. The products are made using 100% recycled paper.

Patakukkonen from Finland
The packaging is simply Stora Enso CKB 320g paperboard, with no special print effects, just digitally printed. And still when you take a close look it is a beautiful and very effective design with its old-fashioned black plastic pot.
Patakukkonen is a Finnish traditional oven baked kukko (fish or vegetable pie/pastry) made from organic rye and other regional ingredients. Made in Hämeenlinna, Finland it is ideal for snacks, lunch and as an appetizer.

It is a brand typically exploring classic Finnish foods and attempting to develop unique and modern consumer experiences. Design bureau PackLab’s biggest challenge was the diverse environments the product had to work in. The packaging had to work in low café counter refrigerators, convenience high standing door refrigerators, standard food retailing refrigerators and even promotion refrigerators found in expensive boutique food halls and airport luxury food stores for example.

The Press-Lok closure
Not quite a snacking product, but even with little fantasy you can see the possibilities for this packaging in this consumer segment.
Lundberg Family Farms, a US organic foods company, integrated the new Press-Lok closure technology from Velcro Industries into its new packaging designs for its Eco-Farmed rice.

Lundberg Family Farms is the first US food company to use this technology in its packaging.

Velcro’s Press-Lok closure system is a proprietary hook-to-hook technology. The closure is a unique solution in the industry because it contains an easy alignment that allows the hooks to engage without precise line-up, securing closure with great burst strength to maintain the integrity of the packaging.
The Velcro system for flexible packages addresses a number of re-close challenges. The closures are both “touch” and “press” activated, so that the consumer can secure the content of a packaging with reliability and be sure it stays closed. The fasteners work with coated paper and film technologies, and are suited for existing packaging equipment.

Peel Plastics Products Ltd., converted Lundberg Family Farms’ existing lay-down packaging to a flat-bottom stand-up pouch containing the Velcro Industries’ Press-Lok closure.

These were the snacking and lunching options for this month.

Recently we have seen attacks from local authorities and consumers, regarding the ‘green’ credentials of plastic bottles and aluminium cans for beverages. These activities and some market circumstances give unprecedented opportunities for the beverage cans made from paperboard.

The paperboard can is mostly a round container comprised of a body with two ends made from a variety of materials. This packaging format can be produced in many shapes and sizes. The container body is made from paper, and various liner materials to achieve barrier requirements and completed with a printed label for packaging graphics.

What are the reasons that the paperboard can, at this moment, should be the preferred packaging format? Let’s make an analysis.
1.    Beverage cans, traditionally made from metal, aluminium or tinplate, as well containers made from PET or glass, have become more expensive due to the increase in prime-material and energy costs over the last years, whereas paperboard prices have remained consistently at a same level.
2.    Paperboard cans are favoured by the European packaging laws. The paperboard can is classified as ‘Ecological Favourable Packaging’, a German typification in its “packaging laws”, which add 25 eurocents (a refundable packaging tax deposit) to the price of all metal cans sold.
Although in the USA we don’t see a packaging tax, refundable or not, to protect the environment and stimulate recycling, we see another phenomenon. More and more American municipalities, counties and states are implementing or (minimally proposing) laws which ban (single serve) bottled water in PET. This is obviously only the beginning of a “war” against the existing packaging formats for beverages.
3.    To underline the above argument, SIG commissioned the first Europe-wide life-cycle assessment for UHT milk packaging. Before I continue, let’s be clear. There is, basically, no difference between the material-composition of a TetraPak, a SIG Combibloc, an EloPak or a paperboard can from LamiCan Oy.
The life-cycle assessment conducted by the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research (IFEU) confirmed that, compared to disposable HDPE and PET bottles, carton packs have a significantly better environmental profile − particularly with respect to CO2 emission, use of fossil resources and consumption of primary energy.
The study concludes that the good performance of the renewable main raw material and the resource-efficient use of materials are the key factors contributing to the carton pack’s positive results.
4.    The paperboard packaging addresses the consumer fear for BPA widely used in food and beverage cans. BPA (Bisphenol-A) is a building block for polycarbonate (PC) and epoxy resins used in linings for metal food and beverage cans and metal closures for glass containers. Physiologically, BPA is said to mimic the hormone estrogen and some studies have linked it to increased breast cancer risk, obesity and other health conditions. Apparently the food and beverage companies don’t have the same concerns as the consumer, as until regulations say otherwise, they will continue to use BPA in their packaging.
For a wide range of products the paperboard can from LamiCan could be an alternative to BPA-containing polycarbonate containers.
5.    Wood fibre is under ecological conditions a natural renewable and recyclable raw material. The paperboard packaging is made with Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified packaging material. Products carrying the FSC label are independently certified to assure consumers that they come from forests that are managed to meet the social, economic and ecological needs of present and future generations.

The above mentioned advantages are sufficient reason to seriously consider the paperboard can as an alternative for beverages. As I have written several articles about TetraPaks and SIG Combiblocs in the past, the topic of this article is the LamiCan paperboard can.
Let’s have a detailed look at the LamiCan paperboard can.

LamiCan paperboard can
The company, LamiCan Oy, manufactures a full range of aseptic paperboard material products which are fully compatible with TBA filling lines. Lamican Oy is a Finnish based company with production facilities in Valkeakoski, with over 10 years of experience.

Material composition
Lamican packages consist on several laminated layers. The top lid of the can is made from Multilayer Film, Baseboard, Aluminum layer, Tie, Sealing layer. The body is made from Protection lacquer, Printing, Paper, Polymer, Baseboard, Polymer, Aluminum foil and Sealing layer, and the bottom is made from: Baseboard, Aluminum foil and Sealing layer.
This composition translates in a 75% paperboard content.

Manufacturing process of the paperboard can
By feeding pre-printed paperboard from a reel into the machine, the can is formed around a mandrel where, heated by hot air, the side joint is heat sealed.

A reel of the top lid material with the closure tape feeds the die-cutting device. The top lid with the discharge or drinking hole, which is completely sealed with an openable closing tape, is inserted at the bottom of the formed tube. The surface of the seal is activated by hot air and the joint is sealed in the sealing unit. In other words the container is standing upside-down and the can is then forwarded to the filling unit.

The aseptic process is an integral part of the packaging machine. In an aseptic chamber, a precise amount of peroxide steam is sprayed into the can and vaporised by hot air. The sterilised cans are transferred to the product filling stage.

The filling of the can takes place simultaneously in all six lanes in the filling unit through the open bottom of the can. The filling of the can is carried out by using electromagnetic flow-meters to control the filling valves. The container is closed by inserting and sealing the bottom lid to form a tight container. The seals are activated by hot air and pressed closed in the sealing unit.

The machine is equipped with a foam removal system. Inert gas in the head space of the package is used when required.

So far the Lamican paperboard beverage can, offers an alternative aseptic solution for the beverage packaging market. But not only for still beverages, but also for soups, dairy products and many other liquids, such as coffee drinks, alcoholic drinks (less than 22%), wines.

(This is a sponsored article)

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Tagged: aseptic packaging, beverage cans, bisphenol A, BPA, LamiCan, life-cycle assessment, paperboard, paperboard cans ]]> http://bestinpackaging.com/2012/10/31/lamican-the-aseptic-paperboard-can/feed/ 5 brazilinhotpants 120565-ninos orang juice 540x343 100dpi 120565-Lamican Marketing Can Presentation 540x336 100dpi 120565-Lamican 6 pack 4 320x308 100dpi 120565-lamican 320x292 100dpi 120565-Lamican package aseptic layers 320x284 100dpi 120565-Lamican 540x410 100dpi 120565-Lamican Machine's Two section 540x388 100dpi 120565-Lamican packaging machine 540x392 100dpi 120565-LAMICAN 02 540x355 100dpi Banner Recycling Packaging Material with an 250x188 100dpi Banner The Production of Eucalyptus Pulp in Brazil 250x188 100dpi http://bestinpackaging.com/2012/10/26/reclosable-cans-and-the-can-end-as-marketing-tool/ http://bestinpackaging.com/2012/10/26/reclosable-cans-and-the-can-end-as-marketing-tool/#comments Fri, 26 Oct 2012 04:02:29 +0000 Anton Steeman http://bestinpackaging.com/?p=5246 ]]>

As I said in my previous article, the second consumer wish is the reclosability of the can or at least a covering of the opening to protect the content.
Some years ago beverage can manufacturers started looking seriously into this convenience wish of the consumer. Only recently the market has seen several developments for resealable can closures not from the large beverage can manufacturers, but from small up-starts and inventors. The Resealable End from Ball might be best known, but we will see the Smart Tab, the Soda Seal and the Can2close, all three very inventive in its design, only they come from unknown inventors and as such it is doubtful they will see the market as long as no large company is picking up the idea.
Let’s start with the Ball Resealable End.

The Ball Resealable End
In 2008 Ball Packaging Europe launched the resealable beverage can. The Resealable End is an aluminium can end into which a flat opening mechanism made of plastic is integrated. A simple rotating movement uncovers the opening. In this way the new beverage can retains its classic shape and also its usual stackability.

As the total amount of plastic material used in the end is small, the company claims that it doesn’t affect the recycling properties of the can. The end is very easy to open, reseal, and is completely pressure stable (up to 6.4 bars). The tamper-proof seal is retained, as the consumer can easily verify that the seal has not been broken prior to first opening. The new can end provides a barrier against light and gas.
The Resealable End is the result of collaboration between Ball Packaging Europe, Coca Cola and Bound2B, a company based in the Netherlands. It was first launched on the French market by Coca Cola for its 500 ml energy drink Burn.

Smart Tab
Recently a Canadian inventor believes his patented ‘next generation’ swivelling beverage can tab will conquer the beverage market. Steve Archambault designed a ‘smart tab’ that consumers can use to open a can normally, but then swivel round to effect a non-watertight closure, stopping debris and insects from entering the can, preventing children from cutting their fingers on can mouths and reducing spillages.

The inventor claims that the existing resealable ones are made from plastic, which means they are not 100% recyclable, plus they are more expensive to produce. His tab, he claims, doesn’t cost anymore to produce than the present ‘stay-on’ tab.
Fact is that the curved end of his design makes it easier to get your finger in to open the beverage, as such an improvement, the benefits of his other claims are a bit doubtful for me.

Foboha’s leakproof re-closure
Foboha GmbH, from Haslach, Germany, a company of the Styner-Bienz Group, developed a production concept for a novel closure system for beverage cans.

The company claims that, for the first time, its closure provides a leakproof re-closure feature for beverage cans. The assembly technology is integrated in the injection moulding process, while the components are assembled in the automated process to produce the finished can top in assured quality.
As often the website doesn’t hold any more technical information or even a proper description about the working. Failing that, we have to take a look at the similar Can2close can end, which doesn’t help us a lot, as their website isn’t even operational.

Can2close can end
The Cans of the Year Awards 2012, organised by The Canmaker, an international trade magazine for the metal packaging industry, awarded Can2close GmbH in Germany the Promising Prototype Award for its prototype of an aluminium and plastics recloseable beverage end.

This design has yet to be commercialised, but is expected to be taken up by a customer in the drinks industry soon. The developing company, Can2close, is, like a number in the industry, funded by venture investors and expects to offer a complete manufacturing system that will enable drinks companies to buy the lids and incorporate on their can filling systems without modifications.
For this objective the Can2close design comprises a conventional aluminium end shell punched with a larger aperture to accommodate the plastics sealing system. With this design a plastics tab rotates to allow the flap to open, and be reclosed. Key features are the sealing o-ring under the lid and use of a tamper-evidence device.

But there also is the much more interesting Soda Seal.

Soda Seal
Is the Ball Resealable End said to be pressure stable, the Canadian invention only covers the can opening without it closing it tightly. What the Foboha closure and the Can2close can end do, is not quite clear. In accordance with Ball, the invention of the Soda Seal by the Ukrainian inventor, Johan De Broyer, is said to be seal-tight.

Through inspiration of Johan DeBroyer, Robert Davis designed a device that not only prevents spills with its liquid tight seal, it also prevents gas from escaping the once opened cans.

The ingenious “Soda Seal” can appears like a standard beverage can, until it is opened. When the tab is turned the can becomes re-sealed with a water-tight and gas-tight seal, but also revealing a full-colour, high-resolution advertising messaging.

Davis, of Davis Advertising Inc., also sees the marketing potential of his design. He proposes using the surface of the seal to promote all types of ideas. From contest giveaways to corporate branding, the prime location of the seal provides endless promotional possibilities.

The can end as marketing tool
And with this we have left the area of technological improvements and entered the marketing potential of beverage can ends. The potential for using the can end and its closure as a marketing tool is proportionate to the more than 250 billion beverage cans consumed annually. The marketing boys and girls will have a field day with the options mentioned in this article.

Spin Tab
After the more complicated Soda Seal, first a simple one. Designer Zhongren Zhang came up with the Spin Tab, a simple but effective solution to identify one’s drink when multiple people are enjoying a beverage with the same packaging. The Spin Tab concept is a simple improvement based on current can packaging that identifies one consumer’s drink from another.

Each beverage can has a coloured ring painted on its top. Once the drink is opened, the user spins the tab to the favourite colour to differentiate the drink from others. The selected colour can be seen through the hole in the top of the tab and provides distinction between different drinks at parties and at bars.

Designer Zhongren Zhang says the ring can be extended to different designs including mood icons, nations or rival team logos.

Some marketing ideas for can ends came from the Big Three: Ball, Rexam and Crown. It isn’t quite clear which one first started the colouring and lasering of the tabs. So, let’s just look at some examples.

Coloured and lasered tabs
Norwegian beverage company Mack, the northernmost brewery in the world, asked Rexam Beverage Can Europe to create a unique polar bear cut-out tab for its newly designed Arctic Beer series.

The new can design that had to have a strong appeal to young urban males aged between 18-35, positioning the product as a beer for the tough and adventurous.
The new twist is the use of Rexam’s coloured cut-out tab as a subtle but effective way to take their branding to the next level. Mack chose the polar bear as a symbol to reflect the products positioning and reinforce the masculine image in order to appeal to the target audience.

The first to bring the new laser-incised tabs from Ball Corporation to the market was Go Fast Sports and Beverage Co. of Denver, Colorado. The laser-incised tab is a solid, coloured tab that provides space for a small “billboard” for brand identity, advertising or promotional messaging.

Ball using state-of-the-art computer and laser technology is able to engrave letters, numbers, drawings or symbols on the tabs. The laser-incised tab’s technical performance is equal to that of existing tabs.

Many laser-incised tabs are produced under license from CanDO International Ltd., the holder of the U.S. patent and various foreign patents for laser-incised tabs.

Crown Superend Can
Crown claims that the SuperEnd beverage can ends deliver improved performance for the filler and the consumer with greater strength, enhanced appearance and improved pouring characteristics. SuperEnd beverage ends also feature a distinctive message or “billboard” area for marketers to print brand logos, special messages and co-branding promotions, instant win campaigns or to communicate with consumers about issues such as recycling.

This exclusive 45-degree angle countersink wall results from the unique geometry incorporated into the design of the SuperEnd.
Crown’s patented design uses 10% less metal than traditional beverage ends, providing significant sustainability advantages.

Toyo Seikan Kaisha, Ltd. is the latest can maker to license SuperEnd beverage ends. Other Crown licensees include Amcor Packaging (Australia) Pty Ltd., Nampak Limited, Showa Aluminum Can Corporation, Metal Container Corporation and Anheuser-Busch.

That was an overview of the various applications of beverage can ends.

Landfill Aurá in Belém do Pará, Brazil

Some weeks ago I was invited for an interview by Chuck Miller of CTI Packaging & Fulfillment in Libertyville, IL. He runs a company blog at Package Talk. My interview was one of several, as Chuck interviewed a number of professionals highlighting all aspects of packaging. I take the liberty to publish the answers I gave in my interview here, but it is worthwhile to visit his blog and see what all the other professionals have to say. I grant you it is worth a read.
Here is my opinion about some packaging aspects:

1. Will sustainability concerns in packaging level off or continue to rise?
You are aware, I suppose, that a recent PricewaterhouseCoopers study unveiled that the term Sustainable Packaging is no longer relevant today as the debate about good vs. bad packaging has moved on. The study concluded that industry has moved toward a shared understanding that “the product, its packaging, and the related supply chain have to be viewed as a single solution”. In other words packaging is only a part of the wider sustainability story, focusing on packaging alone in the sustainability debate is counterproductive and short-sighted.
And now your question: “Will it level off or rise?” We will see a more holistic approach incorporating economic, environmental, and social considerations. Consequently the accent on packaging sustainability will be buried into the solutions of other aspects. This might give the impression that sustainability concerns in packaging level off or even are neglected. But I don’t think that will happen in reality. In my opinion the search for more sustainability in packaging will intensify.

Fresh Produce section in Russian supermarket – photo: Getmansky Andrey

2. With package manufacturing going overseas, do you see a decline in this activity?
I can’t answer this question. I have no data related to package manufacturing overseas. But I doubt it is of any significance. Look, all the voluminous packages are manufactured on the spot. Often in a through-the-wall configuration. So we are probably mainly talking about film and pouches. Well, don’t forget, the innovations are still coming from the USA and Europe. It is much more important that we have the manufacturing of the innovations and novelties and leave the production of the simple items, such as films and pouches overseas. It stimulates innovation. Makes us sharp.

Coffee brewer incorporated in the stand-up pouch – Photo: Brian Green

3. Do you see the package to product size relationship getting closer?
In recent years we have seen CGC’s making the packaging smaller and smaller and skipping the secondary packaging if possible. Minimizing the size of packaging or foregoing the secondary packaging has its advantages in terms (among others) of sustainability, but consequently we face a much smaller printable area for consumer information. That’s the down-side. Where do we put all that increasingly more information the consumer wants to see? There is more. Look at the small objects, which need a proper sized packaging to be handled. You can’t always go for the minimum, you have to consider consumer convenience as well as supply chain requirements. But it is true that the packaging to product rate has been effectively optimised, but there is a final boundary we can’t pass. Again, take labelling. We have to find proper solutions for storing the required product, production and packaging information on or within the reach of the packaging.

DuPont Packaging Award Winners 2012

4. What one trend do you see rising in package manufacturing today?
Ohh, my friend, there is not one trend, there are several trends running alongside each other, and all with equal importance. Let’s start with plastics. We see the transformation from a petroleum-based industry to a renewable biomass industry. The market trend is clearly moving to bio-based polymers (I am not talking about bio-degradability) that are identical to polymers made from petroleum. We’re seeing start-ups in every corner of the world focusing on developing building blocks to make large commodity polymers. If you can make existing polymers from renewable resources, and show you don’t use food-based feedstocks and arable land such as corn and sugarcane, you are a winner.
Then we can have a look at paperboard. With its ‘green’ credentials paperboard packaging will move into the huge beverage and liquid food markets. Take a close look at the LamiCan paperboard can, the variations and developments in Tetra Packs, SIGCombiblocs and EloPacks.
The influence of EPR and recycling are decisive to new developments. That’s why I foresee more integration of the various basic packaging materials into one packaging format. I.e. the integration of, let’s say glass, metal, plastics, paper etc, into one integrated new packaging material. Homogenous mixtures or solid solutions composed out of two or more basic components. Something like a paper-metal material, a paper-plastic, a metal-plastic etc. As one material, not as two components separately recognisable. That will be the most important and significant trend in the next years.

Landfill Mongaguá in São Paulo state, Brazil

5. Is recycling of packaging more successful today than 10 years ago and what do you see for the future of recycling?
It is indeed successful to a certain extent, but the findings that environmental and recycling messages are both misunderstood and not noticed by most shoppers is even more troubling because another recent survey found that most shoppers want to choose environmentally friendly packaging and that more than half of them are willing to pay more – especially those under the age of 40.
The majority of shoppers want to select environmentally friendly packaging, but they are frustrated over how to do it. They are confused and don’t know which package is best for the environment.
Look at the PlantBottle, it doesn’t get the recycling attention it deserves, as awareness of the negative impact of plastic bottle consumption increases. Apparently consumers don’t get it yet. Maybe something to do with credibility, as the image of the consumer goods industry, in general, of course is at an unbelievable low level. If we don’t start labelling honestly and clearly, skip all the ‘green-washing’ and start educating and informing the consumer, and set up proper selective waste collecting systems everywhere, we will not move much further with recycling. Bio-degradability, compostability and all that modern ‘green-washing’ slogans aren’t solving the problem. Only recycling can solve the problems around our growing quantity of waste and recover value from it. There is a lot of money in recycling.

6. Are we better off trying to recycle packaging or design it for repurposing?
The question is not one or the other, but one and the other. If we are able to recycle cradle-to-cradle that has to be the preferred choice, whatever the design. But we can’t always technically do that and then we have to recycle into a lower level consumer product. If you mean by repurposing creating a second life for the packaging after using the product, I must say, I don’t believe in it in general. People have already too much bric-a-brac in their homes, they will throw out this type packaging. A similar situation you see with refill packages. They are not popular at all. Not at this moment anyway.

7. Is sustainable packaging financially affordable or not?
I have already said that sustainable packaging is an integral aspect of a wider sustainability process. The question therefore is not whether “sustainable packaging is financially affordable”, but whether sustainability as a whole is financially affordable. And of course it is, when you look at the limited resources, when you look at the money-value of waste recycling, when you look at the damage done by food-waste, it is evident. Maybe not always in financial terms, but it always is in terms of morality and social responsibility. And if, at this very moment, sustainability (in some details) is not financially affordable, we have to make it financially affordable, with all the technological and financial power we have.

8. How much involvement should government have in regards to packaging?
The industry in general has proven over and over again that ethics and social responsibility aren’t always part of its characteristics. Apparently food safety and responsible use of the world’s resources can’t be led to the industry’s discretion. Look at the transition to extended producer responsibility (EPR), a future where the producer of a product is made accountable for it once it becomes waste. EPR and greater ‘product stewardship’ are critical to ensuring better source and waste management and recycling in a world on an exponential growth curve of consumption. EPR is a challenging ideology for the producers. The number of companies voluntarily adopting product stewardship is desperately low hence the desperate need for government to step in. And that’s only one example. It is like traffic, we need traffic rules in all aspects to avoid a disaster.
I fully agree with Kim Jeffery, president and CEO of Nestle Waters North America Inc., who stated, that
“EPR is what I call a 21st century solution. If we want to collect multiple streams of material and get all reusable packaging back, we have to rethink the recycling challenge [and develop] a system that does that”.
Unfortunately he is one of a few with a broad vision. The stupidity is that with all their lobbying the industry might delay developments in packaging, but they never ever stop it. It is more effective to spend that lobbying money by changing their short-sightedness for a long term vision.

On-the-Go lunch box, the Nibble box from Tri-Star Packaging

9. If you could see one thing disappear today from packaging, what would it be?
It isn’t only what I can see, but what absolutely should be seen. That’s additives. As I have said recycling is money. Additives used in PET, which has a working and profitable recycling business, would ruin the sector. Or as one PET recycler stated: “Even in small percentages, like one-tenth of one per cent, these are just catastrophic for us. They melt at different temperatures. They ruin our product”.
You might be aware that the attorney general of California filed suits against three companies that make plastic bottles or sell bottled water in California, saying those companies illegally claim the bottles – which are PET mixed with a microbial additive – are biodegradable. The problem is, however, that the claims can’t be scientifically supported.
Don’t forget, recycling as an end-of-life option fares much better in the U.S. than biodegradation. As long as there is a viable market for recycled material, it should be recycled and re-used, not wasted away. Additives claim to make a plastic bio-degradable or compostable, but that’s not true. Additives are simply breaking the plastic into smaller and smaller pieces so it can’t be seen. The plastic is still there. And by the way they are not adding nutrients to the soil, the way natural materials do. It only breaks down without any profitable goal, except that companies can use the ‘green-washing’ label.
In general I object to claims of bio-degradability and compostability as they (may) misguide the consumer. Sorry to say, but people are notorious polluters and often ignorant creatures. Bio-degradability and compostability may stimulate the thrown-away garbage along the roads. In my opinion, promoting a Cradle-to-Grave or Composting-an-end-of-life alternative offered by additives and others, is misleading, inefficient and I even want to define it as immoral and only serves the slogans of marketing.

GreenDustries is changing the way people eat fast food with its two proprietary packages: the PleatPak (for burgers and sandwiches) and the Magic Bag (for French fries and finger foods).

10. And if you could see one new thing today in packaging, what would it be?
I don’t quite understand this question. Packaging is a fascinating industry with an incredible and complicated future. There are so many problems to be solved and so much intelligence involved. It is a pleasure to work in this dynamic environment. There are so many new developments going on into all directions at this moment, that you can’t say what is the one thing which strikes you most. If you love packaging the way I do, it is just energising to write about all of it, as I do on my blog.

Tagged: additives, bio-degradability, compostability, consumer information, cradle-to-cradle, downsizing, EPR, green washing, interview, Kim Jeffery, labelling, Package Talk, PlantBottle, PricewaterhouseCoopers, product stewardship, recycling, repurpose packaging, sustainability, sustainable packaging ]]> http://bestinpackaging.com/2012/10/21/the-state-of-packaging-in-todays-market/feed/ 1 brazilinhotpants 120831 - Aurá Aterro Sanitário de Belém019 W540 100dpi 120908-061 W540 100dpi f 120840-coffeebrewer_trial_at_its_best_by_brian_green_with_growers_cup W540 100dpi 120516-DuPont Packaging_Award_Winners 540x359 100dpi 121043-lixao_mongagua3 W540 100dpi 120913-bags2 W540 100dpi 120863-water bottles W540 100dpi 111263-Fresh Produce W540 100dpi 120746-Nibble Box02 540x405 100dpi 121026-greenddustries_pleatpak W540 100dpi Banner Earth Day and the Future of Packaging 250x201 100dpi Collecting Recyclable Waste in Brazil 250x199 100dpi http://bestinpackaging.com/2012/10/14/beverage-can-ends-and-its-opening-devices/ http://bestinpackaging.com/2012/10/14/beverage-can-ends-and-its-opening-devices/#comments Sun, 14 Oct 2012 22:04:38 +0000 Anton Steeman http://bestinpackaging.com/?p=5186 ]]>

Although the position of beverage cans have been threatened by HDPE (high-density polyethylene) and PET (polyethylene terephthalate) bottles, advancements in packaging technology have seen the introduction of improved functional features, a major factor for growth in the beverage end-use sector.

