Bending to Pressure
Bending to Pressure
In an increasingly competitive climate, flexible-packaging
innovations span dairy categories and formats.
by Lynn Petrak
The dairy industry has
demonstrated greater flexibility in recent years, in approaches to
processing, new product development and marketing. Flexibility also
applies, in a more literal sense, to packaging, as more dairy manufacturers
embrace flexible-packaging solutions.
The definition of flexible packaging can