Two holes made with a church key

The early metal beverage can was made out of steel and had no pull-tab. The can was opened by punching two triangular holes in the lid – a large one for drinking, and a small one to admit air. For punching the holes often a so called church-key was used. As early as 1936, inventors were applying for patents on self-opening can designs, but the technology of the time made these inventions impractical. Later advancements saw the ends of the can made out of aluminium instead of steel.

Pull-tab
In 1956 Mikola Kondakow of Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada, invented the pull tab version for bottles (Canadian patent 476789). Then, in 1962, Ermal Cleon Fraze of Dayton, Ohio, invented a similar integral rivet and pull-tab version for cans (also known in British English as ring pull), which had a ring attached at the rivet for pulling, and which would come off completely to be discarded. He received U.S. Patent No. 3,349,949 for his pull-tab can design in 1963 and licensed his invention to Alcoa and Pittsburgh Brewing Company. The latter introduced the design on its Iron City Beer cans.
The pull-tab got a lot of critics as it littered the roadside and caused injuries due to the very sharp edges of discarded tabs on beaches and in parks.

Stay-on-tab
The pull-tabs were eventually replaced almost exclusively by the stay-on-tabs we still use today. Stay-on-tabs (also called colon tabs) were invented by Daniel F. Cudzik of Reynolds Metals in Richmond, Virginia, in 1975.
The mechanism uses a separate tab attached to the upper surface as a lever to depress a scored part of the lid, which folds underneath the top of the can and out of the way of the resulting opening. This design reduced injuries and reduced roadside litter caused by the removable tabs.

Beverages began using this new type of tab in the United States by 1977. Such “retained ring-pull” cans supplanted pull-off tabs in the United Kingdom in 1989 for soft drinks.

Top end or lid
To support the mechanism of the tabs, the lid is made of a slightly different alloy than the aluminium for the base and sides of the can. The inward bulge of the bottom of the can helps it withstand the pressure exerted by the liquid inside it, but the flat lid must be stiffer and stronger than the base, so it is made of an aluminium with more magnesium and less manganese than the rest of the can. This results in stronger metal, and the lid is considerably thicker than the walls.

The centre of the lid is stretched upward slightly and drawn to form a rivet. The tab, a separate piece of metal, is inserted under the rivet and secured by it. Then the lid is scored so that when the tab is pulled by the consumer, the metal will detach easily and leave the proper opening.

And that’s roughly the situation we still have. Over the years since the introduction of the stay-on-tab only minor modifications have been seen. Let’s have a look at the most recent and significant ones.

In a busy, saturated market, it is sometimes the seemingly simplest changes to a package that can make a difference. From the moment consumers started to drink straight from the can, there have been two complaints.

The first of course is the restricted flow of liquid and the “glugging”, the second is the effect of stilling of the beverage after a can is opened and not emptied at once.
Over the last years we have seen some innovations to answer these consumer complaints.

Vented Wide Mouth Can and the Punch Top Can
Coors is a company known historically for taking innovative leaps with its cans. In 2008 Coors Light launched of its new Vented Wide Mouth Can. The modified, so called SmoothPour End features a large opening and a vent tube which directs airflow into the can.
With the industry’s first built-in embossed vent (outlined in blue in photo) and a new 8% wider opening, the Vented Wide Mouth Can allows for a smoother pour and intends to deliver a draft-like experience that reduces the vacuum or “glugging” effect. All 12-oz Coors Light and Coors Banquet cans feature the Vented Wide Mouth Can.
The wide-mouth end itself was introduced in 2006 and is 27% wider than the largest opening found on competing brands of domestic light beer.
Ball Corp. in Broomfield, CO, produces the Vented Wide Mouth Cans exclusively for Coors based on design originally developed by Alcoa in Pittsburgh, PA.

To complete the overview of the improvements of pouring launched by the MillerCoors Breweries we have to include the Punch Top Can recently launched for Miller Lite.

Miller Lite and Miller Genuine Draft 12oz and 16oz varieties are now packaged in the Punch Top Can, where the innovation involves consumers piercing an additional hole in the top to increase airflow, with the company promising a smoother pour.

The beer can has a small indentation that when punched in results in a hole that admits air. Unlike the pull tab, the punch-top indentation does not have a built-in means of activation, therefore, the consumer has to use a tool, such as a house key or a pen.

But the best solution to create a draft-like experience and reduce the vacuum or “glugging” effect came from SABMiller during the World Football Cup in South Africa.

SABMiller’s Castle Can
South African Breweries Ltd., SABMiller’s subsidiary in South Africa, introduced a can with a full-aperture end for the World Cup tournament. It’s recyclable, and it transforms the can into a convenient drinking cup.

This advancement, which Crown Holdings Inc. developed, enables consumers to remove the lid, thereby transforming the can into a drinking cup. The can’s purpose is to reduce lines at bars around events by shortening serving time, removing the need for glassware and draught installations, but without compromising on the drinking experience.
The new full aperture end provides an interesting alternative to traditional cans and glass bottles that are typically prohibited at stadiums and arenas around the world.

Budweiser Gan Bei Can with full aperture

Just last week Anheuser-Busch InBev launched in China its Budweiser in premium metal packaging featuring a full aperture end. Branded the 360 End, the innovation is identical as written above for SABMiller and allows the entire can lid to be removed, turning the can itself into a drinking cup. “The ‘gan bei’ can, developed by Crown, is a brand new product with a very specific goal: enhancing the drinking experience for Budweiser consumers.
The 360 End is produced using a combination of Crown’s food can and beverage can technology.

I think it is a brilliant idea and a very interesting development, I have one objection. One of the reasons the Stay-on Tab was developed as replacement for the Ring-pull Tap was the Ring-pull Tap littering beaches and events. I am wondering what happens with all the (sharp-edged) lids after entirely removed from the can. Are people in these days more aware of the environment and willing to use the trash bin to drop the lid into? I am afraid not, as human beings are notorious polluters.

The second consumer wish is the reclosability of the can or at least a covering of the opening to protect the content. We will talk about reclosability solutions in the next article.

The market of bottled water is beleaguered with a number of issues including the growth of cheaper-priced private label bottled water, consumer criticism of the industry’s high carbon footprints and consumer unwillingness to drink high-calorie enhanced/flavoured water. Nevertheless, the most conspicuous trend in the bottled water market still is the seemingly never ending array of new bottled water products.
Even though innovation has reconfigured the bottled water market, the leading revenue source for the US bottled water market is still the single-serve PET-bottle. Throughout most of the 1990s and 2000s, still water in single-serve polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles, experienced an exceptional growth.
But times are changing. During the economic challenges of the late 2000s, bottled water, like many other beverage categories in the United States during the depths of the economic recession, suffered reversals.

It is clear that due to this economic recession, recovering or not, the consumer is looking at less-expensive and more environmental friendly alternatives. And I don’t talk about the tap water alternative and the refillable bottle, but alternatives to the current, still dominating, single-serve PET-bottles in the market.
Let’s face the facts. In the eye of the consumer the single-serve PET-bottle has lost its ‘green’ credentials. With, according to American Demographics, women constituting the majority of bottled water drinkers, the bottled water industry faces a consumer group famously known to be sensitive to the environment. PET-bottles are seen as a waste of valuable natural resources and a huge polluter. At top of this, we see several law suits with regard to banning the use of single-serve PET-bottles for mineral water. Whatever the outcome, it is clear that the PET-bottle for water, as we know it, will be packed in the catacombs of history.

So, tell me, what is left for the bottled water industry? Let’s walk through the various packaging formats and see what options out of the ordinary are or will be available to differentiate a brand from the bulk and at the same time may satisfy the consumer in his/her search for a less-expensive and even green alternative to the standard PET-bottle.

Single-serve plastic bottles
In the recent years the plastic water bottles have been subjected to light-weighting. Typically, when bottle weight is reduced, ribs are added to brace bottle walls. These bottles are brittle and noisy when compressed, which reduces shelf appeal and premium image. The ribs also limit the possibilities for light-weighting.

Sidel’s NoBottle

To solve this problem, Sidel came up with the NoBottle, a very light 9.9 g per 500-ml PET bottle for water. Sidel’s Flex technology combines plastic’s flexibility with shape memory eliminating the need for ribs allowing designers to create all sorts of shapes, even for extremely lightweight bottles. The bottles are easy to grip, supple, and substantially less brittle than conventional bottles.

Krones’ NitroPouch

With the light-weighting process going on, we near the area of the pouch. Krones pushed that boundary between a rigid blow-moulded bottle and a flexible pouch, with the NitroPouch, a 500-ml PET bottle of only 6.6 grams.
The bottle concept eliminates the traditional neck ring and incorporates reconfigured threads engineered to accept a 1.1-gram closure. The concept optimizes material distribution with wall thicknesses of less than 0.1 millimetres.
The bottle diameter narrows at the top to enhance grip-ability. Grooves reinforce the grip area to stiffen the sidewall so the bottle can be labelled, even when empty. Nitrogen pressurization ensures that the container does not collapse during transport and handling.

Hybrids
The distinction between a bottle and a pouch is even getting greyer with Amcor’s neither-a-bottle, nor-a-pouch AquaFlexCan. An easy open, non-spill flexible beverage pack for still water.

Amcor’s AquaFlexCan for Iconiq Water

Consumers simply Tear-n-Sip, as the bottle/pouch utilizes laser perforation, to easily tear off the top of the mouthpiece, so that the water can be consumed directly from the pack. No straw or scissors are required. A special seal geometry of the mouthpiece allows consumers to easily control the liquid flow and limits spills if the pack falls over.
The AquaFlexCan offers environmental benefits, among which lower carbon footprint (compared to PET and glass bottles) and less waste (the weight of one pouch is only 3g).

We go even deeper in the world of the hybrids as we have a look at the flexible can.

The 200ml Cyclero pouches or DrinkBags, as Huhtamaki likes to call them, is not a stand-up pouch but an all-flexible version of the Cyclero design. There is a peel-off lid, and the consumer can drink direct from the aperture, as with a metal can. There’s no need for a straw or a spout.

Huhtamaki characterizes the format as “the world’s only round flow pack”. The DrinksBag is the latest and most simple addition to the Cyclero system, which always have been basically a logical optimization of conventional stand-up pouches. The Cyclero aims at avoiding the sealed seams on the sides that determine the appearance and haptic properties to a very crucial extent, while at the same time maintaining the advantages of flexible packaging over the conventional can, jar and paperboard formats.

And this brings us to the flexible pouches.

Flexible Pouches
The prediction that the term “bottled water” will disappear began to take shape, after the introduction in October 2005 by Jumex in Mexico City of its 200-ml Nautix line of kid-oriented flavoured waters in a transparent Wedge Aseptic Tetra Pak with SiOx barrier.

Nautix was followed up by Wasatch Icewater, which entered the market with its Ampac PET stand-up pouch with a silicon valve.

Wasatch IceWater stand-up pouch

The material composition was a PET film, with a bi-axially oriented nylon with a coextruded organoleptic inner layer. Seaquist Closures provided the three-part closure, a PE base frame with silicon valve nozzle closed by an EZ Turn Screw Cap. The patented system doses in two ways, by turning the valve to suck or by squeezing the bag so that the water sprays from the valve.

The slender, lightweight alternative to water bottles set the development of the market of water in stand-up pouches, with the sporting enthusiasts and other “on-the-go” and “outdoor-loving” consumers in mind.
Don’t forget! It’s so easy to slip a couple of pouches into your pockets or back-pack when you are skiing, jogging or biking. You can also freeze the pouches, use them as portable ice packs and drink the water later. And when you are done, you have a flat empty pouch that can be easily disposed of.

And that’s exactly the market 82Go Water is targeting.
Recently launched by PlasTech Innovations in the US, the 8-oz low density polythene (LDPE) pouch, dubbed “The Bod”, uses some 2 grams of plastic resin, “less than the average bottle cap”, and is designed for convenient on-the-go hydration.
The product offers users the ability to have a disposable water source with a rip-top opening (you open 82Go by using your teeth on one of the corners) and takes up almost no space after consumption. Both of these things are key for users who are on-the-go, like running or jogging.
The pack of RO purified water is tough enough to withstand freezing and is fully recyclable.
It is clear that the bods are not meant to replace traditional water bottles, but an alternative for those occasions when a water bottle is not convenient.

Is the drawback of the 82Go, that the consumer can’t sip, the pouches can’t be closed and can’t stand up, that’s not the case with the AguaSac. Introduced by Envision Flexible Packaging the 8-oz of water sits in a side gusset multi-layer pouch with patented spout.  Basically the pouch as well as the spout aren’t special, but used for water it is a very welcome addition to the market.

In a market where the disposable plastic water bottle is under pressure by attacks from local authorities and consumers, regarding its ‘green’ credentials, it is worthwhile to take a look at alternatives. The (multi-layer) flexible pouch is one of the most viable packaging formats in every aspect, except recycling,  it is probably the preferred packaging.

Conclusion
There is much more to tell, particularly in terms of developments in material with interesting ‘green’ credentials in comparison to PET. As these new developments, among others a new PEF-bottle, are mainly entering the market with the expected legal and environmental laws and regulations in mind, I come back to this item in a next article.

Agua Ouro Fino in TetraPak for the patients of Hospital Santa Paula in São Paulo/Brazil

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Fresh products, such as poultry, red meat and fish product, as well as chilled ready-to-eat products place special technical and technological demands on the packaging.  The products, as frequently is thought, not require to appeal to consumers at the point of sale, but rather have to protect the freshness during transport to the wholesaler or processor. Cost effectiveness, output and hygiene are therefore right at the top of the list of requirements.
But of course the food processor is wrong in his assumptions and the consumer, although requiring a perfect product, also expects an attractive and efficient presentation.

I collected some recent developments in thermoformable film with the accent on products trays. Let’s have a look at the mono-layer food tray from Faerch Plast, the Biopolymer tray from Plantic Technologies, and the Mylar Cook thermoformable films from DuPont.

Mono layer food tray
Traditionally the meat industry has used trays produced from multi-layer or laminated materials to ensure adequate sealing with film, but the plastics recycling industry has argued against the use of multi-layer and laminated materials for food packaging due to difficulties separating them for recycling.

Faerch Plast has created MAPET II, a single layer food tray. MAPET II is said to be the next generation mono packaging product designed primarily for top sealed fresh meat and poultry. It has equivalent properties to APET/PE, but is produced from just one material and offers improved sealability than its predecessor, MAPET. And, since MAPET II has better potential to be sorted and recycled, it is hoped that the plastics recycling industry will back it as the new industry standard.

Instead of adding a top layer, a small amount of special adhesive suitable for food packaging applications is applied around the rim of each tray to ensure that it can be sealed easily. The quantity of adhesive, which has been approved for direct contact with food at temperatures up to 40°C, is so low that there will be no contamination of the waste stream.

MAPET II is produced by extruding an APET mono sheet, thermoforming the tray and integrating a robot station at which the adhesive is rolled on to the sealing flange. The trays are made using post-consumer recycled materials.

Biopolymer tray for refrigerated ready meals
It is believed that, following the trend of the European market, in the US frozen food products are starting to dwindle or be eliminated from the retail mix altogether while fresh ready-to-eat products are growing. Several (multinational) food processors have already left this market segment by selling their frozen food division.

This development will show us in the near future several interesting developments in packaging. The introduction, this year, of the refrigerated prepared foods line, called Comida del Sol from Excelline Foods is one example.
For both the flautas and the burritos of Comida del Sol the thermoforming film for the trays is a Plantic eco Plastic high-barrier material from Plantic Technologies. It’s made from corn starch. Although corn crop isn’t seen as the best ingredient for non-food products, Plantic Technologies states that due to a highly efficient conversion rate, there is minimal crop space required, and the crop has no impact on food-growing land space requirements. The company’s patented polymer technology is based on the use of high-amylose corn starch, a material derived from annual harvesting of specialized non-genetically modified corn, supplied by Corn Products International. The biopolymer is comparable in cost to other conventional plastic packaging materials.

Plantic eco Plastic consists of a core layer that is extruded in a conventional manner. Laminated to this core layer are skin layers of polyethylene (largely for heat-sealing purposes) and polypropylene (for moisture barrier). Total thickness in the Excelline Foods application is 450 microns, and of that, 410 microns is the Plantic material at the core. According to Plantic, the Oxygen Transmission Rate is less than 0.05 CC/sq m/24 hr at 23°C.
Plantic eco Plastic is not biodegradable due to the presence of the non-biodegradable skin layers that surround the starch core.

The trays for the flautas and the burritos of Excelline are made on a modified-atmosphere Multivac thermoform/seal system.
The, with flautas filled, trays are back-flushed with nitrogen to drive out ambient oxygen, before a clear barrier lidding material is applied. Refrigerated shelf life is about 37 days.
The trays for the burritos, however, are packaged under a partial vacuum and then sent through High-Pressure Processing (HPP) to give it a 60-day refrigerated shelf life.

Thermo-forming Mylar Cook films
Mylar Cook films are thermo-formable films, which were especially developed for the preparation of food in the high temperature range up to 218o Celsius (425o Fahrenheit). The food product is cooked in the oven or in the microwave in its sealed pack.

Due to this process, the aromas, vitamins, minerals and inherent moisture of the product are largely retained during the cooking process. When a certain pressure is reached, the seal seam of the pack opens by itself. The food is then browned in the open pack.
The constant heat transfer during the two cooking phases ensures that consistent cooking results are achieved and reduces the cooking time by up to 30%. Mylar Cook film is an ideal food packaging solution for sous-vide applications.

The Mylar Cook concept is now supplied in a cooperation between DuPont Teijin Films and machine manufacturer Multivac. Multivac states that its Application Centres are making capacity available for processing trials and customer consultation with Mylar Cook. In addition, DuPont Teijin Films and Multivac are supporting the scale-up of Farmland Oven Perfect Fresh Pork products “Dinner’s in the Bag”.

Mylar Cook films can be used reliably on Multivac’s thermoforming packaging machines. Short forming and sealing procedures enable a high cycle output to be achieved. The wide forming and sealing temperature range of the films makes their processing simple and reliable.

It is clear that packaging, not only can help remove the fear and despise factor when it comes to fish, but also can suggest to the consumer just how easy it is to prepare.
While the focus in the UK is on fresh fish and seafood, in other European markets it is often the association with extended shelf-life and a convenient preparation of the fish, which influences the consumer to choose packaged product.

Fresh fish pack concept
As said the focus in the UK is on fresh fish and seafood. Although overall UK consumption of fish per head is just 2% higher today than in 1975, supermarkets are expanding their fresh fish offerings to include more sustainable species like gurnard, mackerel and skate. These fish are cheaper and just as tasty, but customers often shy away from them because they are unfamiliar and occasionally they just look plain ugly.

London design agency Postler Ferguson created a fresh fish pack concept intended for use at fresh fish counters. Constructed from a double layered polyethylene, they are airtight, resealable and can be filled with ice for transport to keep fish fresh.

This fish packaging proposal helps put unpopular and abundant fish more attractive to the end consumer and on equal standing with their more recognized brethren by placing them in an attractive and highly recognizable packaging.

Saucy Fish
Tesco challenged their fish supplier, Seachill, to come up with a sales-boosting product strategy.

The new Seachill’s Saucy Fish line of chilled ready-to-serve products, designed by Elmwood in London, features a range of seafood species offered with unique sauce combinations.
Elmwood uncovered a well-known, but still intriguing market insight. Not only is the fish category seriously devoid of innovation, but also consumers don’t feel confident about cooking and serving fish, while the sales outlet doesn’t give any inspirational hints.

Saucy Fish set out to overcome this resistance by packing portioned fish in easily merchandised skin packaging twinned with an appropriate sauce. Saucy Fish uses Sealed Air Darfresh skin packaging and for some products the Sira Cook cook-in bag from Sirane.
With the skin packaging there are no liquids moving within the pack, there is no need for an absorber, and the consumer gains better bacteriological control.

The packages are using paperboard sleeves or folding cartons printed by Paragon. They can be printed both sides to provide more consumer or product information. Hot and cold foil blocking can be incorporated to deliver a premium finish as well as combination varnish effects to deliver tactile, matte or gloss features.

To underline the introduction of the Saucy Fish packaging the company runs a promotion on packs of fresh tuna with Denny Bros’ 50mm, four page leaflet labels, which includes a unique code allowing shoppers to claim 500 points going towards prizes including £5 and free cinema tickets, an iPad and £100 of iTunes or £5 paid into the consumer’s bank account. Over 24,000 Fix-a-Forms were printed for the promotion.

ParchmentBake
For me one of the best packaging solutions for preparing/cooking fish by the unprofessional consumer is the ParchmentBake.

The secret to Mrs. Paul’s and Van de Kamp’s, brands of the Pinnacle Foods Group, is the unique parchment paper bag.
The ParchmentBake delicately bakes the pre-grilled, 100% whole-fillet tilapia in a sauce locking in the fish’s natural moisture and flavours. Cooking in parchment paper is a classic technique used in restaurants and by professional chefs. The consumer just places the parchment bags on a shallow baking tray and bake at 400oF (200oC) for twenty-two minutes.

The consumer just places the parchment bags on a shallow baking tray and bake at 400oF (200oC) for twenty-two minutes

The convenient ParchmentBake cooking process takes the guesswork out of preparing and serving seafood with no MSG (Monosodium glutamate), no artificial flavours, colours or preservatives. ParchmentBake fillets have less than 80 calories, 13g of protein and 0.5 grams of fat per serving.

The puffed parchment bags in the hot oven

It isn’t only the preparing and cooking of fish. One of the main points in the supply of fresh fish to the consumer is the packaging that is shuffled around, sometimes roughly, in the supply chain.

High Liner frozen seafood
North American High Liner Foods markets its frozen seafood to retailers under the Sea Cuisine and Fisher Boy brands. The company switched to a mineral-based coating technology from Smart Planet Technologies.

High Liner’s decision to switch to EarthCoating for its retail packs, represents a staggering 26 million cartons/year and reduces plastic use by 40,000 lb/yr, according to a Life Cycle Analysis of the raw materials performed by Heritage Plastics.

EarthCoating from Smart Planet Technologies, is a relatively new technology that allows up to 60% of the LDPE in a barrier coating to be replaced with calcium carbonate (CaO3). The company claims that this is a very high-performance barrier coating that can be applied to just about any type of paper or folding carton material, using essentially all of the same equipment. The clear coating is said to provide up to a 60% greater Moisture Vapour Transmission Rate (MVTR) than 100% LDPE and offers comparable heat-seal performance.
The mineralized coating has been approved by the Food & Drug Administration for direct food-contact applications.

High Liner’s cartons are made by Clearwater Paper using its Candesce C1S paperboard, Cenveo prints the board. The EC-40 coating, made of 40% CaO3 and 60% LDPE, is supplied by compounder Standridge Color Corp., with the mineral content sourced from OMYA Worldwide.

The Life Cycle Analysis also suggests that by switching to EarthCoating versus 100% LDPE, High Liner will reduce greenhouse gas emissions 10% and energy use from 232 kw/ton to approximately 228 kw/ton.

Next time let’s have a look at cheese packaging, another rather conventional segment in regard to packaging innovation.

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Besides the above mentioned industries the HDPE bottle also is very popular with the pharmaceutical industry.

Compression Blow Forming
Amcor Rigid Plastics is producing single-serve bottles using compression blow forming (CBF) technology, making it the first company to use a CBF machine on a commercial scale. The high density polyethylene bottles are blown on a CBF machine developed by Sacmi Imola S.C.

Left: The CBF process starts with upward extrusion of a “dose”. Right: The dose is sliced off by a rotating tool and deposited in a compression molding cavity on another wheel.

CBF machines combine elements of compression moulding and blow moulding in a continuous rotary process. CBF uses an integrated in-line sequence that does not require station-to-station transfer. Material is extruded, cut and transferred into a compression cavity. A preform is produced, and bottles are then pre-blown before the blow mould cavity closes over the preform. Then, the mould cavity closes and the bottle is blown.

Left: After compression moulding, the preform is immediately pre-blown to release it from the cavity/core and ensure uniform material distribution. Right: Final blowing occurs in the same mold station as the previous two steps, with no transfer of the preform. Stretching can be added.

Instead of using a manifold for melt distribution, an extruded shot of resin is transferred directly into the compression mould, giving producers more control over the quality of the container. Eliminating a manifold also eliminates differences in temperature, so there’s less chance of particulate contamination, resin burning, and other defects, like the black specks seen with injection blow moulding

Each bottle is leak tested before leaving the machine. Left: The next step in the three-stage, in-machine QC system is an IR camera system that checks for dimensional varitiations and contamination on or in the bottle wall. Right: The final in-machine QC step is an atmospheric plasma treatment system that ensures adhesion of full-wrap labels and induction cap seals.

The technology is said to offer more uniform weight distribution, as the weight of each resin shot is controlled with a servo-controlled melt pump.
The pre-blow process allows a more consistent and uniform wall thickness by making it easier to separate plastic from the compression core. The blow process begins immediately after compressing the preform, leaving less chance of material sticking to the metal core rod.

Largely thanks to lower process temperatures the system economises on energy compared to other processes. As the machine’s conveyor features an air conditioner and dehumidifier, the bottles can be taken out hotter, reducing cycle time.

A leak detection is fully-integrated immediately after the bottle is blown, while the system uses infrared cameras to detect surface and internal contamination, like finish variations or metal particulates. Furthermore a plasma surface treatment system is installed as an alternative to flaming. Plasma treatments offer the same benefits of flaming, but cut down on environmental, health and safety risks.

Amcor’s current CBF machine is a 12-cavity unit that can create monolayer HDPE bottles 24-33 mm in size. That machine at Amcor’s Youngsville, North Carolina plant, is, according to Amcor, is a “game changer”, as they offer a higher-output, are more sustainable and produce higher-quality bottles than traditional injection blow moulding machines.

The company states that a 20-cavity unit is in production and should be available for commercial use by the end of the year. The 20-cavity machine will also have the ability to run HDPE, polystyrene, polyethylene, and PET. This would make it the only technology on the market that can use the four main resins used in packaging,

Neck-to-Neck
I am well aware that the Neck-to-Neck (N2N) technology, as well as the side-to-side is not new. But apparently the system is not widely known and never took off properly until recently.

The wheel/rotary blow moulders are the machine of choice for very high volumes of containers for markets such dairy and juices. Wheels are typically chosen over shuttles because of processing ease (and cost) due to the single parison technology and lower cost per container for high volume applications. This is especially true for co-extrusion and multilayer applications. The machine can be designed to handle a wide range of container sizes, but are typically committed to a narrow range of container variations after they are built. Because the containers are blown with a needle (instead of a blow pin), it is not unusually to blow containers in a neck-to-neck configuration to increase the production output. Wheels come in various configurations including indexing, continuous motion, vertical (like ferris wheels) and horizontal (like a merry-go-round). Some even now have the capability to produce calibrated neck containers. Most, however, rely on downstream trimming equipment to trim and finish the container.

Although the wheel/rotary blow moulders are known for their possibility to blow containers neck-to-neck it is the reciprocating screw/intermittent extrusion blow moulding system that got my attention.
The reciprocating screw/intermittent extrusion blow moulding system is the most popular and cost effective method to produce light weight dairy, juice and water containers. In this process the extruder feed screw reciprocates similar to an injection moulding machine. The moulds are stationary under the die-head and simple open and close but do not shuttle. As the screw moves forward, the parison is pushed out into the moulds for blowing. For light weight containers, cycle times can be very fast with some under 5 seconds.

In 2009 Uniloy, which had just introduced its Neck-to-Neck (N2N) UR Series reciprocating blow moulding machines, installed the first two Model UR90-16-N2N machine systems with Wimm-Bill-Dann Foods, a mayor dairy company in Russia, to produce white 100-mL HDPE liquid yogurt containers. This N2N machine produced two containers oriented neck-to-neck per cavity in a single cycle, producing over 20,000 of the 6.5 g containers per hour. This is a 30% material reduction in comparison to the previous 9 g.

The Uniloy reciprocating screw design gave primary advantages over wheel and shuttle blow moulding machines including lower energy costs, shorter dry cycle time, lower melt temperature and higher clamp force (90 tons). A wide range of head, clamp and extruder selections allows Uniloy Milacron to configure R2000 machines to desired production volumes and container specifications.

And now in the beginning of this year Uniloy Milacron announced that it sold another two reciprocating screw blow moulding machines to Wimm-Bill-Dann Foods in Russia. The new systems, delivered in March, will enable Wimm-Bill-Dann to add capacity to make 100-millileter containers as well as 200-ml.

In the same market segment, dairy products, juices and water, we see some interesting developments in manufacturing PET-bottles. That will be the topic of a next article.

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Tagged: Amcor Rigid Plastics, CBS technology, Compression Blow Forming Technology, Compression Stretch Blow Forming Technology, dairy market, N2N technology, Neck-to-Neck (N2N) technology, pharmaceuticals bottles, reciprocating screw/intermittent extrusion blow moulding system, Sacmi Imola S.C, Single-Serve HDPE Bottles, Uniloy, wheel/rotary blow moulders, Wimm-Bill-Dann Foods ]]> http://bestinpackaging.com/2012/09/06/manufacturing-single-serve-bottles-in-hdpe/feed/ 1 brazilinhotpants 120499-Uniloy UR Tech Overview-2 320x389 100dpi 120512-The CBF process starts with upward extrusion of a 'dose' 250x195 100dpi 120512-The dose is sliced off by a rotating tool 250x195 100dpi 120512-After compression molding, the preform is immediately pre-blown to release it from the cavity 250x195 100dpi 120512-Final blowing occurs in the same mold station as the previous two steps, with no transfer of the preform 250x195 100dpi 120512-The next step in the three-stage, in-machine QC system is an IR camera system that checks for dimensional varitiations 250x195 100dpi 120512-The final in-machine QC step is an atmospheric plasma treatment system that ensures adhesion 250x195 100dpi 120512-processo-cbf-per-scheda 540x265 100dpi 120512-CBF_leak_testing 320x246 100dpi 120512-CBF_pharma_bottles 320x240 100dpi 120499-Neck-to-neck 320x559 100dpi 120499-Russia2 W540 100dpi 120499-Uniloy Total Dairy Brochure-4 320x238 100dpi Banner Manufacturing Bottles by Thermoforming Film Material 250x200 100dpi Banner Sidel’s Stack & Pack Bottle 250x200 100dpi http://bestinpackaging.com/2012/08/28/on-the-go-just-add-some-hot-water-2/ http://bestinpackaging.com/2012/08/28/on-the-go-just-add-some-hot-water-2/#comments Tue, 28 Aug 2012 22:38:12 +0000 Anton Steeman http://bestinpackaging.com/?p=4996 ]]>

Photo courtesy Waitrose

In its new report, titled “Snacking in America 2012”, market research organization NPD Group, concludes that although breakfast is the most common meal, accounting for 28% of all eating occasions, followed by dinner (27%), and lunch (25%), snacks are not far behind at 20%.

Over half of Americans (53%) snacked two to three times a day, the market researcher found, and those with the healthiest overall diets were most likely to snack frequently.

Historically, changes in consumer eating habits have driven new product development. However according to a report conducted by US trade association PMMI, investment in packaging developments is especially apparent among snacks manufacturers,  predominantly fuelled by retail demands.

The USA are home to an on-the-go population. SymphonyIRI‘s 2012 Consumer Snacking Survey reveals that more than one-third of the population often eats snacks instead of meals when on-the-go. Manufacturers across many food and beverage categories are catering to consumers’ on-the-go eating and drinking behaviours. In 2011, 37% of successful new food and beverage launches touted quicker or more portable attributes, versus an historical average of 28%. Thanks to the escalation of new technologies and new designs, manufacturers are making it faster and easier to enjoy a wide array of foods and beverages at and from home.

For those consumers looking for quick-preparation, yet premium quality, fresh flavours, rich textures, and the comforting taste of a homemade the market recently has been hit by packaging designs with the time-starved consumer in mind.

Coffe Bag
Danish coffee brewer Nordic created a disposable French press, which it called the Coffeebrewer, and that works right inside its own pouch.
The Coffeebrewer is basically a hybrid between a filter dripmaker and a French Press. The design of The Coffeebrewer enables a perfect extraction as the volume of the pouch allows the hot water to interact with the coffee grounds and extract the aroma.
The unique brewing system is designed to preserve the coffee’s natural oils. This enhances the delicate flavours and finer aromas of the coffee, which otherwise can only be achieved by using a French press.

Inside the pouch is a filter with 26 g of freshly ground coffee. To brew 3 cups of coffee, all you need is to open the pouch, pour ½ litre of hot water into it, and let it brew for 5-8 min.

The filter will effectively separate the brewed coffee from the grounds and when you have served the first 1½ cup the remaining coffee will be under the filter and the brewing process will stop. This means that the coffee will not go bitter over time like in a French Press.

The Coffeebrewer clearly uses more packaging material per cup of coffee than most other on-the-go coffee brewing solutions. The pouch size is like A5 paper and the thickness is 1 cm. The pouch weighs 45 g.

The pouch doesn’t use an aluminium layer, but is made from 7.7 g PE, 1.6 g PET and 6.8 g paper coming from reforested Swedish woods. PE isn’t supposed to be harmful to the environment as it consists of coal (C) and hydrogen (H2), which are a natural part of our environment.

Maggi “Moment Mahl“
The Nestlé Product Technology Centre in Singen (Hohentwiel), Deutschland designed a practical collapsible-cup packaging for instant soups. The packaging is remarkable due to the combination of a flexible pouch that contains the product and a folding paperboard part that turns into a convenient cup upon squeezing the bag.

Special of the packaging for “Moment Mahl“ soups is that the soup bowl is already integrated in the pouch. The consumer just has to tear off the top edge of the foil and squeeze the surrounding paperboard ring at the marked locations until the cup clicks, creating a stable soup terrine. Then he/she pours boiling water into the cup, stirs vigorously, waits three minutes, after which the soup can be enjoyed.

The new Maggi “Moment Mahl” soups give each cup a serving of 250 ml.

The packaging of the Maggi “Moment Mahl” soups presents a perfect solution for snacking on-the-go, for a short break at work, or the slight feeling of hunger between meals. Compared to conventional solid-cup packaging solutions, this packaging, going from a flat-pouch to a soup bowl, scores points for excellent space-saving performance in transport and storage.

Batchelors Deli Box
Claiming to have taken inspiration from the stylish paperboard noodle cartons popular in America, Batchelors new Deli Box pasta varieties are ideal for lunches ‘al desko’, for on-the-go and those balancing busy family life. The consumer just pulls back the easy peel top, adds hot water, stirs and leaves to stand for 5 minutes to create a mini-meal of a 75g sized portion.

Although the portion packaging looks like it has some interesting ‘green’ credentials, there is nothing about the advantages of the packaging, its design or its materials used on the company website. It is very disturbing and shows an absolute negligence for the environmental conscious consumer, that Batchelors isn’t revealing anything about the packaging itself, although it might be known that in 2012 the consumer is anxious to have more details. Consumer surveys and market reports all are pointing in this direction.

Alexir is the manufacturer of the packaging. But even that website doesn’t give any proper information, except some meaningless “case story” that goes as follows: “An initial enquiry from Premier, to Alexir Co-Packers, regarding a co-packing project for a new range of dried instant pasta snacks led to a group-wide co-operation including the production of a cost engineered SRP (Shelf Ready Pack) by Alexir International”.
But nothing about the so-called “cost engineered SRP”.

Anyway the packaging looks very familiar and similar to the CFS EcoPlus, I wrote about in my article: “Evolution from Optimum-Pack to EcoPlus pack”.
I will repeat here some details of the EcoPlus, so that my readers at least have some idea what the Batchelors/Alexir Deli Box is like.

CFS Germany GmbH developed the EcoPlus as an inexpensive alternative to the paperboard and prefabricated tray solution. The advantage of this packaging is its simple structure. It consists on the outside of paperboard and on the inside of film. Both parts are separated by an air compartment. The paperboard can be printed all over before it is folded into a box. The film insert consists of rigid or flexible film.

EcoPlus Pack with Machine

If PP film is used there is no reason why it shouldn’t be heated in a microwave (or hot water added as Batchelors Deli Box requires). The paperboard will then only become hand-hot thanks to the “air-cushion” between the paperboard wall and the film. After use the paperboard and the film can be disposed of separately.

As said snacking is a booming industry. The global market for snacks set to soar to USD 334bn by 2015. We will see more interesting packaging solution for this market segment in the future.

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Recently the pouch airless system is getting popular, capturing a significant percentage of the airless market. A pouch system is made of a rigid bottle containing a soft pouch with an airless pump. When the product is expelled, the pouch shrinks so that there is no air intake inside the pouch.

Now a closer look at the Airless Paper Blow from Yonwoo, the Bag-On-Valves from Coster, the dual-chamber dispensing bottle from Gidea, and Eggs packaged in aerosol can.

The AirOPack from IPS Innovative Packaging
Although I already wrote about the AirOPack from IPS Innovative Packaging Solutions AG in Switzerland, in my article “DuPont Packaging Awards 2012 – Part 02” it is impossible to leave this development out of this overview. The AirOPack is a new, innovative technology to dispense fluids, high viscosity liquids and creams by using a patented pressure control device that relies on air instead of conventional hydrocarbon chemical propellants. This system can replace traditional aerosol products that are used today with conventional metal cans and chemical propellants.

This dispenser consists of a blow-moulded plastic container fitted with a compressed air chamber and a pressure control device to protect against pressure drop, improve ease of use and ensure the maximum amount of product can be extracted from the container.
To read about the AirOPack go to my previous article.

The Bag-On-Valves from Coster
Once considered a niche market, Bag-On-Valves (BOVs) are becoming increasingly popular for cosmetics and pharmaceutical products. With the BOV technology, formulations can be dispensed in any form (liquid, gel, cream or highly-viscous substances) and in any position (inverted or upright).

BOVs preserve the product from external contamination and keep it perfectly separated from the propellant (the product is contained inside the bag and the propellant remains outside the bag, inside the can). Moreover, there is no need to add any preservatives as the content is completely sealed from any possible contact with the air. They are also environment-friendly as they can be used in combination with compressed air or with liquefied propellants.

Other BOV features include: the use of either standard aluminium cans or tin plate cans, filling through the valve and the fact that the content is completely evacuated from the container.

The Airless Paper Blow from Yonwoo
Paper Blow is Yonwoo’s eco-friendly 100ml airless pack that conforms to the four Rs, according to the company’s earth-friendly philosophy: Refill, Reuse, Reduce, Recycle.

Provided by Quadpack, the Paper Blow features an overcap and outer bottle made of recycled PCR paperboard, fitted around a tube-like PE pouch attached to a 0.50cc airless pump with a ring neck for easy filling. These are blow inserted into the cardboard bottle using surface friction, for an extra-tight fit. The pump system is the same as an airless tube – the PE pouch collapses in on itself as the formula is used up, preventing air re-entry.

The PCR outer sheath means that no secondary packaging is necessary, reducing the overall materials used. Paper Blow is refillable and for decoration offset printing is available (up to eight colours) using thin paper, which can be laminated before being labelled onto the outer bottle and cap.

The Dual-Chamber Dispensing Bottle from Gidea
While multi-phase solutions have become fairly common, they are often packaged in separate containers even though the products they contain are to be used consecutively or in tandem.

As an alternative Chinese converter Gidea Packaging Co Ltd released a packaging concept that addresses this issue in one container. Gidea’s solution is its dual-chamber dispensing bottle, a concept where the container is split into two distinct reservoirs with complementary dispensing pumps that can be used individually or simultaneously, depending on how the products contained are to be applied.

The bottle is an airless container, small and light, while the company claims that it dispenses evenly from first use through last. The dual bottle is composed of hard ABS with a clear and sterile PP lining to ensure full product compatibility.

Eggs in aerosol can from Lindal
Polenghi-Coltivia launches eggs in an aerosol can. The product is available in a 300 gram aerosol can (equivalent to six eggs) equipped with a ‘cream dispenser’ (the same as the one used for cans of whipped cream). The advanced aerosol technology from the Lindal Group (www.lindalgroup.com) dispenses the eggs as a mousse-like substance; they then quickly reduce to the aspect of an ordinary egg.

The recyclable aluminium aerosol can be kept for several months at room temperature.

The food itself is separated from the propellant and protected from light and air, thus enhancing hygienic appeal. Further, aerosol foods are designed for precise, efficient dosage. The consumer only uses what is needed, when it is needed. There is no waste and value is a huge consumer driver these days.

At the last edition of Aerosol Forum Dispensing, Oriex re-proposed the Paris aerosol restaurant. These are mostly ingredients complementary to the preparation of other dishes, packed in a way that keeps them wholesome and healthy thereby also facilitating the dispensing and dosing of the same. The range of Polenghi products, ranging from fresh eggs (whole ones for omelettes, whipped egg whites and in the formula for browning baked cakes) to chocolate mousse, going by way of vegetable “film” for preserving gastronomic specialties (acting as an alternative to gelatine) and anti-stick solutions to avoid cakes sticking to the mould.

]]> http://bestinpackaging.com/2012/08/19/developments-in-aerosol-technology-part-02/feed/ 1 brazilinhotpants 120336-lamisil-green 320x426 100dpi 120516-AirOPack 540x359 100dpi 120336-bov-section 320x431 100dpi 120336-bov-respifree 540x540 100dpi 120243-paper-blow-is-yonwoo’s-eco-friendly-100ml-airless-pack 540x396 100dpi 20110824_Áö°üºí·Î¿ì¶óº§¼öÁ¤Áß(Æ©ºê.ºí·Î¿ì) 120183-gidea_dualchamberbottlea 540x300 100dpi 120183-gidea_dualchamberbottleb 540x269 100dpi 120488-Egg Aerosol 540x463 100dpi Banner Looking for a definition 250x184 100dpi Banner Packaging Awards and the Self-Congratulatory Syndrome 275x195 100dpi http://bestinpackaging.com/2012/08/12/developments-in-aerosol-technology/ http://bestinpackaging.com/2012/08/12/developments-in-aerosol-technology/#comments Sun, 12 Aug 2012 23:08:35 +0000 Anton Steeman http://bestinpackaging.com/?p=4914 ]]> I collected a selection of developments in Aerosol Technology, introduced into the market over the last six months. Aerosol Technology is a very interesting technology with a wide and amazing range of possibilities and applications. For a long time it has been seen as a “not-moving-forward” packaging format and it even met (and sometimes still meets) strong opposition and rejection due to its history of air-pollution and negative effects on the environment. Before we go into the new developments, let’s have a look at its history, the negative aspects and the oppositional claims.

For the ones not intimate with aerosol technology a short definition:
An aerosol is a dispenser that holds a substance under pressure and that can release it as a fine spray (usually by means of a propellant gas). This is obtained with a can that contains a liquid under pressure. When the spray valve is opened, the liquid is forced out of a small hole and emerges as an aerosol or mist. As gas expands to drive out the payload, only some propellant evaporates inside the can to maintain an even pressure. Outside the can, the droplets of propellant evaporate rapidly, leaving the payload suspended as very fine particles or droplets.
Note: An atomizer or spray pump is a similar device that is pressurised by a hand-operated pump rather than by stored gas. About this system, which is the forerunner of the airless system, to be discussed later in this article.

A brief history
Although there is proof that a with gas pressurised container has been used some 400 years ago, it is generally agreed that the forerunner of the modern aerosol is the in November 1927 by Erik Rotheim in Norway patented aerosol can and valve that could hold and dispense products and propellant systems. During World War II the US government funded research into a portable way for service men to spray malaria-carrying bugs and in 1943 researchers of the Department of Agriculture developed a small aerosol can pressurised by a liquefied gas.

The first aerosol cans made of aluminium were produced in Germany in 1954. These were 2-piece cans based on a patent of Ernst Kohl. Their principle draw-back was the domed base which was still made of tinplate, and often led to leaks around the seam.

In 1955 the commercial advance of the aerosol can started with the introduction of the first hair spray in Germany. Various industrial branches discovered this packaging system since then leading to considerable growth figures for aerosol can manufacturers.

Environmental aspects
Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) were once often used as propellants, but since the Montreal Protocol came into force in 1989, they have been replaced in nearly every country due to the negative effects CFCs have on Earth’s ozone layer.

While aerosol containers no longer contain chlorofluorocarbon or CFC, these thin-walled steel or aluminium vessels are pressurized with one of several volatile hydrocarbon propellants, such as carbon dioxide, propane and butane.  These propellants are “greenhouse gases” that contribute to global warming and smog formation.
Nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide are used as propellants to deliver foodstuffs (for example, whipped cream and cooking oil).
In general it can be said that an aerosol can never is completely empty, consequently the post-consumer spray cans, however, are considered hazardous waste because they contain ignitable or chlorinated solvents or other toxins such as pesticides and phthalates.

Note: An atomizer or spray pump is a similar device that is pressurised by a hand-operated pump rather than by stored gas.

In answer to the unattractive environmental aspects of aerosols with a propellant, we have seen a notable increase in airless packaging in recent years.

Airless technology
Before airless technologies existed, brands chose atmospheric, or dip-tube pumps. When a dip-tube pump, often called atomizer or spray pump, is actuated, it creates a low-pressure area in front of the product inside the bottle near the pump intake. The atmospheric air behind the product moves toward the low pressure and pushes the product in front of it until it is dispensed by the pump.

There are two main types of airless systems, but the most used is the piston airless system. A piston airless system uses a moulded piston in the bottle, to help push the product out of its package. Airless systems by design create a vacuum. The piston helps maintain that vacuum.

Recently the pouch airless system is getting popular, capturing a significant percentage of the airless market. A pouch system is made of a rigid bottle containing a soft pouch with an airless pump. When the product is expelled, the pouch shrinks so that there is no air intake inside the pouch.

After this introduction we can have a closer look at the new developments recently introduced into the market. It is a mix of developments in airless systems and in the pouch airless system. We will see the Airless Paper Blow from Yonwoo, the Bag-On-Valves from Coster, the dual-chamber dispensing bottle from Gidea, and Eggs packaged in aerosol can.

But before we go to the specific applications, let’s have a look at the recent developments in aerosol manufacturing technology.

Stahl Monoblock aerosol can
Aerosol cans are traditionally made up of three parts. The development of new coating systems around 1960 made it possible to produce one-piece aluminium cans – the Aluminium Monobloc aerosol can. Last year Mall + Herlan GmbH in Germany developed a prototype made out of one piece tinplate. This Stahl Monoblock aerosol can features all the advantages of a monoblock aerosol can, previously only available in aluminium. The prototype represents a high technological innovation performance with this difficult moulding technology. Using tinplate, the cost factor becomes much more advantageous than with aluminium and thus increases the economic viability of aerosol production.

Recycled-content aluminium aerosol can
Currently, almost all extruded aluminium aerosol packaging is made from virgin aluminium slugs, which are impact extruded to produce packaging for aerosol products.
A metal technology breakthrough from Ball Corp. enables the use of recycled aluminium in the manufacture of extruded aluminium packaging for aerosols. The resulting new metal alloy exhibits increased strength and allows light-weighting of the container by as much as 10% without affecting package integrity.
Ball Corp. will use aluminium recycled from Ball’s global beverage can operations to produce the company’s new slugs.

A solvent-free internal powder coating from Tubex
This year Tubex received the Paris Aerosol Award for a revolutionary and ecologically friendly solution for internal coatings, an application of a solvent-free internal powder coating with the best chemical properties and high mechanical resilience.
German cosmetic manufacturer Beiersdorf AG is currently in the process of changing the production of its aerosol cans manufactured by Tubex from standard to internal powder coating.
Tubex claims to be the only aerosol can manufacturer worldwide which is able to apply internal powder coating industrially.

Tubex introduced a prototype of its “Yes Green Can” in 2010, claiming that with its optimized material input and sophisticated production technology the “Yes Green Can” embodies all characteristics of modern sustainability.
The can was produced from slugs which contain about 20% recycled clean and printed can production scrap, thus reducing the use of primary aluminium. Furthermore volatile organic compounds (VOC) emissions from the can production process could be significantly reduced by the application of a solvent-free internal powder coating and the use of a water-based base coat and over varnish.

De-bossed cans from Ardagh
The Ardagh Group created a tinplate three-piece aerosol can for the fashion designer Carolina Herrera’s range of fragrances. The aerosol can incorporates a complex de-bossing feature.

This striking embossed new feature complements the subtle colour in the decoration and a transparent cap highlights the reflective dome and matching actuator. The de-bossing feature was designed and developed specifically for this project and required the modification of the existing production lines.

In the next article I will describe some new developments in specific applications for airless and bag-on-valves aerosols.

Flânerie of the House of Krug
Champagne of the House of Krug, called Flânerie, comes in a luxury leatherwork bag. Bearing the Krug stamp, its adjustable shoulder strap gives the option of carrying it slung across the shoulder or held in the hand. It is the latest packaging novelty from the House of Krug.
Arranged in the form of stars, the strips of natural cowhide interweave to form a slouch bag, while subtly recalling the numerous vintages that make up the rich blend of Krug Grande Cuvée.
They reveal glimpses of the deep cherry-red interior, evoking the emblematic colour of the House of Krug, and in which a detachable cooler encases Krug Grande Cuvée, preserving it at the ideal temperature of 10ºC for two hours.

I guess it is a perfect accompaniment for the barbeque burned meat, as it only cost USD 200.00.

Ecological Pomelo Packaging
In the same style as the Flânerie of the House of Krug, is the packaging of the Thai Pomelo of Chainat province. Brought to market by Yod Corporation Co.,Ltd  the packaging is made from water hyacinth.

The main material used in packaging’s structure is made of a local plant found in an area of the product’s origin. Together with the knowledge of the local people who excel in handicraft without relying on manufacturing, it is more environmentally friendly than a plastic net.

The packaging did think me of the Densuke watermelon, I wrote about some time ago. The same stands here. The amazingly simple, but effective packaging, which looks as if there is no packaging at all. No packaging at all? Well, look at it. It has all the necessary functions: label, ventilation, carrying handle, visual product presentation, protection. Simple and beautiful craftsmanship.

The Nibble-Box
A Keynote’s Bread and Bakery Products Market 2012 report points to research that showed that 70.8% of lunchbox meals are now consumed by adults, who are taking their lunches to work to save money. These consumers want choice when preparing their meals, said the report.

But when you want a choice and want to conserve your food properly till lunchtime, you need an appropriate packaging. UK supplier of packaging and disposables to the food and drink market, TriStar launched the new Nibble Box. A stylish rPET pack that is perfect for holding a vast array of foods, from breakfast fruits and pasta salads to more exotic options like tapas, meze, and tortilla wraps. It’s a perfect option for eating delicious but messy food while on the move.

Offering visibility and freshness, the Nibble Box boasts a 1,000cc capacity and is manufactured to BRC-approved standards for food grade packaging. It can be configured with three different insert options to accommodate various product types, and finished either with a flat lid for eating on the move or with a domed lid for bakery products.

Laser-etched fruit
Using a carbon dioxide laser, Importer W.Jonckheere SPRL from Brussels has a first in Europe when selling their melons. To get the ‘tattooed’ fruit on the market they’ve produced permanently-visible labels, etched into the skins of the fruit.

The laser only penetrates a tiny way into the skin, causing no damage whatsoever to the fruit itself. Significantly, these labels produce a permanent reminder of the fruit’s origin, highlighting and verifying the start of the product’s supply chain so consumers can see exactly where it’s come from.

The arrival of the Natural Light Labelling technique won’t be the first time this type of system’s been used to label fruit. Previously, though, it was pulled over fears that it could produce prematurely-decayed fruit. But Greg Drouillard states that this laser-etched fruit labelling technique which is his brainchild, “works with any fruit or vegetable, other than leafy greens and corn on the cob”.

Zenith DuoBag compliments the product
PFM Zenith DuoBag is a new VFFS vertical packaging machine which produces packs with a pocket for putting in gadgets or accessories needed to use or consume the product.

Patented by PFM of Italy, the machine in this exclusive configuration for the production of the DuoBag packs produces two packs in one, starting from a single reel of packaging material and a single forming tube, which has been specially designed for this application.

An automatic loading system inserts the accessory in a pocket within the pack. The method of loading has to be determined according to the accessory and the specific packaging needs. The accessory never comes into contact with the product since it is placed in a sealed inner pocket.

So that was July when everybody was lying on the beach. Back to work.

In the July edition of Plastics News I read that 12-year-old girl Abby Goldberg from Grayslake, Ill., stool the plastics industry’s thunder — and quite possibly spoiled prospects for an industry-supported bag recycling bill in Illinois.

Her change.org website, which has more than 155,000 signatures to date, is called “Governor Quinn: Don’t Let Big Plastic Bully Me!”

“My name is Abby Goldberg, and as a 12-year-old girl who, after seeing the devastation that millions of plastic bags have caused the environment and ocean life, I made my school project this year to be getting a local ban on single-use plastic shopping bags in my home town Grayslake, IL,” she writes.

“My friends and I were making great progress, until the oil and chemical industry pulled a dirty trick to kill my campaign; these lobbyists used the politicians that they bought to pass a bill that would make it illegal for towns across Illinois to create plastic bag bans! Even worse, they’re trying to make it look like a green environmental bill, by putting in a few ridiculously-low requirements for so-called ‘recycling’ of plastic bags, and are bragging they’re going to make it ‘a model bill for all states!’

“Now it’s in the hands of our Governor to stop them with a veto, but he needs to hear from all of us!”

Last week Goldberg went to Chicago to urge Gov. Pat Quinn to veto the recycling bill that would prohibit any city in the state, with the exception of Chicago, from implementing a plastic bag ban.
The Chicago Sun-Times and Chicago Tribune both have reports about the meeting.

The Sun-Times reported: “After receiving the petitions, Quinn wouldn’t reveal whether he would sign the bill. “You’ll have to wait and see”, he said. He pledged to “do things right for the environment”.

We all know that everywhere in the world “bag-ban-bills” are in progress or already implemented. Also in Brazil.
In Brazil the large supermarket chains were very quick to kick the free distribution of plastic bags out of the shop. Not because they care about the environment, but it saves them money.

However a judge in the federal state of São Paulo decided last month that supermarkets should return to distributing free plastic bags to consumers.

The court decision on Monday, 25 June, determined that the necessary steps have to be taken to return to an adequate and sufficient supply of plastics bags in 48 hours. Of course the supermarkets appeal.

Judge Cynthia Torres Cristófaro, of the 1st Court in the capital, decided that it is “prohibited to charge money for bags used for packing the consumer’s purchases” and that companies have 30 days to provide, also free of charge and in sufficient quantity, packaging made of biodegradable material or appropriate paper, also free of charge.

In her decision, Cristófaro said the interruption of free distribution of sacolinhas (plastic bags) “clearly disproportionately burdens the consumer”.
She reasoned that “it is a well-known customary practice that the shopkeeper provides for packaging so that consumers can take the goods they bought with them”.
She, furthermore stated, that the termination of supplying carrier bags by supermarkets to consumers “caused great frustration”.

This court decision might feel as turning the world upside-down, but note that the judge expressly ordered the supermarket chains to supply biodegradable or appropriate paper bags within 30 days and free of charge. Maybe the best solution there is.

The Product Authentication & Brand Security Conference 2012, which takes place this year on September 10-11 in Chicago, is branded by its organiser AWA as offering the latest trends and solutions in Anti-Counterfeiting. This year, speakers will address in particular fraud activity in foods and wines, the imaging supplies industry, and premium sports shoes.

Brand owners interested in learning more about the challenges and solutions of protecting their products from counterfeiting and diversion are invited to attend the conference without charge.

I wonder whether the anti-counterfeiting industry with all its hi-tech solutions finally has accepted or will accept and  incorporate the one and only ingredient, they always have left out, neglected if you want, and as such never solved or will solve the problem. That ingredient, crucial for success, is the consumer.
I have argued before that the consumer is the number one person who really has an interest in detecting counterfeited products the moment he wants to buy.

Many products targeted by counterfeiters are very easy to copy due to their simple-to-copy packaging. That’s not the case with perfumes and up-scale alcohol beverages, where designers have all the freedom to create the most fantastic and sometimes exclusive bottles.

But we are talking about the consumer goods of quality brands, ordinary consumer goods of high quality, every consumer finds in the up-scale supermarkets and department stores.
The danger of being illegally copied is not only the undifferentiated simple-to-copy packaging, but also confusion.

In 2009 (the most recent data I have), worldwide 274,273 new products were introduced. This is 22,856 packages per month, 761 per day or 32 per hour.
This wave of new products for ordinary consumer products creates consumer confusion as a wide variety of high-quality brand products are constantly changing their image or are re-introduced to attract the potential buyer. Marketing slogans as New Recipe, Improved Packaging, etc., are the order of the day.

Confusion, a strong ally of the counterfeiter, occurs when the consumer is confronted with many different, ever-changing versions of the packaging. How is the consumer to know when a new product packaging isn’t legitimate? Just do a Google search for some upscale brand to discover how many different bottles and packages the brand is carrying, and with what frequency new ones are introduced.
Look at the supermarket shelves, wait 4 months and look again. There is a completely different appearance of obviously the same products.

Let’s be clear, counterfeiting isn’t restricted to the high-end consumer products and not even to the pharmaceutical and medical area. The problem is already signalled with ordinary consumer products from well-known brands. What is simpler? I create a simple low-quality soup, label it as Campbell’s or Heinz, and all the profit is mine.

And the consumer? He has nothing other in his hands to qualify a product as genuine, than his confidence in the retailer. As counterfeit products are unstoppably turning up on shop shelves with fakes simply being knock-offs, relabelled sister products, a mix of fake and genuine product, or a refill masquerading as a virgin product, the consumer may become victim of a do-it-yourself counterfeiter or of a vertically integrated international operating counterfeiting organization. The consumer’s trusted store could be an unsuspecting conduit or complicit in the crime.
One thing is clear: the problem is getting worse.

For a counterfeiter, success is having every non-complicit person handling the product downstream to accept the fakes as legitimate products. The products do not need to be exact copies, only good enough to fool those handling or buying the goods.

To this problem the industry answers with a most fantastic, mouth-watering technological and intellectual tour-de-force, entirely forgetting, what the real goal is in its battle against counterfeiting. The goal should be the consumer and not exposing the counterfeiter. A common misconception is that a counterfeiter will quit the practice if he gets caught ……..

I once read an interview in which a vice-president of operations argued why he wanted to incorporate a batch code into the diversion-tracking code.
[and I quote]
“Removing a diversion-tracking code so that product can be diverted is not illegal, but defacing a batch code is. That takes it out of civil court and puts it into the criminal court system. That’s huge, because in criminal court, the identity of the distributor who is doing the diverting will be revealed. That doesn’t happen in civil court cases”.
[end of quote]

And that is exactly what happens with the ‘war against drugs’. Catch a guy, get him convicted, turn around and discover that he is replaced by ten others. Counterfeiting doesn’t go away by putting the tugs in prison.

All hi-tech solutions, as inks, authentication, tracking and tracing are useless. You can only track and trace your own genuine products, not the counterfeited ones as you don’t have their codes. So, what happens? You discover a non-coded fake. What does it give you? In the meantime consumers have bought a fake and are disappointed by the quality, taste, fragrance and never buy your brand again.

The industry has to go back to the basics. And the basics are its consumers. When starts the industry to realize that the solution to counterfeiting is the consumer. That means that the industry, suffering under counterfeiting attacks, has to supply a tool to the consumer. A way the consumer can easily verify whether the product is genuine or false. All covert security measures are useless and are only of interest to the company itself, the consumer needs an overt system which enables him to check the authenticity of the product.

Back to the basics implies a simple, but secure tool the consumer can handle and always has available.

So what is the answer?
Why don’t I leave it to the smartphone and scanning-apps? Several reasons.

First: Consumers are often let down when scanning barcodes. A study of CapGemini showed that 91% of mobile barcode scans returned incorrect product descriptions and 75% returned no data, while 40% of the processed requests through a trustworthy application could not be authoritatively connected to a product. In this situation the study found that 38% of consumers will not purchase a product if they don’t trust the information they get and 35% may stop using an app if they get the wrong information.

Second: 2D barcodes, QR and AR codes, as well as anti-counterfeiting codes can easily be faked and if the consumer has to use his smartphone to scan a code, the downloaded app might direct him to a fake company website, being the website of the counterfeiter confirming the authenticity of the product.

So what to do, when the smartphone isn’t the trustworthy tool to supply the correct information and apps can be made and offered by anybody, including the counterfeiter.

We all are acquainted with the barcode reader, strategically positioned in supermarkets and department stores, to tell the consumer the price of a certain product. Now, imagine one, but this time with a screen, not as simple as the barcode reader has, but technically a full computer screen. We shall baptize this device, Info-Dome.

The Info-Dome is connected to an outside secure central computer, in which only renowned suppliers can store their basic data and through which the correct company website is securely linked.
This system allows for an effective authentication verification as the info request can’t be diverted to a fake website. It is even possible to read a covert authentication code, without showing the code on the screen, as the consumer only wants to know, whether the product is genuine or not.
Is the authentication code for exclusive products and medicines complicated, for high-end brands of consumer products the system can be much simpler.

I am not saying that this is the solution. And I certainly will not abandon either the use of the smartphones and apps, or the implementation of secure printing technologies. But an Info-Dome is, in my opinion, the direction in which the consumer goods companies in their battle against counterfeiting should move.
It is worth a serious discussion.

Note: There is much more to the Info-Dome in regard to labelling, but that’s for a following article.

I know, it is in Africa and parts of Asia no different, but in Central and South America, where the iconic Coca-Cola single serve glass bottle is very much in use and very popular, it is custom that when you buy a Coca-Cola (or any other brand or flavour for that matter, as long it is bottled in a single-serve glass bottle) at a street stall or a kiosk or from a vendor at the beaches and you haven’t an empty bottle to trade-in, the soft drink is poured into a plastic bag and you walk away with a bag with a drinking straw, leaving the empty glass bottle with the vendor.

Note: It is the same when it is a home-made regional drink, often sweet and made from fruit and water, but then there never has been a glass bottle in the first place. But it is sold in plastic bags with a drinking straw.

A strange custom? Not at all, as it is very effective. The vendor of soft drinks has to secure his glass bottle against all odds. Charging a refund (whatever the value) doesn’t help him, as the distributor of soft drinks wants to see empty bottles. He will replenish the vendor’s stock only in relation to the number of empty bottles he trades-in. No empty bottles means: no replenishment with full bottles. An eye for an eye is translated into one empty for one full.

With this system in place the bottler always has the guarantee that his bottles are coming back for a refill, and rather clean at that, as the consumer doesn’t have the chance to urinate into the bottle or use it for the storage of chemicals.

Of course you could ask yourself, why not the single-serve PET (or HDPE) bottle or the aluminium can? Well, there are several reasons. The first is the famous myth about the taste.
“Why does coke from a glass bottle taste different? It doesn’t. That’s what Coca-Cola’s spokespeople say, anyway. “The great taste of Coca-Cola is the same regardless of the package it comes in”, they insist. Nevertheless 99% of the time every one prefers the glass bottles over all the other types of coke packages.
But it is not only for the taste, but Coca-Cola in a glass bottle is the cheapest option, as the consumer doesn’t pay for the costs of the plastic bottle or the alu-can. But it creates the “bottle-problem”. Street vendors, street stalls and kiosks all over the world found the solution for the glass bottle, which they couldn’t let taken away by the consumer. They introduced the plastic bag, and unanimously and without question, the moment you buy a bottle of soft drink, they pour the soft drink into a plastic bag stick a straw in and hand it over to you.

However for world famous brands with iconic packages this market format is quite a problem. Imagine, the moment the soft drink is dumped into a simple plastic bag, while the iconic bottle stays with the vendor, nobody knows that you drink a genuine Coca-Cola. It can be any fancy brand. For brands as Coca-Cola that’s quite a frustration.

Consequently some clever chap at Coca-Cola in El Salvador found the most brilliant answer I have ever seen. Apparently he understands his consumers (wherever they live) and is keen to emphasize the values transmitted by the brand. To adapt the product to this market reality, he initiated a campaign offering plastic bags in the form of the iconic glass bottle, even with its logo. See the video.

In other words, Coca-Cola is now supplying the vendors in street stalls, kiosks and all other places a plastic bag in the format of the iconic Coca-Cola glass bottle. It is said that “The Coca-Cola Bag”, is made of bio-degradable plastic.

Brilliant, simply brilliant.

I know it has little to do with packaging technology, but this type of developments is as important as the most complicated discovery of a plastic substitute.

Rest me to say: Who is the first to copy this idea? Here in the north of Brazil even beer (which comes in 0.6 litre glass bottles) is dropped into one or two plastic bags with drinking straws if you haven’t an empty bottle to trade-in. Ever drank beer through a straw? Personally I don’t like it, but here it is quite common practice. So, tell me, one of the beer giants (all AmBev here) gets an inspiration? Coca-Cola hasn’t introduced it here yet. So there is some room to say that you are “innovative”.

The modular “mirror” HFFS machine
At the Interpack 2011 in Düsseldorf, Germany, Bossar Packaging, a manufacturer of horizontal Form, Fill and Seal machines in Barcelona, Spain, showed its BMK 2600 L STU 2 CV horizontal pouch machine with a new feature for producing small and narrow “snack size” pouches with spouts, as well as the larger pouch sizes. The new design applies the spout at a 35-deg angle (rather than standard 45-deg angle), increasing the available pouch opening for easier product filling.

The system is able to produce small-size (3- to 3.5-oz), single-serve pouches with a side fitment for better cube efficiency. Today this pouch size is commonly with a top centre fitment, which requires wasted headspace in the secondary packaging. The pouches can be designed with a variety of “canoe-style” fitments, including screw-on/off and push-pull.

The Bossar BMK series of HFFS machines are designed with a modular concept, versus the traditional mono-frame machines. The logical next step was the design of the modular ¨mirror¨ machines range that performs the same process of forming, filling and sealing the bag but in the reverse direction.

The forming, filling and sealing processes of the bags are carried out in the opposite direction (from right to left) to that of traditional packaging machines. This enables clients to place one packaging machine in front of another with just a single operator to control them, as machine parts will be facing one another.

The range is made up of BMK-model machines and can include full shape, top valve application and laminar flows for application of hydrogen peroxide for cap sterilisation.

The pouch that’s a can or the can that’s a pouch
In May consumers in Thailand saw the launch of Maxx Drink’s range of fruit-flavoured products in 200ml Cyclero pouches – or DrinkBags, as Huhtamaki likes to call them. This is the first time that the all-flexibles version of the Cyclero design has gone into full commercial production.

Huhtamaki, the inventor of the Cyclero design, claims that the packaging is similar to the packs for products such as Capri Sun, but it is not a stand-up pouch. There is a peel-off lid, and the consumer can drink direct from the aperture, as with a can. There’s no need for a straw or spout.

The company characterises the format as “the world’s only round flow pack”, and stated that the combination of an 8-micron aluminium foil layer in the laminate and a 90°C pasteurisation process gives these products a year’s shelf life. Laminates and barrier can be customised to meet the needs of any non-carbonated beverage.

The form-fill-seal (FFS) machine installed in Thailand was designed and manufactured by Bulgarian company Mechatronica with a speed up to 170ppm, achieved on a four-station machine.

The fact that the empty pack weighs less than 4g, handled must have made the design challenging. In the video you can see that Mechatronica cleverly solved this problem.

Although the lightweight package might be an attractive option for many first world markets for reducing packaging and lowering carbon footprints, Finland-based Huhtamaki is looking to developing markets for growth. Huhtamaki has doubts whether this pack is appropriate for Europe and other first world markets, as it may look rather cheap. And indeed when you look at the packaging (in detail see below), you must agree it looks a bit amateurish. Not quite of the 21st century for a sophisticated market.

The DrinksBag for Thailand is the latest and most simple addition to the Cyclero system, which always have been basically a logical optimisation of conventional stand-up pouches with the aim of avoiding the sealed seams on the sides that determine the appearance and haptic properties to a very crucial extent, while at the same time maintaining the advantages of flexible packaging over conventional can, jar and paperboard formats. As many different combinations are possible, the system is very much modular enabling the creation of tailor-made packaging solutions.

For the base element, there is a choice between round and oval, flexible or rigid. The body itself is made from a multilayer laminate, which can have a transparent, opaque or metallic finish and can be produced with or without aluminium. For the top section there is a choice, between screw closures with various diameters, reclosable lids or simple film/foil peel solutions. The top section also can have tamper-evident features. Barrier properties of the material for all elements can be varied according to the product.

At the present time, the diameter range is 25 to 100 mm, while the height range is 50 to 350 mm and the volume range is 80 to 2,000 ml.

Because Cyclero packaging is produced from a laminate just before it is filled, it can be produced on-site, since the material is supplied in reels.

Basically the Cyclero process is a simple VFFS process as a section of film with the appropriate dimensions is cut off the reel to produce the body and is shaped into a sleeve on a forming mandrel before being sealed. The base is then cut out of a second reel of material and is sealed to the body ultrasonically. After this, the rigid or flexible, reclosable lid is sealed to the laminate can.

Those were the two recent developments in FFS machines. There are quite some technological developments in flexible pouches at this moment and I will describe them in my next article.

It always is fascinating to see the results of packaging and design students. Their ideas are fresh, sometimes impossible to imagine in the real world, but always stimulating and setting the “old” professionals to think twice.
The world’s largest collection of student designs is, undoubtedly, with the German iF Design organization. The iF concept design award, aims at discovering young professionals, and is open to students and recent graduates of design-related departments. This year 10,665 entries were submitted from over 50 countries, according to iF Design.

The competing works come in four categories – product design, communication design, fashion design and architecture. They come from all over the world, but Asian universities and design schools are well, very well represented. Besides Korean and Chinese students, Taiwan is a very important supplier of packaging ideas.

This year, Taipei’s National Taiwan University of Science and Technology led the country’s 14 participating universities, with five works selected for the “Best 100” list. Since 2007, NTUST students have bagged 33 awards at the annual competition, giving it top-ranking status ahead of more than 100 universities worldwide, iF said.

Of course we only take a look at the ideas in packaging. If your interest is wider go to the website of iF Design.
I selected 6 packaging design ideas. I don’t add a word and let the students explain their innovation themselves.

A magnifier lid / Medicine bottle cap
Designed by Zhao Xiaoguang and Song Diying of the Hohai University in Changzhou, China
The medicine bottle lid is transformed in a magnifying glass, which makes reading the particular instructions easier. Mainly because it is an integrated part of the bottle, it is easy to use and also convenient to carry.

Many people in their senior years have to take any number of medicines to maintain their health or cure diseases. Most of them, however, share the common problem that their vision and their memories are declining. As a result, it is often difficult for them to distinguish between different medicines and to remember the frequency and the dosage. In order to deal with this problem, an ordinary medicine bottle lid has been turned into a magnifier lid, making it easier to read the instructions and other information on the bottle. It is also very convenient to carry and to use.

Medicine Bottle with Magnifier turns the lid of an ordinary medicine bottle into a magnifying glass, which can assist the elderly with reading the instructions on the bottle.

Anyway Spray / Spray bottle
Designed by Fan Wu of the Hubei University of Technology in Wuhan, China
It is often difficult to get the last few drops out of a spray bottle. This bottle uses the force of gravity to ensure that the suction mouth is always kept below the level of the liquid contents.

Container / Kitchen tool  
Designed by Cornelius Comanns of the Hochschule für angewandte Wissenschaften, Fachhochschule München in Germany

When adding salt or spices to your foods, it is very practical to use your fingertips because this gives you perfect control over how much is added and where. This newly designed container incorporates this “fingertip” feeling. It fits snugly into your hand while you gradually open or close your fingers to release the contents as desired.

The silicone skin where your fingertips are placed is very thin to provide haptic feedback on how much of the contents have been released. This container allows the user to spread salt, spices, etc. in a very intuitive way, is more hygienic and can be used with only one hand.

Blister Container / Convenience Food Packaging
Designed by Hyewon Kim, Jieun You (Kookmin University), Younsung Lee (Kunkuk University), Gyujung Lee (Sungshin Women’s University) all in Seoul, South Korea

Ramen noodle dishes often include separate spices and seasonings, which can be added as desired. These small packages can be difficult and inconvenient to tear open and sometimes the top of the container is damaged as well when it is opened to remove the seasoning. This new blister Ramen container solves the problem. You simply press down on the blister and the seasoning is dispensed into the container.

Pill Jar for PD / Pill Dispenser
Designed by Ming-Chieh Yeh of the National Taiwan University of Science and Technology in Danshui Township, Taiwan

Many patients suffering from such illnesses as Parkinson’s disease (PD) have great trouble in controlling their shaking extremities, which can make actions that are normally easy very difficult. This includes getting the medication they need out of the bottle. Pill Jar helps the sufferers of PD (or the elderly) to get the pills out of the bottle easily, even when their hands are shaking.

They get one pill out at a time, simply by pressing and releasing the top. In addition, the main part is reusable and, thanks to its silicone ring, it can be adapted to fit on differently sized pill jars. Using the Pill Jar requires no detailed instructions.

Angle Eyes / Cap of Medical Bottle
Designed by Kun Li of the Hunan University in Changhsha, China
“Angle eyes” is a bottle designed specifically for the elderly or the visually impaired. Simply remove the bottle cap and then use it to magnify the information on the bottle. This can effectively prevent serious mistakes in taking medication.

That was the packaging part of the iF concept design award.

On the same day as the Awards Ceremony on 31 May 2012, the exhibition of all 10,665 qualifying entries was also opened. The works will be on display on paper in the Kunsthaus Hamburg, Klosterwall 15, 20095 Hamburg until 17 June 2012.

Furthermore on 20 May, 2012 iF opened its first permanent exhibition on Hainan Island/China. The long-term exhibition at the Haikou Creative Design Park will run for at least three years and will focus on new design themes every six months.

According to Sidel, the technology is up and running at its production facility and is ready for field tests at customers’ plants. The company also states that, when a customer buys into the concept, the bottles could easily hit the shelves in 2013.

The concept as such where a bottle, a big bottle, can be stacked is already on the market in Canada for Nestlé Waters, but for a bottle of the size of 500ml, or 1 litre, it did not exist.

The difference in manufacturing between the big and small bottles is that on bigger bottles it can be done by just blowing. The smaller bottles need a special step in the blowing stage to achieve that effect with the bottle. With bigger bottles it is just the mould where the shape of the bottom dent is incorporated to have the space for the cap. With a smaller bottle this is not possible.

Without disclosing any technology, Sidel states that it applies a patented step during the pre-form blowing process so that the space in the bottle is formed. It’s not standard blowing with the mould.
The, so called, Stroke-base technology also cuts blowing pressure by up to 10 bars during production. The reduction of blowing pressure using the stroke base solution during production generates energy savings.

Once the bottle is filled and capped, a stretch sleeve is wrapped around to form a pack of six bottles just like an elastic band. The compact stack enables 10 layers instead of six, to fit on a standard Euro pallet, increasing the number of bottles on a pallet by 40%.

Stack & Pack is suitable for sensitive products like juices, liquid dairy products, and milk.
Sidel claims, that while the stackable bottles could be produced in different shapes (including round bottles) and sizes, the surface area of square bottles offered strong branding potential. The stacking puts an end to crushed bottle necks.

But although more square bottles could be fitted on a pallet, Sidel notes, that there is a PET weight premium trade off vis-à-vis round bottles. What is gained on logistics thanks to packing and stackability will be upset slightly by the additional weight, and weight is a big issue.

This design of Sidel, reminded me of a student design back in 2010, when Andrew Seunghyun Kim, a student at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, came up with design for an eco-friendly Coca-Cola bottle.

The environmentally responsible, rectangular bottle, which if empty, can be pressed like an accordion to 34% of its volume, features a bottle neck in one of the corners out of the middle, which facilitate pouring.

But what reminded me of this bottle was that Andrew came up (two years ago) with the same concept for stacking the rectangular bottles, as the neck of one bottle falls into the bottom of the other bottle.

Nice improvement in PET-bottles.

Bottle with Deep Grip Handle

Note 1: As Sidel didn’t have photos available of the small bottles, I asked Andres Hutten Czapski, Project Manager at Sidel Canada Inc., to shoot some photos of the 4L bottle of Nestle Waters in Canada, which bottle is in the supermarkets. The principle of stackability is the same for the big and the small bottles. The detailed photos in this article show the Canadian 4L bottle. With many thanks to Andres.
Note 2: Notice the grip of the 4L Nestlé Waters bottle. The Deep Grip is the result of an industry collaboration between Plastic Technologies Inc. (PTI), French machine manufacturer Sidel, and consumer goods company Procter & Gamble (P&G). Last year I wrote about this development, see my article: “Deep Grip – Next Generation Large Container Handles”.

The stiffness of the paper causes PaperPouch to stand “on its feet” besides the fact of giving it unique appearance and touch for the world of pouches in the national market. Polyethylene, by its part, is responsible for physical integrity and content protection. The possibilities of adding new materials are practically infinite, making it possible to offer the necessary protection for the diverse uses.

The ‘plasticity’ of polyethylene allied to other materials addable through co-extrusion or lamination enable PaperPouch to store dry grains, cereals, grain coffee, animal food, powdered cleaning products and the like.

Since the development went public, I haven’t heard or seen any application for this interesting packaging format. Until recently when two, completely different, US companies brought their products to the market in a PaperPouch-like stand-up pouch. Whether they are legitimate applications of the original PaperPouch or (illegitimate) copiesI don’t know as the companies in question decline to name the suppliers of the paper stand-up pouch. Whatever the case it is an interesting and promising development in stand-up pouches.

Brad’s Raw Chips and Gummy Owls of Green Forest Nutrition. When you look at the products, the stand-up pouch in paper is a perfect fit for these products.

Brad’s Raw Chips, Hot Kale, claim to be the ‘world’s healthiest chips’. The company states that the chips (or crisps) are dehydrated and neither baked nor fried, and are said to retain healthy, active enzymes and nutrients that aid digestion. These vegan raw chips are also gluten-free.

Green Forest Nutrition introduced Gummy Owls, described as ‘the world’s first family friendly weight loss gummies’. They’re said to be made with a yam super fibre (konjac mannan), clinically proven to safely reduce body weight and fat in adults and children.

But what is interesting us, is the pouch. Although the companies decline to give material specifications, we know that these stand-up pouches are made from a laminated kraft paper. The laminate probably is a polyethylene.

Regarding the plastic inner-liner, tests in Brazil resulted in polyethylene as the best possible protection to the product, due to its sealing performance, and its mechanical integrity. The versatility of polyethylene combined with other materials embeddable by co-extrusion or lamination enables a stand-up paper pouch to be used for dry grains, cereals, coffee beans, pet feed, cleaning powder and many others. The possibilities of incorporating other materials are virtually endless, further opening a market for the most diverse applications.

There is one more. In Australia I came across a paper stand-up pouch for fish.

Australian company Australis claims that preparing its Barramundi healthy seafood has never been faster or easier. The fish steam cook in the microwave in less than 10 minutes (40-45 minutes in a conventional oven), while its patented unbleached paper pouch retains the steam to ensure uniform cooking throughout.

So, that was the paper pouch, or was it? When I was searching the internet, I also discovered that there are, in limited editions, stand-up pouches made from rice paper. Well, before I show the examples, let’s talk about rice paper.

Rice paper usually refers to paper made from parts of the rice plant, like rice straw or rice flour. The term is also used for paper made from or containing other plants, such as hemp, bamboo or mulberry.
In Europe, around the 1900s, a paper-like substance was originally known as rice paper, due to the mistaken notion that it was made from rice. In fact, it consisted of the pith of a small tree, Tetrapanax papyrifer, the rice paper plant.
The plant grows in the swampy forests of Taiwan. In order to produce the paper, the boughs are boiled and freed from bark. The cylindrical core of pith is rolled on a hard flat surface against a knife, by which it is cut into thin sheets of a fine ivory-like texture.
It is used for origami, calligraphy, paper screens and clothing. It is stronger than commercially made wood-pulp paper. Less commonly the paper is made from rice straw.

Note: Don’t confuse it with another kind of rice paper, which is edible paper made from starch and especially used for Vietnamese cuisine. Edible rice paper is used for making fresh summer rolls or fried spring rolls, where the rice paper is called bánh tráng or bánh đa nem. Ingredients of the food rice paper include white rice flour, tapioca flour, salt, and water.

Time to have a look at some rice paper stand-up pouches.

Ma Snax Superior Dog Treats, are said to be sustainably handmade organic products for dogs. The new packaging is a rice paper pouch with a little window. They have an elegant and supple hand-feel to them and the colourful labels stand out. The stand-up pouch is claimed to be an eco-friendly packaging option. It is recyclable, but not compostable, as they are lined with polyethylene for stability and to make them food grade.

And even in the non-food sector you find a rice-paper stand-up pouch. The company offers a Paint Kit with Brushes, including 6 colour packets, 6 compostable jars with lids, and 2 bamboo brushes (cruelty-free), in a rice paper pouch. I can’t confirm the claim of the compostability of the jars and the stand-up pouch made from rice-paper, as I don’t have specific information of this company.

If the claims are correct, both companies did a good job.

As said in my previous article about the DuPont Packaging Awards 2012 in this post I write about the Microcellular Technology of InCycle CPET, Sulwhasoo Dahamsul’s cream jar, and the Tide PODS Liquid Unit Dose Laundry Detergent. But I want to start with one more winner: the AirOPack by IPS Innovative Packaging Solutions.

AirOPack, an Innovative Aerosol Dispenser Technology
Honoured for Excellence in Innovation and Sustainability, the AirOPack, by IPS Innovative Packaging Solutions AG in Switzerland, is a new, innovative technology to dispense fluids, high viscosity liquids and creams by using a patented pressure control device that relies on air instead of conventional hydrocarbon chemical propellants. This system can replace traditional aerosol products that are used today with conventional metal cans and chemical propellants.

This dispenser consists of a blow-moulded plastic container fitted with a compressed air chamber and a pressure control device to protect against pressure drop, improve ease of use and ensure the maximum amount of product can be extracted from the container. Since it is made entirely of plastic it can be recycled after use. AirOPack is unique to the aerosol dispenser industry. Consumers can see the product. Replacing flammable propellant gas with air also eliminates adverse effects on the environment.

AirOpack is an aerosol alternative based on pure compressed air instead of commonly used propellants. This technology makes it possible to fill liquids, creams, gels or foams into plastic containers instead of cans made of tinplate or aluminium and then to dispense the contents with constant pressure by means of a unique pressure-control system. When manufacturing the dispensers, CO2 emissions can be reduced by as much as 65% and energy consumption by approximately 20% compared to common aluminium aerosol cans.

The AirOpack dispensers are filled with the customer’s various products, labelled, packed and shipped ready-for-sale using a high-speed filling and automated packing line.

Microcellular Technology Keeps Food Containers Cool or Hot
Through the use of the ad-air solid-state microcellular plastics process, MicroGREEN Polymers Inc., uses non-reacting, recycled CO2 gas to thermoform recycled PET plastic rolls into inherently insulating trays and cups. The InCycle CPET trays and the cold party cups are 45% lighter than their solid plastic counterparts and are respectively 70% and 60% less dense, resulting in lower thermal conductivity. This allows consumers to handle CPET trays straight from the oven without being burnt and keeps the beverage in their cold party cups refreshingly cold, while providing significant environmental benefits.

Ad-air clean technology creates a microcellular structure in common thermoplastics. In contrast to melt-state chemical foaming processes, this technology does not require any harmful chemicals or VOCs, and the location and size of the micro-bubbles is precisely controllable. The material can then be printed as a flat sheet or converted by a number of processes such as: folding, thermoforming and convolute forming.

In the Ad-Air Technology, a roll of solid plastic is prepared for saturation by layering it with a porous material. The roll is then pressurized with a gas such as food grade CO2. The interleaved porous material provides a pathway for the gas to saturate the polymer roll. Once saturated, the polymer is removed from the vessel and heated. As the polymer softens, billions of gas bubbles nucleate in the polymer, reducing the density and causing expansion. In general, this process increases the length and width by 150% and the thickness by about 200%. This expansion results in a dramatic decrease in density, typically to about 20% density relative to the original polymer material.

Ad-air technology applies to most common thermoplastic polymers, including recycled PET (rPET) and biopolymers (PLA).
Ad-air technology can create open-celled materials. These open cells are dispersed throughout the surface of the sheet or in pre-defined patterns, creating channels through which liquid can flow if desired.

Jewel-like Brilliance in Injection Moulded Cosmetics Jar
Using insert injection moulding, Amore Pacific from Korea achieved a new level of design innovation with its Sulwhasoo Dahamsul cream jar. This process removed the gap between the inner cup and the outside packaging, eliminating light refraction that would diminish the appearance of the inner graphics.
The outside packaging easily adheres to the inner cup with DuPont Surlyn 3D overmoulding technology, offering transparency and additional aesthetic appeal. The brilliance of the inner cup graphics shine out, giving the cream jars a jewel-like appearance.

Surlyn is a commercial thermoplastic ionomer resin that was introduced by DuPont in the early 1960’s. Surlyn can be used in conventional extrusion/co-extrusion, blown film, cast film, and extrusion coating equipment designed for polyethylene resins.
Moulded goods made with Surlyn are virtually unbreakable, and offer unusual design freedom, combining toughness, clarity and chemical resistance. Thanks to a direct removal of this fully massive, isomorphic, and smooth piece from the mould, no mould parting line is visible, leaving the transparency of the cap perfect. The glass-clear appearance of Surlyn makes it the perfect complicated partner of fine glass and crystal.
It is one of the materials most favoured by designers, for complicated and bold designs.

Tide PODS Liquid Unit Dose Laundry Detergent
This new, brightly coloured liquid unit dose product, developed by Procter & Gamble, is the first three-chamber unit dose in this category, offering an ultra-convenient, 3-in-1 laundry detergent. The unit dose detergent features three chambers especially designed to brighten, fight stains and clean. Tide Pods also feature a film, from MonoSol, that dissolves and works effectively in all water temperatures.

Tide PODS eliminates spills and the need to measure and pour liquid detergents. The pre-measured unit dose pack uses a specially-developed film that dissolves completely in the wash, even in cold water, enabling consumers to reduce energy use by washing more loads in cold water. Tide PODS tubs, made of 25% recycled PET, and the stand-up bags, reduce plastics use by 50% per load and total packaging material use by 11% per load compared to liquid laundry detergent bottles.

Procter & Gamble warned the consumer that, as with all laundry products, Tide Pods packages should be kept closed and stored out of reach from children and away from pets and food. However it seems that this warning didn’t work quite well.

This week P&G announced that it is adding a child-resistant closure to Tide Pods packaging to deter children from eating the brightly coloured packets that look like candy. The company says that it plans to create a new double latch lid on tubs of Tide Pods “in the next couple of weeks”, as nearly 250 cases have been reported to poison control centres. No deaths have been reported.

That was my selection of the winners of the DuPont Packaging Awards 2012.

I freely extract and interpret some of his words:
The Awards within the industry seem to have gotten a little crazy, with all the trade magazines and websites having their packaging of the year and annual package design winners. If these awards were more selective, they would feel more meaningful, but in many cases they are rewarding very mediocre design. Apparently it is a money cow for the organising media.
Through a critical eye, there is still so much potential in transforming the way the industry projects itself, and the push towards more credible marketing and branding. But the visual and environmental language of these shows fight against this if we are to be honest. Too often the agendas are the epitome of the “The Self-Congratulatory Syndrome”: monotonous speakers presenting case studies with innovative “NEW” ideas like” “compare & save” or maybe a new “value tier”. None of this screams “innovation”.
Too much praise, too little critique as of late. A little more critique can spur new ideas, new branding and a new way of measuring our success.

Consumer-Inspired Design Revolutionizes Laundry Experience with Tide PODS Liquid Unit Dose Laundry Detergent by Procter & Gamble

I must say, I fully agree with Perry. There are too many packaging awards and they don’t have any value. However, that said, there are some (too few really) very valuable Awards in the packaging world. Indisputable one of the best is the DuPont Packaging Award. At least DuPont is respected and consequently receives sufficient quality entries to be able to submit a well-founded juror-report. Fortunately the DuPont jurors are not blinded by fancy graphics and shapes, but include proper packaging technology improvements in their judgements. I don’t agree with all of the choices, but at least DuPont comes up, each year, with a fair share of real innovations in packaging. And that’s something you can’t say about most of the packaging award competitions.

DuPont Packaging Awards 2012
Several leading brands, Heinz, Kraft, Pepperidge Farm, Cadbury and Unilever , took home awards in the 24th DuPont Awards for Packaging Innovation, the industry’s longest-running, global, independently judged celebration of innovation and collaboration throughout the value chain.

I made a selection of the winners, I think are worth a closer look. In two articles (each one three innovations) I will describe the following winners:
1.    The FreshCase packaging technology for meat.
2.    The Kraft YES Pack.
3.    The Ultra-Freshness Preservation Freezing System.
4.    Sulhwasoo Dahamsul’s cream jar.
5.    The Tide PODS Liquid Unit Dose Laundry Detergent.
6.    And finally the Microcellular Technology of InCycle CPET

FreshCase Packaging for Fresh Red Meats
FreshCase packaging, developed by Curwood, Inc is claimed to be the first-ever, vacuum package for red meat that maintains the meat’s appetizing colour through a found-in-nature proprietary additive in the contact layer of the barrier package.

Traditional vacuum-packaged meat is “purple”, deemed distasteful by many consumers who equate colour with freshness. FreshCase packaging also extends shelf life 10 times longer than store-wrapped meat.
The combination of longer shelf life and more appetizing appearance promises to both reduce food waste and increase the availability of proteins in areas further away from food sources.

As an alternative for modified atmosphere (MAP) and expanded polystyrene (EPS) trays with PVC overwrap that dominate the case-ready meat segment, FreshCase enables 75% less markdowns/waste than store-wrapped meats, less landfill waste and reduces packaging materials up to 75%, compared to other case-ready formats, thereby improving sustainability.
Compared to case-ready EPS/PVC packages that are centrally packed, FreshCase packaging eliminates the aesthetic drawbacks of high-oxygen gas-flushed packaging, such as “black bones.” It also eliminates the appearance of excess packaging common with gas-flushed packaging due to the amount of headspace required in MAP packages.

Vacuum-packed FreshCase packages are hermetically sealed, eliminating the problem of leaky meat packages in the retail case, shopping cart and checkout counter.
FreshCase packaging is USDA-approved for a shelf life up to 36 days for whole muscle beef and 34 days for ground beef.

According to the DuPont Award jurors, FreshCase packaging addresses the important effort to help ensure food maintains its nutritional value and freshness and greatly reduces food waste from spoilage.

Kraft YES Pack, Easy-Open Condiment Package
In November 2010 I wrote on this blog about the Smart Bottle from ExoPack. Exopack’s Smart Bottle features a four sided sealed pouch that is blow moulded into a “bottle”. After filling, the four side-seals form the four vertical corners of a lightweight, semi-rigid, threaded “bottle”, the result of merging different packaging technologies together.

At that time I stated that the packaging was not yet commercially available, but was tested in volume sizes ranging from ½ gallon, up to 5 gallons. It can hold either dry or liquid contents and can be printed on all four sides.
And there it is in the market, introduced by Kraft Foods.

The Kraft YES Pack, which stands for Yield, Ease and Sustainability, is an environmentally friendly flexible gallon dressing package. Yes Pack is designed to help Foodservice Operators manage costs and improve back-of-house efficiencies with improved dressing yield of up to 99% (compared to rigid gallon jugs). The dual handled design allows for easy carrying and the smaller spout provides precision pouring.

In comparison to the production of the rigid gallon jug, the company claims, that the YES Pack is made with: 50% less energy, 60% less plastic, and 70% fewer CO2 emissions from transportation.

The Yes Pack is a stand-up pouch, made from a flexible nylon-polyethylene blend film, with dual handles, and a rigid screw cap closure that replaces the traditional rigid plastic container for salad dressings.

“We have eliminated 70% of the inbound transportation required to produce our salad dressing containers by no longer having trucks deliver empty bottles to Kraft”, the company stated. “Now, we manufacture Yes Pack at the same location as where our dressing is produced”.

Kraft partnered with PE International, a sustainability consulting company, to conduct a Life Cycle Assessment, which quantified the environmental benefits of the Yes Pack. The Life Cycle Assessment is a standardized method of evaluating environmental impacts throughout the life cycle of a product from raw material production, manufacturing and use, all the way through disposal.

The packaging is more compact than rigid jugs, and flattens when empty, which can provide easier disposal and lower waste-removal costs. When it comes to recyclability, the original rigid bottle is actually easier to recycle, as the Yes Pack may not be accepted for recycling in all areas. Kraft stated while the original rigid bottle is more accepted by recycling programs the recycling rate was low.

As of now, the Yes Pack is designed only for Kraft’s foodservice salad dressing portfolio.

Electro-Conductive Packaging Helps Keep Frozen Food ‘Fresh’
The Ultra-Freshness Preservation Freezing System, using high “Electric Potential” and Electro Conductive Packaging, is developed by Mutsumi Chemical Industry Co Ltd, in collaboration with Sun Electric Company Ltd and Enshu-Kasei Co Ltd, all from Japan.
The combination of rapid freezing and the innovative electro-conductive bag preserves food taste and texture, reducing the amount of edible food thrown away.

The Ultra-Freshness Preservation Freezing System uses technology proven in the electronics industry to ensure food quality and increase both shelf life and appeal. This rapid-freezing system uses both alternating and direct current, high “electric potential”, at the same time to rapidly cool the product without oxidization, reducing the size of ice crystals that form in food cells. This process relies on a unique package design that includes an electro conductive bag made of Linear-LDPE and DuPont Entira AS.

The electro conductive bag needs a bit of an explanation.
Antistatic, electrostatic dissipative (ESD) and conductive additives are migrating antistats which diffuse to the polymer surface over time, creating a thin layer that attracts water molecules. The water molecules provide a conductive pathway that prevents build-up of static electricity. Antistatic additives reduce a polymer’s surface resistivity to the range of 1010 to 1012 ohms/sq., providing a slow static decay rate that prevents charge accumulation.
Antistats are used widely in packaging such as film, thermoformed containers, and PET bottles, in which they help surfaces separate during production and reduce dust attraction for short-term cosmetic improvement.

Inherently dissipative polymers (IDPs) form a conductive polymer matrix or interpenetrating network within the base polymer, offering non-leaching, permanent static dissipation at a faster static decay rate than migrating antistats typically 108 to 1012 ohms/sq. surface resistivity, depending on amount and dispersion of the additive in the polymer. Unlike migrating antistats, most IDPs operate nearly independent of relative humidity, although surface resistivity will be slightly higher (less conductive) at low moisture levels. IDPs are colourable and non-sloughing, giving them an advantage over carbon blacks.

DuPont Packaging & Industrial Polymers family of high-performance modifiers impart specific desired properties to a wide variety of polymers. The first product in the DuPont Entira line to be introduced globally was Entira AS. Developed by DuPont-Mitsui Polychemicals Co Ltd, a joint venture between DuPont and Mitsui Chemicals Inc, Entira AS offers excellent antistatic properties, high frequency weldability and high moisture permeability.
DuPont’s Entira Antistat IDP is based on an ethylene ionomer, which makes it compatible with polyolefins as well as other polymers like ABS and polystyrene. This compatibility results in transparency and a smooth surface for polyolefin packaging and blow moulded containers. Because it does not migrate, Entira AS does not interfere with film sealing properties.

Entira Antistat SD 100 has food contact approvals and maintains resistivity of 107 to 1012 at low relative humidity levels (down to 12-15%), but is limited to lower processing temperatures.

These were the first three winners of the DuPont Packaging Awards 2012. Next article about the Sulhwasoo Dahamsul’s cream jar, the Tide PODS Liquid Unit Dose Laundry Detergent, and as last the Microcellular Technology of InCycle CPET.

Johnnie Walker’s Diamond Jubilee Scotch Whisky
From all whisky brands out there to celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, the Johnnie Walker & Sons, the Scotch Whisky distillers by Appointment to Her Majesty The Queen, holds a special place.

Only 60 bottles of the Diamond Jubilee Scotch Whisky, made by Johnnie Walker, have been produced for sale, and are being offered to known collectors of rare and expensive whiskies. One will be gifted to the Queen and the others will be sold around the world for GBP 100,000 (USD 160,000) each.

The bottling, which took place 60 years to the day since the Queen’s accession on 6 February 1952, is a blend of rare malt and grain Scotch whiskies distilled in and maturing since 1952.

Johnnie Walker’s Diamond Jubilee Scotch Whisky is not just a blend of whiskies, but of a host of different crafts. The crystal diamond-shaped decanter is from Baccarat, its silver collar and stopper has been hand-crafted by Hamilton & Inches in Edinburgh and it resides inside a cabinet which has been made with wood from two of the Queen’s estates. There are two hand-etched Cumbrian crystal glasses and the presentation is completed with a white leather hand-bound book personalized by the Queen’s calligrapher Sally Mangum.

The diamond-shaped Baccarat crystal decanter stands on a crystal base with six radial legs to reflect the decades of the Queen’s reign, and is adorned with Britannia silver, selected for its purity.

Each edition also includes a pair of lead Cumbria Crystal glasses engraved by Philip Lawson Johnston and a commemorative artefact book, hand bound by Laura West at her Isle of Skye bindery and personalised for each owner by Sally Mangum, Calligrapher By Appointment to Her Majesty The Queen.

All the elements are housed in a chest made by the cabinet makers at N.E.J. Stevenson, incorporating oak from Sandringham to echo the whisky marrying casks and Caledonian pine from The Queen’s Balmoral Estate.

A minimum donation of £1 million from the sales of Diamond Jubilee by John Walker & Sons will be given to the Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust (QEST), a registered charity in England, which provides grants to British craftspeople and in doing so, keeps many highly specialized trades alive.

Of course there are more whisky distillers with Jubilee versions. Let’s have a look at Glen Grant. A brand I very much love as it is the only malt whisky I can buy (for a reasonable price) here in the Amazon delta. The rest is just scrap. So, Glen Grant’s Diamond Jubilee Whisky.

Glen Grant 60 Years Old Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Whisky
Gordon & MacPhail,  the Elgin based and family-run single malt specialist, has released just 85 bottles of Glen Grant 60 Years Old Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Whisky. They are on sale for the GBP 7,995 (USD 12,660). The 60-year-old malt from Glen Grant was originally distilled on 2 February 1952, just four days before the Queen acceded the throne.

The Jubilee Whisky is presented in a pyramid shaped crystal decanter adorned with a diamond shaped stopper. The crystal decanter and diamond shaped stopper have been created by the family owned company, Glencairn Crystal. Each decanter is expertly engraved (the script in-filled with silver) and uniquely numbered. The decanter carries an engraved crown with a sparking Swarovski crystal, set at the meeting point of the crowns two arches. A silver collar, placed around the neck of the decanter completes the presentation.

Two pieces of silver, created by Edinburgh based silversmith ScottishSilver, adorn the Single Malt. The first is an elegant Sterling silver collar engraved with the number “60”. The second is a Sterling silver stopper sealing the precious contents within the decanter. The silver stopper, which has the familiar G&M seal of quality stamped on it, can be removed and replaced with the diamond shaped crystal stopper should the owner so desire.

The decanter is packaged in a hand-crafted box made of Scottish Elm, felled a short distance from Holyrood House, the Queen’s official Scottish residence.Each box has been skilfully created by cabinet maker Ross Samson and his team at his workshop in East Kilbride. For over 12 years Ross has created a wide variety of furniture and cabinets and is a founding member of the Scottish Furniture Makers Association.

The wood was kiln dried for 6-8 weeks before arriving at Ross’s workshop. The planks were prepared and measured before being cut to size. Owners of this hand-crafted product will note the continuous grain on four sides of the box. Mitre lock joints were prepared and the diamond shapes were meticulously cut out using a jig saw. The glass panels were fastened in place before all sides of the box were carefully glued together.

The box was then cut to create two sections and locks were fitted. The box was then engraved and in-filled with a silver wax made from beeswax and a metallic pigment. To protect the wood, a handmade stain – made from bitumen and orange oil – was painstakingly applied. Finally the box was hand rubbed using wire wool. Harris Tweed was added to the base of the box.

Harris Tweed is the only fabric in the world governed by its own Act of Parliament. The law decrees that genuine Harris Tweed must be made from pure virgin wool which has been dyed and spun on the islands and hand-woven at the home of the weaver, in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland.

Gordon & MacPhail Glen Grant 60 Years Old nestles in luxurious, purple Harris Tweed, which lines the hand-crafted box. A jacket made from the same material protects the box and the precious contents.

The certificate to accompany Glen Grant 60 Years Old has been created by Piccolo Press. Based in Nairn in northern Scotland, Piccolo Press has retained the timeless skills of letterpress and engraving.
One side of the certificate uses amethyst coloured card and has the Gordon & MacPhail stag’s head logo die-stamped in silver. The flip side of the certificate has been die-stamped in silver, and letterpress printed in amethyst on white card. Once the two pieces of card have been laminated together a silver gilt edge has been added. An envelope, beautifully die-stamped in silver, completes the presentation.

Hollandia Live Gourmet Butter Lettuce
At the recent conference of the Produce Marketing Association the squircle clamshell of Hollandia Produce LLC won one of the five 2011 PMA Impact Awards for Excellence in Packaging.

The new Squircle design is an attractive improvement on the antiquated design of Hollandia’s Live Gourmet Living Butter Lettuce. An eye catching, colourful and communicative label compliments the new design and acts as a tamper evident seal for the new package.
One of the important factors that consumers told Hollandia through test markets and additional focus groups was that they wanted a clamshell they could open and close with one hand.

The new Squircle design (A squircle is a special case of a superellipse that has both the properties of a square and a circle) incorporates the best features of both a square and a circle to create the ultimate package for living lettuce.

Hollandia Produce LLC claims that the new form and function of the Squircle design reshape and optimize the space utilized to package the lettuce and enables automated packaging systems. Additionally the new form eliminates unused space in the master carton allowing for a 20% increase in units per pallet. A 15% source reduction in RPC PETE used to make the clamshell has been achieved and the new harness style companion master carton used to ship the product reduces total annual cardboard used to package the product by 40%.

Two Piece Display-Ready Asparagus Shipper
Gourmet Trading Company, a North American distributor of fresh asparagus and blueberries, won the Institute of Packaging Professionals (IoPP) 2012 AmeriStar Packaging Competition with its Two Piece Display-Ready Asparagus Shipper.

Developed in 2010 by Gourmet Trading Company and California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo the package offers the unique ability to be converted from a shipper to a display in the matter of seconds without the use of a box cutter.

The Two Piece Display-Ready Asparagus Shipper is filled the same way as a regular 11lb asparagus shipper. The simple instructions on the package make it easy for retail store employees to separate the top from the tray. The tray can be displayed on a 60 degree shelf creating a clean presentation with branding.

The display tray can hold bunches of asparagus vertically to enhance display appeal and to keep the butt ends in contact with a water-saturated pad. This moisture pad at the bottom of the tray keeps the asparagus looking fresh.

The shipper is made of corrugated polypropylene and accommodates manual set up and packing, while they can be palletised 20 per tier in an eight-tier stack for shipment.

The design of the die-cut, two-piece shipper maintains ventilation areas for hydro-cooling and fumigation of the asparagus and weighs the same as its predecessor (9.6 oz) yet has 27% greater compression strength.

The new design was validated against physical and ambient environment-related abuse experienced during distribution through the pre-shipment test standard ASTM D 4169.

Peel/Reseal Apio Squash Package
The thermoformed Peel/Reseal Apio Squash Package was developed by Clear Lam Packaging and provides consumers with an intuitive easy opening and closing feature for portion control. The peal/reseal film eliminates the need for traditional rigid lids and shrink-bands. The technology is incorporated into the lidding film, which can be printed to maximize branding opportunities. The film also can be hermetically sealed to a tray to help extend freshness.

Processors can apply the new peel and reseal lidding on conventional tray sealing lines. Modified atmosphere packaging can also be incorporated. The new package can be used for cut vegetables, fruits and other food items.

The packaging received at the recent conference of the Produce Marketing Association one of the five 2011 PMA Impact Awards for Excellence in Packaging.

Ocean Mist microwavable artichokes
It is well-known that many consumers view preparing of artichokes as the major barrier to purchase. Offering prepared artichokes makes eating fresh artichokes easy and convenient. The ability to pre-season the artichokes (prior to cooking) is an exclusive convenience attribute to the produce department.

Ocean Mist Farms new “Season & Steam” microwavable artichoke bag features two, fresh artichokes that are cleaned, trimmed and ready to cook. The packaging gives users the option to open the bag, pre-season the artichokes to their preference, then reseal the package and steam by microwave. All within the same bag.

The bag, which was in test market at retail stores in northern California last fall, is now more widely available at grocery stores.

The “Season & Steam” microwavable artichoke bag was a finalist in the PMA’s annual innovation in packaging awards competition. The company was one of five fresh produce companies named a packaging innovator by the Produce Marketing Assn. (PMA). The award recognizes companies with exceptional produce packaging that demonstrates “out-of-the-box-thinking” and makes an impact on consumers.

Pattruss, the tetrahedral salad bag from Japan
The tetrahedral shape is well-known, particularly due to the introduction of the Tetra Pak tetrahedron, years ago. In flexible packaging it was used in the past because its truss structure is strong against crushing. With the original opening style of Pattruss, this simple bag provides innovative usefulness.

Besides protecting the contents to the point of consumption, the shape of the bag itself can be changed into a boat, functioning as a dish when it gets torn from the centre of one edge. This boat shaped opening allows easy pick-up and quick eating without preparing dishes.

The Pattruss Z (Zed) is an extra-large tetrahedral bag with zipper. The bag is designed especially for salads. It has a reclosable zipper seal to maintain freshness, for example of leaf salads. The film material is strong enough for the bag to be opened and closed many times but it can also be torn open for immediate use.

The company claims that Pattruss is comparable to rigid packages (clam shells) in terms of protecting content, but weighing less, using less material, while the freshness of the produce lasts longer due to the level of oxygen.

More fresh produce packages to come.

However I am more interested in what we are doing to conserve the beauty of this earth, or what is still left of it. And then of course in relation to packaging. That brought me to write an essay about the future of packaging.

I am not a futurist, I have no crystal ball. I am solely interested in the future of packaging as a result of developments in packaging technology. Setting the parameters of future packaging will be my theme of this Earth Day.

The consumer is King
It looks like as if packaging is a doomed species. Doomed as a growing hard-core group of consumers only typify it as wasteful and not only think, but promote vigorously that less consumption will save the world and consequently prefer to abandon all packaging.
Looking at the past, we must agree that they have a point.

The modern consumer in general is romanticizing nature and demonizing the industry. And let’s be honest the industry indeed is the culprit.
When you look at all the press releases over the last few years relating the millions of pounds in saving of packaging material, you really wonder what the packaging industries as well as the packaged goods companies have done in the years before. And although there is a lot done, the industry hasn’t come much farther than trimming down, down weighting and using thinner material. There is an absolute end to all that. We have to be a little bit more intelligent.

In 1992 at the “Earth Summit” in Rio de Janeiro the word “eco-efficiency” was coined. This, so it was hoped, would transform industry from a system that takes, makes, and wastes into one that integrates economic, environmental and ethical concerns. Essentially, eco-efficiency means doing more with less. Although crucial, eco-efficiency only slows down the rate of environmental damage and resource depletion.

And that brings us to biodegradability. The big ‘green-washing’ slogan, found in any press release and in these days on almost any label.
Let’s face the bitter truth. More than 80% of packaging ends up at landfills, where nothing biodegrades. A situation which will not change in the near future.

Composting companies don’t touch so called biodegradable material, as it biodegrades too slowly and with residues unknown. The landscape is littered with packaging and even worse most consumers can’t determine whether a packaging is biodegradable or not.

And as final point. It might biodegrade at the long run, but it doesn’t enrich the soil. Conclusion: It is a waste. A cradle-to-grave solution.
Eco-efficiency, and that includes biodegradability, lets industry finish off everything: quietly, persistently, and completely.
Case in point: Composting-an-end-of-life alternative offered by PLA and others, is an inefficient (and I even want to define it as an immoral) way and only serves the slogans of marketing.

A new philosophy emerged: Cradle-to-Cradle
The funny thing is that, in contrast to eco-efficiency, the cradle-to-cradle philosophy encourages consumers to buy more products. However the condition is, that they do so from innovative companies which have policies in place to recycle old products, turning waste into new products.
Cradle-to-Cradle allows us to feel good again about being consumers, but to also take responsibility about whom we buy new goods from.

The term cradle-to-cradle is often used for situations in which the recycled material is used for (secondary or low-quality) products. I strongly object to that definition and want it to be narrowed down to reusing the packaging material for equally qualified new packaging material. I decline the option of cradle-to-substitute. So when the industry thinks it can recycle from packaging material to children’s toys, drainage pipes or whatever product, it is on the wrong track and the consumer will recognise the company as one which is still using virgin resources exclusively.

However, you could argue, that the current system for recycling is ineffective. And indeed it is a fragmented infrastructure based on municipal boundaries, and each area does collection differently and selective waste collection often loses in the battle for funding. But that is no reason for the industry, to run away from the problem, as Extended Producer Responsibility is lurking around the corner.

Extended Producer Responsibility
Begun 20 years ago as a solution to landfill problems in Europe, more than 30 countries now have some type of EPR packaging law. EPR programs shift the costs and responsibilities to the marketplace. Extended producer responsibility may be as many as 5 to 10 years from becoming a reality in the United States and everywhere else, it will inevitably arrive. So much better to join the pack early on.

EPR makes sure that everyone involved in the life cycle of the product shares in the responsibility for the product’s life cycle impact. What’s more, based on the experience, the overall costs, per ton, in EPR systems for packaging in Europe tend to decline over time.

To conclude: Besides consumer convenience, “waste-control” is the most important parameter for the future of packaging. Although of imminent importance, basically it has nothing to do with developments in new materials, but all with the future of Mother Earth.

So don’t wait for some high-tech solution to start controlling your waste.

I wish everybody a fruitful Earth Day. As ………..

In three articles I like to highlight the recent developments in packaging of fresh produce. Fresh produce can be seen as one of the most important commodities of the food market. And only growing in importance, as more and more consumers opt for fresh and minimally processed food.

As an example we take the Scots. Scots are purchasing more fresh fruits and vegetables than other Britons. A study shows that Scots are more likely to cook fresh foods at home, buy fresh foods and choose food because of its healthiness than those south of the border.
According to the research Scots appear to be happy to spend more of their cash on organic food, being 9% more likely to do so than those in Britain as a whole. Fruit is particularly popular with Scottish kids, with 23% of fruit being eaten because it is “a favourite,” up from 15% in 2010. Children also consumed 11 million more servings of fruit last year than they did in 2010.

But the popularity of fresh produce also has its seamy side. It has been estimated that up to 25% of food is thrown away within the supply chain from grower to retailer to in-home. Vegetables and then fruit are the main contenders. In Germany, for example, where fresh produce is very popular, the consumers throw out nearly 82 kilos of food every year, including fruits and vegetables that they deem as unattractive in appearance.
This translates in almost 11 million tonnes of wasted food nationally each year. 60% of this, according to a study, comes from private households, 17% from restaurants, schools, cafes and the like and another 17% from industry. The remainder can be accounted for by retail wastage.

Everybody who claims that packaging is a waste of resources, has to take a look at the waste figures of fresh produce and multiply that, in case packaging should be eliminated. Many packaging companies, universities and research institute are concentrating their efforts on packaging material that will improve and extend the shelf-life and freshness of fresh produce. It is the only way to reduce the exorbitant quantity of fruits and vegetables thrown away.

But it isn’t only waste. While fresh fruit and vegetable consumption is linked to a plethora of health benefits, it can also be a source of foodborne illness. Globally, there has been an increase in the number of outbreaks of foodborne illness associated with fresh foodstuffs, and in particular ready-to-eat fruit and vegetables.

The fresh-cut industry is heavily dependent on chlorine as one of the most effective sanitizers to assure the safety of their produce.
However, in light of concerns about the environmental and health risks associated with the formation of carcinogenic disinfection by-products, there is increasing pressure on the industry to eliminate chlorine from the disinfection process. The use of chlorine for the disinfection of fresh produce is currently banned in some countries, such as Germany and Switzerland. In any case recontamination of the washed produce by pathogens poses a risk even after washing with chlorine, as they grow faster on cleaned produce.

Let me start with mentioning a new research project to extend shelf-life of fruit and vegetables.

The Safe-Bag Project
Building upon existing research into the use of non-thermal plasma technology for the in-pack decontamination of food products undertaken by Purdue University and project partner Dublin Institute of Technology, the Safe-Bag project will develop an alternative technology.

The €2.4 million EU-funded project aims to reduce microbes on fresh produce ensuring that technology does not affect the nutritional properties, texture or taste of the packaged fruit and vegetables.

It’s obvious that treating fresh produce is more difficult in comparison to foods such as milk where you can use heat. The Safe-Bag approach is to package fresh produce inside any type of plastic packaging and then pass that package through a dielectric plasma discharge. The system uses plasma within the bag for a very short period of time, and make active species within the bag, which inactivate the bacteria. Plasma (an energetic ionized gas) is widely used for industrial materials processing, and has shown promise as a decontamination tool for food contact surfaces.

The Safe-Bag project aims at developing a novel continuous in-pack decontamination system for fresh-cut produce. A prototype of the system will be built and tested at fresh fruit and vegetable processing facilities to validate its performance under industrial conditions. Extensive laboratory trials will be carried out to validate the anti-microbial efficacy of the system at industrial scale, to confirm there are no changes in the nutritional and quality parameters of treated produce and to determine its shelf-life.

As for the time being we are faced with fruits washed in chlorine and might have residues of pesticides, we have to find a way to securely wash the apple before we take a bite.

Dissolvable Fruitwash Labels
Scott Amron, a US engineer has “always been discontent with fruit labels and felt they could do more than just display product info and be difficult to peel off”. His statement: “We buy, wash and eat fruit. So, the wash step was the next thing the label should help with”, let to the development of the “soap-label”, officially coined by him as the “Fruitwash Label”
It’s based on the oval or circular peel-off labels fixed to the skins of fruits, however the labels essentially dissolve into an organic soap mixture which can then be used as a cleaning product, partly aiding in the removal of substances from the fruit or vegetable’s surface.

While the labels resist water, they dissolve when rubbed. Prior to the fruits or vegetables passing into consumers’ hands, though, they can function in the same way as a traditional label, displaying barcode information for retail stock-check purposes alongside the retail price.

The Fruitwash Labels haven’t yet reached the production stage, but Scott Amron is presently seeking an investor to purchase a stake in the Fruitwash Label Intellectual Property.

It’sFresh! Extends the shelf life of fruit
British retail group Marks & Spencer introduced an advanced new packaging design for its fruit products. The system is similar to that introduced last year by British supermarket chain Tesco. It’sFresh! was commercially adopted last year after extensive trialling on berries. Tesco will be the first retailer to confirm that the apparent benefits from a successful series of simulation tests will be transferred to the store and home environments.

It has been developed and brought to market in the UK by It’sFresh Ltd, the UK subsidiary of Food Freshness Technology, claiming that it is 100 times more effective than any similar existing materials.
The technology is a food grade non-woven strip (8 cm by 4.5cm) coated with a high tech mixture of minerals and clays that allows for removal of endogenous ethylene in fruit and vegetables to below physiologically active levels, thus reducing spoilage.

Laura Howes wrote in the Chemistry World an explanation: “The packaging apparently uses an 8cm x 4.5cm strip that contains ‘a patented mixture of clay and other minerals that absorb ethylene. Ethylene, or as we chemists tend to refer to it, ethene, is the smallest possible alkene and a well-known plant hormone involved in the ripening of fruit. It’s why the trick of putting a ripe banana in a bag with unripe fruit will ripen it. I haven’t found the patent from the firm involved, but we can make some educated guesses about how this works. Clay is an aluminosilicate with a large volume, so perhaps what we’re talking about something akin to a zeolite, with a large surface area for the gaseous ethene to adsorb onto. And as for the other minerals, perhaps the pores are impregnated with some antibacterial agent, like silver, to keep the fruit extra fresh. That’d be my guess”.

From now on, the inside of strawberry packaging sold in Marks & Spencer will boast the legend ‘It’s Fresh’. The writing will actually be on the rectangular strip that allows the fruit’s lives to be extended.

The incorporation of this freshening strip doesn’t affect the punnets’ recyclability one bit and it is Marks & Spencer’s intention to make it a standard feature across its entire packaged fruit range. The firm’s also commented that there’ll be no increase in price made to account for this new fresher fruit packaging’s introduction.

Tesco Fresh Produce Aisle

Trials carried out in M&S stores showed a minimum wastage saving of 4% – during the peak strawberry season this would equate to 40,000 packs, or about 800,000 strawberries.
In the meantime Tesco has estimated that the new It’sFresh! ethylene remover introduced after extensive testing last year could eventually save the fresh produce industry “millions of pounds” through its ability to enhance shelf life quality and reduce waste.

The next article about the Squircle clamshell of Hollandia, the Two Piece Display-Ready Asparagus Shipper, the Peel/Reseal Apio Squash Package and Ocean Mist’s microwavable artichokes .

For the pharmaceutical industry, the multi-page leaflets have been especially noticeable, as strict regulatory control has increased the need for more product information, often in multiple languages.

It’s not unusual for the published usage instructions and safety information provided with prescription and over-the-counter drugs to get lost, once in the hands of patients. A solution for this problem is offered by Burgopack and Medica Packaging. The packaging of Burgopack encourages compliance by keeping the PIL, blistered product and outer carton permanently connected through a unique sliding mechanism. Medica’s Chrysalis Carton blends the PIL (Patient Information Leaflet) directly into the structure of the carton itself.

As both packages use blisters I added the newest development in blister packaging, namely the paper-free Child-Resistant Blister Lidding Foil of Constantia Flexibles Ltd.
All three are linked to each other, as you will see that they use either the design or the material of each other.

Chrysalis Combines Drug Packet and Patient Leaflet
Medica’s Chrysalis Carton design blends the PIL (Patient Information Leaflet) directly into the structure of the carton itself. Important information about the medication is conveniently connected to the outer carton for the entirety of the products lifecycle.

The Chrysalis Carton was shown in public for the first time at the Pharmapack Europe exhibition held last month in Paris, France.

The Chrysalis Carton from Medica Packaging permanently connects the outer carton and patient information leaflet (PIL) together. The design keeps the leaflet compact and accessible for when the consumer needs access to information about the product. The easy-tear perforation on the back panel of the pack allows the consumer to access information without destroying the whole carton. The large perforated flap to access the leaflet takes up approximately two-thirds of the surface area of the back panel.
With the patient information leaflet already attached to the pack there is no need to insert a separate PIL along with the pack contents.

The company claims, that the design also has the ability to simplify the manufacturing process as the carton is supplied with the leaflet already applied, there is no need to insert it separately. This allows for increased output through faster product inserting, whilst simultaneously decreasing costs.

The fully-patented Chrysalis Carton is brought to market by Burgopak Healthcare & Technology and manufactured under license by Medica Packaging Ltd.

The Burgopak child-resistant slider
The Burgopak child-resistant slider encourages compliance by keeping the PIL, blistered product and outer carton permanently connected through the sliding mechanism. The child-resistant pack’s functionality is based on a pressure point locking system. The blister and PIL are exposed at opposite ends of the pack when the user simultaneously pushes on two tabs and slides the pack open.

For the double-blister pack, the consumer pulls a blister on one side out of the box, which automatically pushes the second blister out the other side. When it is a single-blister pack, the PIL-booklet appears at the other side of the box.
The secret of the packaging, designed by Burgopak, is the sliding band. This band wraps horizontally around the inner panel of the cardboard sleeve. The left side of a paperboard card with a leaflet glued to it is attached to the band. The left side of a blister is then glued to the back of the band. When a blister on the right is extracted, the sliding band pulls to the right and pushes the other blister to the left.

It can be produced in single- and double-blister designs, and even can contain two different products. All designs include PILs which are printed and supplied in a pre-folded booklet format.

The pack is produced on Burgopak’s fully automated machinery and can be supplied to global pharmaceutical and healthcare companies.

The design successfully achieved the U.S. Consumer Product and Safety Commission’s F=1 child resistance and senior friendly effectiveness. This is in conformity with US regulatory standards for poison prevention packaging. This was achieved with impressive results: resistant effectiveness at a pass rate of 98% and senior adult use effectiveness at 95%.

Note: Lisa McTigue Pierce wrote in Packaging Digest a beautiful story about the process of manufacturing and filling the Burgopak sliding blister pack. Worth a read.

Child-Resistant Blister Pack
The Child-Resistant Blister Pack, which was designed for Staxyn, an erectile dysfunction drug from Bayer Pharma, meets both child-resistant and senior-friendly requirements. It has been tested successfully for those two parameters on the American market and will be introduced worldwide in the near future.

This Blister consists of a Coldform Foil and a paper-free Child-Resistant Blister Lidding Foil, Alu15/PET12/Alu15/peelable heat seal lacquer.

Compared with conventional paper/PET/aluminium laminates, the paper-free Child-Resistant Blister Lidding Foil of Constantia Flexibles offers a number of benefits.
For the paper-free make-up of the blister lidding foil the sealing temperature on the blister line is lower than for conventional alu/paper laminates. In turn this means energy consumption is reduced and, as dwell times in the sealing section can be reduced, the blister machine can operate at higher speeds. A further advantage is improved process stability as the bubbles, which could sometimes occur in the paper during sealing, have been completely eliminated.

Furthermore, due to the material composition, using a water-based primer on the decorative outer layer, rather than a primer containing solvents, provides pharmaceutical companies with a sustainable alternative to standard blister lidding foil. The primer also resists the high sealing temperatures generated during the packaging process.

With this new primer a saving of more than 220 tonnes of CO2 emissions in 2011 was possible and according to estimations this figure will increase to more than 640 tonnes per annum in 2012 and beyond.

This Child-Resistant Blister Lidding Foil is available for the opening mechanism peel & push, peel-off or bend & tear.

Gerhard Schubert presented its new tube filling and closing machine, Robert Bosch Packaging Technology presented its new SurePOUCH clean-fill (SPC) machine, and K-Robotix showed its robots for (naked) food products. We end with an auxiliary item, namely the SmartReflect with transparent detection from Baumer.

New Tube Filling and Closing Machine
Gerhard Schubert GmbH presented its new tube filling and closing machine.

In the first sub-machine, starting on the right, tubes are unpacked from shipping cartons fully automatically and moved onto a trans-module transport section in a mass flow. In the second sub-machine, the tubes are transferred from the mass flow to a single-row transport section and at the same time aligned according to their printing marks. These tubes are then filled in the third sub-machine by an eight-position volume dosing station. Upon request, the volume dosing station can also be replaced by weight dosing. The closing is performed using ultrasound in the fourth sub-machine. Only 1/16 of the standard welding energy is required for ultrasonic welding. The tubes are sealed with a cold sealing tool, and any product located in the sealing zone does not negatively affect the quality of the seal.

The tube filling machine, exhibited in Cologne, had an output of 200 tubes per minute. On TLM tube filling machines of various configuration levels, up to 800 tubes can be filled and closed per minute. As it is a modular system, the TLM tube filling and closing machine can be completed to a compact individual packaging line by attaching additional sub-machines.

The TLM packaging machine system is highly flexible due to its simple mechanical design, intelligent control system and exchangeable tools. On TLM filling machines liquid or pasty products can also be filled into bottles, cans or bags.

The SurePOUCH stand-up flexible pack
The SurePOUCH clean-fill (SPC) machine of Robert Bosch Packaging Technology is a roll-fed vertical form, fill and seal (VFFS) machine with a footprint of six square meters that produces the SurePOUCH, a new line of reclosable, flexible stand-up pouches with multiple shape and fitment options.

The SPC can produce four different pouch formats. The formats EZPouch, EZGable and EZSquare, with filling volumes from 100 ml to 5 litres, offer flexible applications for retail. For food service, the EZPillow can hold up to 20 litres, allowing for easy and quick refilling. All formats are produced, filled and sealed with the same machine. This enhances flexibility for the manufacturer since it allows the user to expand the product portfolio without fundamentally converting the production line.
The new vertical form, fill and seal machine is capable of filling a variety of products, achieving hygiene standards up to ultra clean-fill. SurePOUCH packs are also fitted with reclosable spouts, which are ultrasonically welded to the exterior of the pouch and can be positioned in various locations. They provide an enhanced hygienic feature as the product is filled directly into the pouch and not through the spout. The closure only comes in contact with the product when the consumer opens the package. The spouts are available in sizes of 10, 20 and 30 mm. Bosch also provides customized options, while drinking straws or simple tear-notches can be added. For the food service sector, adjusting extra handles to the upper seam simplifies lifting and dosing when pouring.

Clean-filled applications for the SurePOUCH include non-carbonated beverages and water, dairy products, concentrates, soups, sauces and dressings. The SurePOUCH system is capable of filling viscous liquids up to 25,000 centipoises as well as particulates up to 25 mm in diameter while protecting particulate integrity. The machine can also handle dry bulk goods, such as flakes, powders, rice or coffee.

In addition to the SPC machine, Bosch supplies both the spouts and the lightweight film or laminate structures for the SurePOUCH packs, guaranteeing seal and package integrity while ensuring easy handling, storage and dispensing of products.
Due to its stable design, the package still stands-up once vacant. Made from flexible materials, it allows high evacuation rates for increased utility as well as collapsibility for efficient disposal.

The RobotiX
At the Anuga various companies showed their developments in robots. For the food industry, however, it is not the robot that is of importance, that technique can be seen everywhere in whatever industry. Take the automotive industry as an example. For the food industry the robot-hands are of extremely importance and completely different from any other industrial application. Handling ‘naked’ product, like meat, cheese, chocolate etc, requires special robot-hands and fingers. We have seen several at the Anuga. I will write a separate article about recent developments in robot-hands. Here some photos from K-Robotix GmbH in Bremen/Germany, for more than five years, exclusively dedicating its activities to automated robotic handling of food.

More in a next article.

And finally an auxiliary object to packaging lines.

SmartReflect with transparent detection
Baumer introduced its innovation: the first light barrier without a reflector featuring unique transparent detection. This especially sensitive version of the SmartReflect picks up the tiniest changes in intensity, which enables it to detect highly transparent foils, bowls or bottles. This model is also available with a hygienic and wash-down design, as well as protection class IP 69K and proTect+ tightness concept.

With the SmartReflect, the physical interruption of a closed light barrier by an object, the closed light beam is set up between the sensor and a machine part, for example. Commonly used separate reflectors or receivers are no longer required. The colour and material of the background and the object to be recognized are unimportant.

In the food industry in particular, the SmartReflect proves its usefulness as it monitors the packaging process by identifying the correct positioning of the food to be packaged. The SmartReflect is used whenever the installation of a separate reflector or receiver presents a real headache.

I have one more article about the Anuga. This one about food preservation in packaging.

Apparently it is a problem which many (multi-national) consumer goods companies are facing. Last week Unilever launched an online open innovation platform, which is intended to be a gateway for collaborations between Unilever’s own R&D specialists and any designer, engineer or whatever to come to innovation breakthroughs.
According to Unilever, a successful solution could change the way billions of products are packaged and make a significant difference to the environment and the lives of its consumers.

Vietnamese woman selling Unilever products

It is well-known that sustainability is a key priority for Unilever and in this light, sustainable packaging is a strategic goal for which the online innovation platform is a perfect tool to uncover new and innovative technical solutions to boost growth while cutting its carbon footprint. But in its drive to reduce the overall environmental impact, Unilever is looking for novel and innovative ways to package its products to reduce their overall weight while simultaneously cutting down on waste.

Unilever states: “We’re open to working with partners who can help with the solutions we’re already considering, or who have an idea we haven’t thought of at all”.

Do you have an idea for better packaging? Go to the Unilever Portal.

But before you do so, I have a warning!
Unilever requests that all information you provide in these initial stages imposes no obligation of confidentiality for Unilever or its affiliate yet2.com (who ever that might be). If your submission passes the screening criteria, all your details will be passed to Unilever for further internal detailed review. Prior to any confidential discussions, you will be asked to sign a separate, further Agreement with Unilever so that any confidential information, that is subsequently shared, is protected.

The keyword here is: subsequently. I have some problems with the condition of the “no obligation of confidentiality for Unilever” in the initial stage. I am not saying that it is tricky, but it might cause problems later, when the screening turns out to be negative for the inventor.

If more packaging and consumer goods companies (the good, the bad and the ugly) are initiating open innovations portals, and that is to be expected, then this situation screams for another portal: Registration of Innovations, where inventors can store (partly open, partly hidden) their inventions and particularly the evolving developments in terms of variations, based on the original invention.

Initial design of a Paneer and Mozzarella packaging

I am well aware that Unilever requires that a submission must have IP protection. But a breach of the original patent isn’t the problem. The problem arises the moment an invention evolves into some variants, new shapes, new applications, which can’t be additionally patented by the original inventor, as it is costing fortunes and in general inventors haven’t fortunes to spend.
And here comes the cockroach! In the world of inventors a cockroach is a company (you might say a copy-cat, but much more sleazy) that steals the idea which is the result of an evolution of an original patent. It then is looking for “openings’ in the original patent to patent the evolution as a new development in its own name. After that, the evolution is not any longer an evolution and property of the original inventor, but fully owned by the cockroach.

We all know numerous examples of this behaviour. The cockroach is just sucking inventor’s blood. Worse even the inventor can almost do nothing. The cockroach’s patents are based on a new shape, a new application, etc., modifications the inventors hasn’t patented. And the inventor isn’t able to protest as he can’t prove that he was the first. No date registration is available to show in court.

A Packaging Innovation Platform, which lets everyone issue his invention for registration, partly open, partly hidden, will safeguard the inventor when some cockroach, after the issue date inside this platform, tries to patent a product registered on this platform. This platform protects its members, the inventors can sue a cockroach, or inform the patent office, based upon information inside this platform. The most important is the issuing date, which will be accepted as fact by any court. We always have Google to prove the correctness of the issuing date.

Prototypes of the Compleat coffee cup made from paperboard

To end this story. Did I insinuate that Unilever is a cockroach? Of course not, as I said, there are the good, the bad and the ugly.

One more point. I know there are fairly similar (commercial) websites as the platform here proposed. They are (in my opinion) all too expensive, too complicated and want to commercialise the invention or new technology. That’s not what I have in mind.
What I have in mind is a platform for the individual inventor or small inventive company. Small member fee, no obligations, no further costs. The commercialisation is best be done by the inventor.

In my previous article I already mentioned the “immense” stand of 4,800 m2 Tetra Pak had at the Anuga FoodTec 2012. To justify this size Tetra Pak had not only to showcase its full range of packaging solutions and its range of dairy processing equipment, but also had to come up with a number of novelties. And they did indeed.

But before we detail the novelties, we go after the rumours. In a Financial Times interview last Monday 26th of March, Dennis Jönsson the CEO of Tetra Pak apparently, according to an interpretation of the media, suggested that Tetra Pak is all set to unveil new smart milk cartons that will change colour when left out of the fridge too long.

Köln Messe - Cologne Exhibition Centre

According to the Financial Times, Tetra Pak has been developing a chip that can be embedded in the cartons to provide information such as how long a carton has been outside the fridge, on a scannable label.

However at a press briefing at Anuga FoodTec 2012, a spokeswoman for the company stated that the innovation was a “long-term project that we don’t want to speak about the moment”.
She declined to confirm that details carried within a Financial Times article on Monday were accurate.

But it could well be. It is well-known that Tetra Pak partnered with Brazilian food co-operative Aurora and devised a code that can indicate which cow on which farm produced the milk, and other processing and packaging information, when scanned with a mobile phone.

Designer Ko Yang presented his idea of a colour changing milk carton to indicate the freshness of its content

It is just one step further, to provide information via a scannable label, showing, for instance, how long the carton had been left out of the fridge. The embedded chip is said to be fitted into cartons on retail sale as soon as next year.

The technology is not new. I remember somewhere in 2005/2006 a Swedish or Danish inventor came up with a first prototype of a milk carton, which discoloured and sounded an alarm when left outside the fridge. Recently designer Ko Yang presented his idea of a colour changing milk carton to indicate the freshness of its content.
What is new and important, however, is the fact that a huge company as Tetra Pak is getting behind this development with an almost 100% chance of success.

After the rumours, the concrete novelties.

New green features in Tetra Pak’s packaging portfolio
Tetra Pak unveiled four new features for its carton packaging portfolio at Anuga FoodTec, all four aimed at strengthening the environmental attributes of several of its leading products.

The four are: A separable top for the Tetra Evero Aseptic and three renewable polyethylene (PE) caps made from plant-based sources. Furthermore there are novelties in two new portion packs based on the Tetra Brik Aseptic Edge design and a tear-off opening for on-the-go convenience to its Tetra Top Carton Shot. At the end of the year, the company will also extend the Tetra Rex line with a new droplet package design as well as the Tetra Gemina Aseptic with two new profiles.

Tetra Evero Aseptic
Following the launch of the Tetra Evero Aseptic, the world’s first aseptic carton bottle for white milk, Tetra Pak developed the additional functionality of a separable top.

The Tetra Evero Aseptic Separable Top has a perforation in the cardboard which allows the separating of the polyethylene top from the carton sleeve, delivering improved environmental characteristics by making it easy for consumers to separate the top and carton sleeve and recycle them separately. At no additional cost, the packaging addresses a consumer demand for ever better solutions to facilitate recycling.

At the same time, Tetra Evero Aseptic with the Separable Top delivers all of the benefits of the original Tetra Evero Aseptic and is entirely recyclable and made from FSC certified paperboard.

Green Caps
In partnership with Braskem, Brazil’s largest petrochemical company, Tetra Pak was the first company in the global carton packaging industry to use green PE caps. Made from sugar cane derivatives, the new caps represent another step towards Tetra Pak’s ambition to offer packaging made entirely from renewable material. My readers know that I strongly object any plastics made from sugar cane derivatives, as they are obtained from arable land which should be used for food crops. There are sufficient alternatives made from agriculture residue and not the crop itself.

Not that my words are worth a cent, as since July 2011, Nestle Brazil has been packing two of its popular milk brands (Ninho and Molico) in Tetra Brik Aseptic packages using the green PE StreamCap 1000.
Based on this trial, Tetra Pak launched the green alternative of another three caps, DreamCap 26, LightCap 30 and Helicap 27. The green caps will be distinguished from the original caps by a leaf logo which will be carried on the cap.

Tetra Brik Aseptic Edge
One of the biggest challenges to the food industry in recent years has been the growth of on-the-go consumption, with busy consumers demanding a ‘right here, right now’ service from their shopping experience.

The new 200 and 250 ml Tetra Brik Aseptic Edge packages provide the flexibility to consume on-the-go whilst also catering for the increasing number of single-person households. The cartons have a large sloping top and contoured side panels which enhance handling by consumers. They are sold with either a Helicap 23 (which is the largest screw cap for 200 and 250 ml ambient dairy carton packages) or a straw.

The company promised that from 2013, its customers will also benefit from increased production flexibility. The new Tetra Pak A3/CompactFlex iLine, which delivers 9,000 packages per hour, will produce four products on one line – the 200 ml Tetra Brik Aseptic Edge with straw or Helicap 23 and the 250 ml Tetra Brik Aseptic Edge with straw or Helicap 23.

In addition, the Tetra Brik Aseptic Edge portion packages deliver significant logistical benefits. The pack shapes allow up to 99% utilisation of the Euro pallet to reduce the distribution costs and CO2 emissions associated with transportation. Products also have a variety of efficient stack-ability options in-store.

Tetra Rex Pearl
Tetra Rex Pearl is a brand new packaging designed for premium milk and juice. Due for launch in the first quarter of 2013, Tetra Rex Pearl moves away from the faceted shapes traditionally associated with cartons to a more curvaceous simplistic shape. The curved, droplet-shaped keyline creates an impactful side profile and defines the overall new look. In addition, the absence of a front horizontal crease line creates one large front panel which not only opens up new branding possibilities, but also affords the space for a large, premium-looking closure.

Tetra Rex Pearl also features the recently launched TwistCap OSO 34 (One Step Opening) closure, a large one-step opening that can be applied on a standard gable top package (70×70) without changing the configuration of the packaging. With higher ridges that are widely spaced for a better grip and an inner lip on the neck, the closure allows consumers to pour the product easily and reseal the packaging safely.

Tetra Rex principle

Tetra Gemina Aseptic
Tetra Pak extended the Tetra Gemina Aseptic range, with two new shapes – Leaf and Crystal – available from the end of this year. Tetra Gemina Aseptic Leaf and Crystal use the Tetra Pak A3/Flex platform, along with the Tetra Gemina Aseptic Square.
The Tetra Pak A3/Flex platform for Tetra Gemina Aseptic offers the potential to produce three different shapes on the same machine and to switch between different shapes and sizes in the range, allowing customers to innovate rapidly in response to market demands.

Tetra Gemina Aseptic Crystal and Leaf combine strong visual appeal with the consumer functionality of the Tetra Gemina Aseptic Square shape. The original Tetra Gemina Aseptic Square is renowned for two qualities: its top, which gives the packaging a unique appearance, and the geometry of the slanted top, which achieves the best possible product flow. Tetra Gemina Aseptic 1000 Crystal maintains these two key attributes, but the shape of the package body is new and includes four new crystal-shaped panels. The result is a design which will build differentiation on the crowded supermarket shelf.

The new Tetra Gemina Aseptic 1000 Crystal and 1000 Leaf packages incorporate the new HeliCap 27. HeliCap 27, built on the same technology as the HeliCap 23, has a large 27 mm neck size which provides enhanced one-step functionality and a superior pouring experience for in-home consumption.
At the same time, the cap height and ridged design provide those consumers who have difficulty gripping with an improved experience. Tetra Pak reduced the opening force by 60%, and tested the closure primarily on elderly consumers, while the pouring performance improved by 30% due to a larger opening surface. This resealable one-step closure provides better visibility for tamper evidence.
In March 2012, HeliCap on Tetra Prisma Aseptic Square was the first one-step opening to be recognized and approved as “easy-to-open” by the Swedish Rheumatism Association.

Tetra Top Carton Shot
A growing demand for healthy products has been met by daily dose drinks, energy boosters and probiotics, a market which is expected to expand by 4% globally between 2011 and 2014.

To meet this demand, Tetra Pak launched Lokka, a new opening option for the Tetra Top Carton Shot in a convenient 100 ml package. Lokka is a new convenient tear-off opening which meets the demand for on-the-go consumption. Already available in Finland, Lokka can be applied to a range of products and delivers the convenience of a unique packaging at a competitive price. From an environmental perspective, the Tetra Top Carton Shot with Lokka opening offers the lowest CO2 level in the market.

Tetra Top packages are filled in the Tetra Top TT/3 XH (Extended Hygiene) machine, which enables simultaneous filling of different products, while boasting a 9,000 package/hour two-line filling capacity.

eBeam non-contact and dry sterilisation system
And finally Tetra Pak also introduced its new eBeam non-contact and dry sterilisation system.  eBeam sterilisation, which is based on well-established low voltage electron beam (LVEB) technology, is being developed by Tetra Pak in collaboration with the COMET Group, one of the world’s leading companies in this field. And although still a concept development, it is already showing tremendous potential.

TetraPak e-beam non-contact and dry sterilisation system

When launched, eBeam sterilisation will also play a significant role in the new Tetra Pak A3 filling machine for super high speed packaging — known as the Hyperspeed Concept — to assure the complete sterility of products while keeping mechanical complexity low and increasing capacity.

I will discuss the eBeam and Hyperspeed concept technologies in a separate article with reference to food conservation (pasteurisation and sterilisation).  Various systems, such as HPP, MicroPast, Aseptic OneStep technology and eBeam, were shown at the Anuga FoodTec, all with a crucial influence to packaging.

To give you an idea of how important the Anuga FoodTec is seen in the world of the food and drink industry, let me tell you that this year Tetra Pak had a stand covering 4,800 m2 (that for my American friends is more than 50,000 sq.ft), showing its whole range of products with several interesting novelties. But I will talk about the new developments of Tetra Pak in my next article.
My first report of the exhibition is a collection of smaller but interesting developments and products.

TenderPac – optimal maturation for case-ready meats
Within its thermoforming division, Sealpac GmbH from Oldenburg , Germany, attracted attention with its modern post-maturation packaging system for red meat: TenderPac. It ensures that fresh meat products, such as beef, can be stored ‘dry’ in their packaging whilst increasing shelf-life and attracting buyers due to their appealing vertical presentation.
The TenderPac features a dual-compartment vacuum packaging system, which creates the optimal conditions for maturing meat products and is presented standing or hanging in the retail shelves.
The packaging system uses a second compartment, separated by a porous seam and covered by a pre-printed film or label that neatly collects the meat’s drip-loss during the maturation process by means of a special absorption pad. This ensures that the meat is stored dry and appetizingly during its entire shelf-life.

The TenderPac system is available on Sealpac’s complete range of RE-series thermoformers. By using the Rapid Air Forming technology, packs from different film thicknesses can be formed in a highly energy-efficient process.

LamiCan – Aseptic Carton Packaging
My readers might recall that some time ago I wrote about the developments in beverage cans made from paperboard. At the Anuga one more company presented a beverage can made from paperboard. The LamiCan is similar to the paperboard can of CartoCan.
The company, Lamipak, manufactures a full range of aseptic paperboard material products which are fully compatible with TBA filling lines. They even have the Tetra Pak and SIG Combibloc like beverage cartons in their portfolio.

Although a Finnish company with production facilities in Valkeakoski, the Lamipak range is produced at a state of the art production plant in Kunshan, China, close to the port of Shanghai.

Lamican packages consist on several laminated layers, including the pull tape made of aluminium, printing inks and varnish, alufoil, tie layer and LDPE.
The can lid is made from LDPE, tie layer, alufoil and board, while the body of the can consist of a heating sealed lacquer, varnish and printing inks, followed by aseptic board material, LDPE, alufoil and AFF/PE.
Finally the bottom of the can is made from aseptic board material, LDPE, alufoil and AFF/PE.

Let’s have a look at the manufacturing of the paperboard can. I took the LAC 250 Aseptic Packaging Machine as an example.
By feeding pre-printed paperboard from a reel into the machine, the can is formed around a turret where, heated by hot air, the side joint is heat sealed.
A reel of the lid material with the closure mechanism feeds the die-cutting device. The lid is joined to the body, the surface of the seal is activated by hot air and the joint is sealed in the sealing unit. The can is then forwarded to the filling unit.

The aseptic process is an integral part of the packaging machine. In an aseptic chamber, a precise amount of peroxide steam is sprayed into the can and vaporised by hot air. The sterilised cans are transferred to the stage of product filling.

The filling of the can takes place simultaneously in all six lanes in the filling unit through the open bottom of the can. The filling of the can is carried out by using electromagnetic flowmeters to control the filling valves. The can is forwarded from the filling unit to the conveyor belt. The machine is equipped with a foam removal system. Inert gas in the head space of the package is used when required.
After the can is filled, it is closed by joining heat sealing. The seals are activated by hot air and pressed closed in the sealing unit.

Eurocap reclosable can end
Reclosable beverage cans are not new, but this design of Eurocap GmbH, from Schwaigern, Germany, has a completely different design. By the way the company supplies the complete can end.
Every can is reclosable with this can end. It opens like a RingPull and closes with an integrated flip top. The CanCap is designed for applications with beverages CSD, energy drinks, non CSD juices, milk, coffee, and other liquids.

The CanCap is made of just one component, but has three flexible parts to facilitate recloseability.

The CanCap was tested for tightness, aroma transfer and contamination by the Nehring Institute in Braunschweig, Germany and was certified as unobjectionable for use in the food industry.

The CanCap closure system can be modified and is suitable for all cans with liquid contents. A variation of CanCap was developed especially for drink cans; this is tailored to meet the specific physical requirements of the can as well as facilitating the easy use to which the consumer is accustomed.

Ecolean Air Aseptic – Lightweight packages for on the go
Lightweighting has proved to be a winning business concept in the liquid food business. Three years ago Ecolean launched its aseptic filling system for family size packages at Anuga Foodtec. New at this year’s exhibition are the aseptic portion packages, for the first time shown in Europe.

People are on the go more often and this has led to demands for smaller package sizes and more single serve packs. The portion packages are perfect for on the go, for smaller households and they fit well in children’s lunch boxes.
Ecolean showed its latest innovation: an aseptic portion pack with optionally an attached straw.

The portion packs sized 200 and 250 ml developed for ambient distribution become, when emptied, flat as an envelope and take almost no space in the trash can.
Ecolean packages weigh approximately 50-60% less than conventional cartons or bottles.

The packaging material is made from a thin plastic film, part plastic (PE and PP) and part chalk (40% by weight), one of nature’s own material. The pitcher shaped flexible package has an air-filled handle which makes it easy to grip and pour from.

This was my first report from the Anuga FoodTec 2012. Next article will related about the novelties of Tetra Pack. I will have one more article about packaging and food preservation and one more about novelties in flexible packaging, among others the new SurePouch from Robert Bosch. Keep tuned.

Compared to the previous event more than 50% of the 1,300 exhibitors are from outside Germany, including Italy, the Netherlands, Denmark, France, Great Britain, Sweden, Spain, Austria, Turkey and the USA.

The international trade fair for food and drink technology is promoted as: A meeting point for decision-makers. A place for visionaries. A location for specialists. From 27th to 30th March 2012, everything will revolve around the subject of innovations.

Aerial view of the Cologne exhibition centre

Although primarily a food technology exhibition, the Anuga always has been, in my experience anyway, the perfect place to discover novelties and innovations in packaging technology. Not the graphics, not the pure design, neither the printing nor marketing tricks, but solely the technology of packaging.
Despite the continuous enhancement over a period of more than 100 years that packaging technology has been around, there is still a healthy flow of new developments and innovations.

TetraPak at the Anuga FoodTec 2012

Without doubt top trends this year, among others, are the technologies to conserve resources and the use of renewable materials, as still a number of unresolved issues screams for a solution.

Take the question of packaging made of renewable materials, for example. PLA and PET made of plant materials are a hot topic right now, since they have a much smaller carbon footprint than plastics based on oil.

Coca-Cola and Heinz PlantBottles

Yet (correctly) there is criticism that the crops used for this purpose are cultivated on land that would otherwise serve for growing food. There are several conceivable solutions to this problem. For example, waste matter or biomass might be used as a raw material. Alternatively, efforts could be made to meet the growing call for closed-loop recycling, whereby, for example, a yoghurt carton made of bioplastic is recycled to produce food packaging of an equal quality (cradle-to-cradle), rather than being incinerated to generate energy or turned into a recycled product of a lower grade.
At present, the production of “green” PET still relies on either molasses from the sugar industry or sugarcane juice – as in Coca-Cola’s PlantBottle packaging.

Research is still under way to ascertain whether by-products from agriculture and forestry, such as wood chippings, maize straw and wheat straw, might also be used. The presence of plant materials in PET bottles does not alter their chemical composition. PET = Pet. Consequently, there is no requirement for a separate recycling process here, either.

There is another hot item, which will be gathering a lot of attention this year. In the 1980s, without the internet, without globalisation the way we know it, the accepted view was that packaging was undesirable and should be avoided as much as possible.

Today, however, we are aware that over one-third of the food produced worldwide perishes before it ever reaches the consumer. In view of such statistics, it is easy to see what role packaging might play. This “worldview” recognises the vital role packaging technology plays, but we also recognise that it should be as economical, green and efficient as possible. That conditions, never thought of in the 1980s, keep the flow of innovations coming.

I will visit several exhibition stands in my search for novelties and innovations. Small and large. I will report about my findings in the next few days.

Tagged: Anuga FoodTec 2012, closed-loop recycling, Coca-Cola's PlantBottle, cradle-to-cradle, food and drink technology, food spoilage, food waste, packaging technology, renewable materials ]]> http://bestinpackaging.com/2012/03/27/anuga-foodtec-2012/feed/ 0 brazilinhotpants 120221-AnugaFoodTec 320x335 100dpi Aerial view of the Cologne exhibition centre Stand: Tetra Pak, Halle 7 110232-Coke_Heinz_PlantBottles 320x365 100dpi 120221-organic 540x338 100dpi Koelnmesse Entrance North http://bestinpackaging.com/2012/03/25/japan-new-scanner-could-be-the-end-for-barcodes/ http://bestinpackaging.com/2012/03/25/japan-new-scanner-could-be-the-end-for-barcodes/#comments Sun, 25 Mar 2012 16:24:11 +0000 Anton Steeman http://bestinpackaging.com/?p=4464 ]]> On the Digital Trends blog I read that Japanese company, Toshiba, has developed a, so called, food recognition technology. The new technology is a scanner which recognises the item of food, particularly fruits and vegetables, thus removing the need for barcodes.

Packages and labels can be crumpled so that the barcode can’t be read at the check-out point. Furthermore fruit and vegetables in supermarkets don’t usually have barcodes because they’re put out while they’re fresh, so these items can’t be read at the register using barcodes, which means that either a shop assistant has to weigh, put in the correct data and label the product with a barcode or it is the cashier responsible for this job.
Shoppers all over the world have experienced the situation that the cashier has to key in the code manually. Even worse the cashier may not recognize some items (exotic fruits, rare vegetables, varieties), which can cause further delays. It’s not a big issue, but it can be quite frustrating, particularly with a long line of shoppers waiting for their turn to check out.

Toshiba has developed this new scanner to solve that problem. The Object Recognition Scanner works by utilizing pattern and colour recognition technology being developed by the company.
Toshiba explains that, although the scanner is capable of recognising any type of food it is particularly useful when it comes to fruits and vegetables, although it also can identify packaged items like bread and canned goods. Similar to how facial recognition technology puts parameters like the width of the nose and the distance between eyes as ways to identify people, the ORS uses certain parameters to categorize and identify goods. Specifically, Toshiba utilizes a pattern and colour recognition technology so precise it can sense subtle differences between similar products.

The technology is already well advanced so it can easily identify, not just what sort of fruit it is being shown, but even the variety of a fruit it is being shown. This is likely to save time and avoid mistakes as shop assistants will not need to search for the correct code each time they are presented with a different product variety.

Toshiba’s scanner utilizes a camera that can operate at high swiping speeds, identifying items as they are being whisked by. The ORS is able to do this by isolating any other image “noise,” and thereby concentrating only on the food product. The video shows a cashier scanning a vegetable like they would an item with a barcode over a laser scanner.

Although the technology certainly has potential, I don’t see a fast conquering of the supermarkets worldwide. Toshiba’s claim that “the new technology could soon be seen at supermarket checkouts around the globe”, is based upon the idea that the company is building up a huge database of produce and other grocery store items.
However, being that the market is a global one, this product database will likely be limited to Japanese grocery items for now, and the ORS itself to Japanese grocery stores.

Additionally don’t forget that the Japanese consumer is quite different from the American or European one. In Japan fresh produce is highly selective and of indisputable super-high quality. Consequently the consumer buys one or two units of some fruit or vegetable and not as in most countries where the consumer buys “in bulk” (in pounds or kilos that is) and weighs the product himself or at the check-out point.

Nevertheless the development is worth to keep a close eye on it.

As said in my previous article we continue our overview of dispensing caps today with the ViCap of Vicap Systems, the BioGaia or Lifetop Cap of Bericap, the Cedevita cap made by Teamplast, and the PowerCap of Liquid Health Labs.

The VICAP
To drink from the bottle, after the consumer has activated the cap to release the supplement into the liquid, most dispensing caps have to be removed from the bottle. There are only a few which feature a drinking spout.

At first glance, ViCap looks pretty much like a conventional sport bottle cap. But ViCap is much more than that. It can discharge 12.5 millilitres of liquid concentrate or 7 grams of powder to create a flavoured drink, a nutritional supplement or an energy booster.
In 2005 Renè Wilhelm started the development of ViCap when the idea to develop a functional sports cap came up as Aqua Nova launched a drink which contained Q12. The problem with this drink was its short shelf life due to vitamins and other sensitive ingredients losing effectiveness over time when mixed with water.

Renè Wilhelm conceptualized the idea to separate the active ingredients from the liquid until the time of consumption and thus the world’s first dispenser sports cap system was born and Vicapsystems Ltd in Lütisburg, Switzerland was founded.

The BioGaia or Lifetop Cap
Global manufacturer of plastic closures Bericap and Swedish biotechnology company BioGaia entered into a Strategic Alliance Agreement with the aim to promote probiotics for beverages packed in a plastic closure system under the name: Lifetop Cap.

Probiotics are extremely delicate and difficult to keep alive. As a result, most probiotic products today are dairy-based because probiotics tend to stay alive longer in a dairy environment. The problem with these products is that the probiotics will die off over time and it is difficult to determine how many probiotics the consumer actually gets down at the time of consumption. Therefore BioGaia decided to develop a system that dispenses the probiotic strains at time of drinking the beverage.

The dispensing cap, made from LDPE, consists of a plastic screw closure to be used on standard neck finishes (30/25, 38 mm), sealed inside the plastic closure sits a blister, made from full barrier aluminium laminate, containing the ingredients up to 200 µl in liquid form or 200 mg in powder, offering an unique solution against humidity, supporting a long shelf life of the sensitive ingredients.
A flexible dome, protected by a hinged overcap, should be used to press on the blister, to tear off the lower part of the blister and to deliver the ingredients into the liquid in the bottle.

Boston-based company Mass Probiotics was one of the first major customers using LifeTop for its “phd (probiotic health daily)” flavoured water. The Ready to Drink or Ready to Go – phd probiotic line of 16 oz (474 ml) enhanced flavoured water features the LifeTop push-button cap. Each flavour contains a total of 20 billion cfu of 6 different probiotic strains, or about 10 times the amount in most dairy-based probiotic products.
There is one problem with the LifeTop cap. It is designed for (very) small quantities or volumes of supplement.

The LifeTop Cap, initially developed and patented in one format by BioGaia, will be further developed by Bericap to cover all the needs of the beverage industry in term of sizes and functionalities and it will be industrialised by Bericap to be commercially available to Brand Owners.

The Cedevita cap
Cedevita is in Croatia a well-known quality brand for healthy vitamin drinks. For its product, Cedevita Go!, the company asked the Dutch designer Luc van den Broek and Dutch injection moulder Teamplast to develop a dispensing bottle cap. The result: with a simple, rotation of the dispensing cap 26 gr vitamin powder is dispensed into the liquid of the bottle, creating a fresh, healthy, on-the-go multi-vitamin drink.

The developed system transfers a rotating movement into a linear one. The movement is activated by a handle which is connected to an oval disc with at the bottom a sharp knife-like point pinching the seal foil when the handle is moved.
The dispensing cap features two pieces: the, with an aluminium foil sealed ‘vitamin chamber’, including the handle with the pinching knife and the bottle cap itself.

The system works as follows: A device which picks up the top of the handle when rotated is located inside the cap. Moving the handle anti-clockwise (opening the bottle) pushes the knife down. The beauty of the system is that activating the vitamin drink the consumer has only to exercise the common doings of opening a bottle, namely to turn the cap anti-clockwise to operate the ‘vitamin-system’ and to get access to the vitamin drink.

The PowerCap of Liquid Health Labs
PowerCap-Liquid Health Labs, in Manchester, NH/USA, offers three different styles of dosing caps under its PowerCap brand. The company claims a lot, as you will see here below, but doesn’t supply any technical information. Judging the workability of the dispensing caps is consequently not possible.

The company claims, that the PowerCap has distinct advantages over traditional hot-fill preparations of functional drinks. The PowerCap is said to have shown in a major university study that it is less energy intensive due to it supporting cold filling, and therefore, is a ‘greener’ technology and it can be utilized on lighter weight plastic bottles, further reducing the environmental impact. Additionally, the company claims, that the newly introduced PowerCap Universal fits on any traditional bottled water neck finish. This allows the consumer to conveniently transform standard bottled water into a functional beverage, and get multiple uses out of their water bottle throughout the day while still getting great-tasting functional drinks.

In addition to licensing its PowerCap solutions to beverage-makers, PowerCap-Liquid Health Labs developed its own products. Last Shot, a hangover protection drink, and Fresh Healthy Stuff…In the Cap!, a health and wellness drink, both use the PowerCap Universal push cap, which snaps onto 26.7 mm to 28 mm bottles. The twist PowerCap fits on 26.7 mm and 28 mm bottles, and the push PowerCap fits on 28-mm bottles. The caps have a 4cc chamber for storage of the supplement.

Marketed to be sold as a cap alone or in multi-packs, the Universal is claimed to fit onto most bottled waters in the world. The Universal line will be expanded to include larger sizes designed to fit on sports and fitness standard size bottles.

That’s it for today. Still 5 to go: the Yoli Blast Cap, the Mojo organics cap, the Karma cap of Karma Wellness Water, the Tap-The-Cap, and the Delo Cap from France. I know there are many more dispensing caps designed, developed, patented, but only a restricted number penetrate the market. I can write a book about all the developments in dispensing caps.

In the March issue of Packaging World I read an interview of Jim Butschli, Features Editor with Richard Adams, head of Pack Graphic Design at GlaxoSmithKline in Raleigh-Durham, NC/USA. One of the questions struck me: “What are you looking for from packaging suppliers? Do you rely on suppliers more today than in years past?”
Richard Adams answered: “In a word, innovation – innovative materials and packaging solutions to meet the diversification efforts within our company. The variety of products and requirements of those products coupled with market regulatory constraints forces pharmaceutical packaging to be more creative in a rapidly evolving space. We rely on suppliers bringing more value to the table. We simply do not have the time or resources to understand what is available and new”.

So let me help him a bit to accommodate that answer and highlight some interesting developments in pharmaceutical packaging here. We start with “Talking packaging is the future”.

The Talking Packaging
The global healthcare packaging market is a complex market. And a large one, as Visiongain calculates that the global healthcare packaging market will reach USD 93.9bn in 2012. The varied factors affecting the drug demand and consumption as well the development of medical practices determine the packaging, as the manufacturer is constantly challenged with evolving trends such as the increased use of disposable medical products, ageing population, influence of regulations, child-resistant/senior-friendly and tamper-evident packaging.

It is one of the packaging sectors that need to supply more information to the consumer than any other. And above all to the “handicapped”, don’t get me wrong on this word, as I mean the consumer, who is in one way or another physically or mentally handicapped to use all his functions 100%. And let’s be honest reading a Patient Information Leaflet (PIL) with instructions can cause a headache. Electronic packaging addresses the fact that one third of us have difficulty reading instructions in ever smaller print.

Burgopak's Chrysalis Carton, a permanent drug packet and patient leaflet combination presenting a number of benefits, besides the primary patient convenience function

The answer might be found in the talking packaging. There are two developments in talking packaging at this moment (as far as I know). The “TalkPack” from Wipak Walsrode GmbH in Germany, a system, which can be invisibly integrated into any printed image on any packaging material, but needs a special scanning pen and the result of a recent development by VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland using tags with NFC (Near Field Communication) based technology connected to NFC-enabled mobile phones to download text, audio or web page product information, which can be played back on their handset.

Note Update: Wipak informed me that, due to legal problems, they had to change the name of the Talking Packaging they developed into: “Self Talk”.

Let’s have a quick look at the TalkPack and after that at the VTT research results.

Wipak Walsrode's TalkPack

With the TalkPack special codes store information of all kinds and can be invisibly integrated into any printed image. A scanning pen can render speech, music or sounds audible and thus the consumer can obtain information on the manufacturer, brand, shelf-life or other information.
The method used by “TalkPack” is not limited to the packaging material but can be used by any printed material. No other composite elements are used which could influence the recycling qualities.
A special pen-shaped reader is used to retrieve the stored information and to replay it as audio files. Talk Pack does not require any RFID or microchips; the dot code is simply printed on top of images and texts using a special varnish. This technology can be used with all printing technologies and package types.
However the requirement to use a scanning pen, means that the “TalkPack” can only be activated in shops.

Speaking medicine packaging-demo. When touched, this provides spoken dosage instructions and other important information

NFC (Near Field Communication) tags used by VTT Technical Research Centre can be added to any packaging so a consumer could touch the code on the packaging with their NFC-enabled mobile phone to download text, audio or web page product information, which can be played back on his handset.
In an example from the research, data stored on a NFC tag on a medicine bottle provided spoken dosage instructions from pharmacy staff, to aid a visually impaired or blind person.

Currently, the number of mobile phones with NFC technology is limited but VTT believes that it is a growing market.

The medical and pharmaceutical industry could use the technology to display detailed information and instructions in a small area.

VTT led The HearMeFeelMe research project and believes there are “many possibilities to use NFC technology in services which improve people’s everyday lives”.
Scientists at VTT believe that people would also be more motivated to find out information about the product if this information were easily available. Arguing that, it is already possible that your mobile phone can show you a video about how to use a new product by just touching a tag with your mobile phone.

Identification labels are glued to an identifiable package

Both systems have pros and cons. The weak point in the Wipak-system is the scanning pen, the strong point, of course, is that it simply can be printed into any packaging material, any image printed onto a packaging. For the VTT-system the weak point is the necessity of a tag, but the strong point is the availability to a NFC-enabled mobile phone. I think a combination of both systems could lead to a perfect solution.

I said in the beginning of this article I have several developments in healthcare packaging in my portfolio, so I safe them for a following article. Come back a next time.

Double-Drawer Box

Since the days of the fish-and-chips wrapped in old newspapers and the Chinese food scooped into unappealing plastic trays, quite some has change. And the developments are continuing, as take-away or take-out meals are the big trend in these years of disciplining our personal financial resources.

Note: For the sake of diversity on my blog I decided to write between part 02 and 03 of the Overview of Dispensing Caps, about Take-Away Packaging. Don’t worry, after this article I will post part 03 of the dispensing caps.

Traditionally supermarkets and convenience stores have expanded their foodservice platform and built upon consumer desire for convenient and quality ready-to-eat meals. But a recent market survey conducted by Technomic concluded that consumers are sourcing prepared meals from a wider range of retail foodservice operations than they were two years ago, many times at the expense of restaurants. Eating-out is transformed into taking-out.

Consumers increasingly choose take-out as a faster, more convenient and often less expensive foodservice option. The survey by Technomic revealed that 57% of consumers now order take-out at least once a week, compared to just 49% of consumers polled just three years ago.

Sticks'n'Sushi take-out box

To keep sales afloat, many restaurants turned to the take-out sector for new revenue streams. An influx of take-home meals from both chain and independent restaurant brands has hit the market place. These value-driven, quasi gourmet-meals help offset lagging restaurant sales, but, of course, all under one condition. The ‘gourmet-meal’ has to be packed in a packaging at a same level as the gourmet-meal itself.

I am not talking here about the packaging for junk-food from the fast-food restaurants, nor the (industrially) prepared meals to put into a microwave. I want to highlight the possibilities of packaging for hand-crafted take-away gourmet-meals offered by delicatessen shops and restaurants, which as an alternative to eating-out, supply a quality meal to take home and enjoy.

As said the era of food wrapped in old newspapers and scooped into cheap plastic trays doesn’t fit in this market segment. Quality and gourmet are the keywords and consequently the packaging has to transmit these keywords. At the other hand the junk-food or fast-food sector has long year experience with packaging its products for take-out, unattractive as the packaging might be.

Guatruck lunch box

Asian food is one of the most popular dishes with an extensive expertise in take-out packaging. And I must say with quite some creativity. Their dishes in itself are beautifully arranged and even sometimes a work of art and they understand that the packaging has to be at a similar level.

For this article I made a round-trip through some Asian countries and collected the most interesting designs. Not all examples I present here are specifically for take-out food, but they have a design and construction which easily could be adapted for this purpose. I just want to give some ideas.

Some years ago I wrote about a packaging with a Danish design for take-out Japanese sushi. It still is one of my favourites, so we start with a repeat.

Sushi with Danish design
Sushi, the famous Japanese dish from decorative fresh fish products, has not only to be superb of taste, but it has to be much more. It has to appeal as much to the eye as to the palate. It has to be fresh, perfect of taste and please the eye. In other words the packaging complements the perfection.

“Sticks ‘n’ Sushi”, a restaurant in Copenhagen, packs its dishes in decorative black trays, stackable in the take-away package made from high quality white paperboard. The design is from Pais Design and the material is converted by Jens Johanson A/S both in Denmark.
The paperboard material is Frövi White from Korsnäs with a coated white reverse side. As the total surface of the reverse side is printed in black the white coating of the paperboard gives it even a deeper black. The packaging comes in four dimensions. The largest one is made from 410 gr/m2 and can handle a weight up till 3 kg.

The fish cut-outs on the handle and stackability of the thermoformed trays are in harmonious symbiosis with the product. The extra creasing in the side of the box makes it easy to insert and remove the tray of sushi. The black interior of the packaging as well as the black tray are perfectly showing off the colourful sushi.

Indonesia – Sta-pack (Stacking Packaging)
In the same style as the Danish design is the Sta-Pack created by PT Bukit Muria Jaya/BMJ in Indonesia. Not quite the same, as the Sta-Pack consists of several separate units with an added handle. It certainly is a nice and elegant solution as fast food packaging, especially for the take-away market of upscale meals.

Stapack has unique characteristics. It adopted and modified the characteristics of the Tupperware elements and applied them to paperboard that can easily be folded saving storage space. In other words a stack of nested Sta-Pack can sit on the counter of a delicatessen shop and filled upon request. Each unit can hold a separate dish and only needs one handle for lifting as the wings of the individual boxes are closed until they locks. fter which it is ready to be taken-out.

The Sta-Pack is made from food grade CDWB 230 gr/m2 and designed by Irvan Hermawan and M. Aidil Saputra.

Indonesia – Double-Drawer Box
We stay with the Japanese kitchen, but now in Indonesia. In Indonesia, (fast-food) take-out Japanese dishes generally are packed in Styrofoam-based packaging. Like Chinese take-out food every box or tray holds one selection of the Japanese meal, such as sushi, bento, sukiyaki, maki, etc.
PT. Bentoel Prima created a Double-Drawer box, more or less in the same style as the Danish sushi packaging. It is a paper-based packaging made from printed ivory paperboard of 260 gr/m2 and water based varnished.

The dimensions of the packaging are 12x12x7.5cm. The packaging is designed by NTM Development Team.

Singapore – Rice Dumpling Box
I wrote about this packaging in a previous article, not long ago, but it is such a beautiful construction that it can easily be adapted to take-out meals.
Originally the Rice Dumpling Box was created by Starlite Printers (Far East) Pte in Singapore to celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival, otherwise also known as the Rice Dumpling Festival or the Duanwu Jie that falls on the 5th day of the 5th month in the Chinese Lunar calendar.
The box is designed to resemble a rice dumpling, complete with a string. At the same time, its design also brings back memories as the packaging is printed on uncoated kraft simulating paper bags that were used commonly in the seventies and eighties. In addition the packaging also instils the value of conserving traditions. The graphics design of the box shows activities relating to the festival such as dragon boat racing and the making of rice dumplings. The box is able to pack six small rice dumplings.
This product is made with solid unbleached sulphate paperboard. The printing is done on the uncoated kraft surface to give the box a nostalgic look, the colour scheme used had also been limited to black as the dominating colour to simulate the nostalgic look of paper bags. The package is fastened with a string just like a rice dumpling, the string also serves as a handle.

By releasing the string and stretching the side of the packaging, its content can be accessed freely. As the packaging is not enclosed fully, it allows air exchange which is important to maintain freshness of the rice dumpling. The inner surface of the box is laminated with a layer of OPP film to prevent the seepage of oil from the rice dumpling into the board thereby allowing the packaging to maintain a clean look.

Philippines – Sustainable Origami-Inspired Food Box
Often a proper prepared take-out meal has a side-dish. Dump it in an unattractive plastic tray or do it as the Filipinos do. You don’t believe this story, but it’s true.
In August 2011, Guactruck positioned its design-focused mobile food truck in Manila serving Mexican inspired Filipino rice dishes. Junk-food? The owners wanted the packaging design to focus on creativity and aesthetics, as well as highlight the environmental aspect commonly associated with packaging. Not quite what you expect from the fast-food sector.
They came up with a food packaging that incorporates sustainability in three ways.
Using only one piece of paperboard, the simple origami inspired design resembles a bud blossoming into a flower.
The material they used is paper, no glue or plastic, making it biodegradable and easier to recycle.

And thirdly they believed that they are responsible for everything that comes out of their truck, may it be waste, food or packaging. Therefore, they highly encourage their customers to return the packaging with the incentive of obtaining a free meal in exchange for ten returned packages. The returned packaging will then be sent to the proper channels for recycling. This way, they created not only awareness on the issue of sustainable packaging and recycling, but also cultivated a habit of conscious and conscientious consumerism.
An amazing fast-food packaging of high quality and worth following the lead.

So, that was a quick visit to some Asian countries.

Activate dispensing cap

In my previous article we discussed why it is desirable to dispense a predetermined amount of ingredients/additive/supplement into a liquid, mostly water, in a container. In short to dispense an additive in powder or in a tablet form into water it can add flavouring, colouring, vitamins, minerals and the like into the water to create a palatable drink which can be consumed direct from the container. There are other applications, like pharmaceuticals, but the most marketed application is the enhancement of water.

This article starts with, probably the most well-known, the Activate dispensing cap. Then we shall have a look at the VizCap, and the Optima cap. The other caps as mentioned in my first article are described in the next articles.

The Activate dispensing cap
In 2009 Rising Beverage Co. in Los Angeles, the owner of Activate, launched a line of functional beverages that features a custom-designed cap to keep vitamins and other healthful ingredients fresh until consumption.

The vitamin drink consists of a 16 oz (474 ml) PET bottle filled with water and capped by a custom-made dispensing closure that stores 3 gr of dry ingredient. When the consumer twists the upper cavity of the cap clockwise, an internal blade within the closure turns and pierces a plastic membrane separating the powdered formula from the water. By cutting the sealed membrane, the ingredients are released into the beverage, which is then ready for consumption.

As I argued in my previous article the secret of a good-functioning dispensing cap is not just punching a hole, but how to remove the membrane in such a way to ensure that the powder is fully released into the water. Inefficient or incomplete mixing of the two substances is not desired as the concentration of the additive is critical to the result as marketed by the vitamin or energy drinks company.
As you can see in the photo compilation the membrane in the Activate cap is almost fully removed to give full and free access to the water in the bottle.

Portola Fushion Cap

We will see that similar cutting systems are used by several other companies. The Activate bottle is made by MPI Packaging and distributed by Zuckerman Honickman. Although the name of the supplier of the dispensing cap is not unveiled, it is generally assumed that Portola in Napeville,Il, is manufacturing the Activate cap. By the way, Portola markets a similar cap under its own trade name Fushion cap, a 28 mm dispensing cap.

The VizCap
In contrast to the Activate cap and many others the VizCap isn’t exclusively linked to a drinks company and not even to a specific bottle. The VIZcap, designed by Formation Design, can be moulded and manufactured to fit any bottle size and can contain both large and small powder quantities. The company states that the cap can seamlessly run at existing bottling lines.

United States Patent 7854104 titled “Multi-chamber container and cap therefor”, published 21 Dec. 2010 and assigned to VIZ Enterprises, LLC (Atlanta, GA, US), uses the arguments I described in my previous article in relation to punching the membrane.

It states: “Many of these devices consist of a piercing tip or cutter that perforates or cuts a foil seal, blister pack or membrane releasing one component into a supplemental component, usually tablets, granules or powders into a liquid. Minor differences, consisting mostly of how the piercing tip is activated, differentiate these devices. Whether piercing tips or cutters are used to remove the seal between compartments, there is always the danger of having fragments of foil or other residue fall into the mixed components”.

The VizCap is described as an “invention [that] provides a container and cap that overcome many of the disadvantages of the prior art while providing a container that is easy to use and uses a minimum number of parts and that is simple to manufacture and assemble”.

The VizCap is simple. The VIZcap stores liquid and powder nutrients in an oxygen and moisture-restricted chamber situated in the bottle cap. Around the bottle cap with its transparent dome-shaped chamber, in which the fresh ingredients are stored, sits a tamper-evident tear-strip, which should be removed, after which the plunger (the dome-shaped cap) can be pushed downwards and the ingredients are released into the liquid.

Besides the typical characteristic of a fresher and more powerful drink, the VIZcap features the appealing advantage that the vitamins and nutrients are visible in the clear dome where they are housed.

VIZ Enterprises doesn’t manufacture the bottle cap itself, but licenses its VIZcap technology to third parties to get it on the worldwide beverage market.

The Optima cap

Optima Functional Cap

In fact the Optima cap is not a cap, but a system. It is not linked to any drinks company or even a manufacturer of closures. The Optima Packaging Group GmbH, with its headquarter in Schwäbisch Hall in Germany is a packaging machine manufacturer, having developed a machine to manufacture and assemble a functional cap, as they call it.

With its modular-designed CFL machine series, Optima offers a solution that integrate all functions for manufacturing functional closures within one continuous process. The CFL1, the start-up machine, achieves an output of up to 50 units/min. In high-output design, a machine from the CFL series produces a maximum of 1,000 units/min. The machines always incorporate multiple assembly functions for the various components. Dosing features for the ingredients in addition to control functions for the tightness of the functional closures, while the assembling accuracy is a particularly important aspect in this context.

The Optima CFL1 starts the manufacture of beverage closures at the sorting head. Then, the “chambers”, one of a total of four components, are placed into a conveyor plate. An Optima auger filler fills these chambers with the required quantity of ingredients. This step is followed by foil-sealing. Immediately followed by the joining of the filled chamber and the fed-in sleeve, after which it is laser-labelled. A cap – placed in a subsequent step to protect the cap against contamination – completes the system.

Accompanying the 100% tightness control, all processing steps are monitored. Therefore, via an active pick-and-place discharge, only those closures that are properly processed reach the market.

As said Optima is manufacturing the machine, which assembles the Functional Closure components and then film-seals the closure. Maximum output is said to be 1,500 units/min. The individual components of the functional cap are made by a Swiss plastics company.

I haven’t the information available whether the supply of the cap components is an exclusivity of the (unnamed) Swiss company. Interested parties have to contact Optima to get a direct answer.

I said last time that I should describe 5 caps in this article. But it is getting too long and I bring the remaining caps to the next article. Still 11 to go.

This claim marketed by the companies of energy and vitamin drinks which use a functional cap, is at this moment under attack, as Activate, one of the main players in this market segment, is slapped with a class-action lawsuit in California.
The class-action lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Feb. 24 accuses Rising Beverage Co., the owner of Activate, of dishonest and misleading statements in its advertising about the freshness of Activate’s key innovation, its “in-the-cap” reservoir of dry vitamins versus those pre-mixed in other beverages.
The lawsuit points to a 2006 study in “The Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences” that found certain types of vitamins – including those contained in Activate – to be stable in water.

Activate 4-pack

Whatever the outcome of the lawsuit, the implementation of functional caps will continue, as there are many other arguments to be used in favour of this type of caps. Let me just relate some of the most important. Besides the (still valid) argument of rapid degradation of supplements in water, everything from pharmaceuticals to nutraceuticals, from anti-aging to anti-oxidants, from vitamins to functional supplements, from male potency to stem cell stimulants, from energy to relaxation and so on can be packed and properly dosed by a dispensed cap.
You already see applications in the (semi)medical sector, as it is generally claimed that pills and capsules have a very short window of absorption when traveling through the body.  A consumer would be fortunate to absorb 10-15% of the nutrients.  Liquid absorption is much higher: around 80-90%. Furthermore people would rather prefer to drink their supplements, pharmaceuticals and nutraceuticals than taking a pill or capsule, especially when it comes to children and the elderly.

All this said, let’s have a look at the technique of dispensing and various recently developed functional caps.

ViCap dispensing closure

Over the last 50 to 60 years a wide range of dispensing caps has been developed and patented. A typical dispenser cap includes a space which holds the substance to be dispersed (vitamin, flavour, medicine in powder form, liquid or tablet), which is bounded and sealed on one side by a membrane. A membrane opening device is used, often activated by depression of a flexible diaphragm, which causes the membrane opening device to pierce the membrane, thus enabling mixing of the contents of the dispenser with those of the container to which it is attached.

United States Patent 7017735

One of the most basic designs I found in a patent filed in 2002 by inventor Stephen Carlson and assigned to The Coca-Cola Company. The image (see picture) shows the principle of any dispensing cap.
All dispensing caps come back to this principle, punching a hole in a membrane to release the vitamin powder or liquid, stored in the separate chamber above the membrane. But in reality a dispensing cap isn’t functioning that simple as showed in the drawing/sketch of the “invention” of the 2002 patent. The risk that powder sticks in the punched hole and is not released in full into the liquid/water of the bottle is one of the reasons further inventions with more complicated designs have seen the light.
In other words the secret of a good-functioning dispensing cap is not just punching a hole, but how to remove the membrane in such a way to ensure that the powder is fully released into the water. Inefficient or incomplete mixing of the two substances is not desired as the concentration of the additive may be critical for some applications, such as in preparing pharmaceutical solutions. Shaking or other means of forcing the contents of the dispenser to mix with the water in the bottle cannot guarantee complete mixing, as some additive may still remain trapped in the dispenser.

The 3-step-process of ViCap

Just punching a hole is not appropriate for use with supplements in the form of tablets. To dispense a tablet the hole in the membrane must be larger than the dimensions of the tablet so that the tablet can move freely and reliably from the dispenser into the container when the membrane is ruptured.

With all these disadvantages for dispenser caps with just a puncher, the developments concentrate on rupturing the membrane completely, cutting it along the edges and removing it as much as possible. In all modern dispensing caps you see more or less ingenious cutting devices to get rid of the membrane. In addition, the membrane may include a scored line to facilitate rupturing.

Details of the Funktional closure of Optima

I selected some 14 different designs of dispensing or functional caps from all over the world. We will see the VizCap of Viz Enterprises, the Activate cap, the Optima functional cap, the ViCap of Vicap Systems, the BiaGaia Cap of Bericap, the Cedevita cap made by Teamplast, the PowerCap of Liquid Health Labs, the Yoli Blast Cap, the Mojo organics cap, the Karma cap of Karma Wellness Water, the Tap-The-Cap, and the Delo Cap from France.
Furthermore especially developed for the pharmaceutical industry the Aspin Dispensing Bottle Cap, the CapStaticX of NYSW Beverage Brands Inc., and the Berocca Twist ‘N’ Go cap of Bayer Australia.

CapStaticX-Ray

Some of the above I have described in previous articles, but for the sake of completeness I briefly include them in this overview with a link to the more detailed article. The others I will describe in detail, as far as I have details available.
When I count correctly I mentioned 14 different dispensing caps. That’s a long ride, so I cut the whole story in three more parts.

The next article starts with, probably the most well-known, the Activate dispensing cap. Then the VizCap, Optima, Vicap and BaiGaia. The rest will follow.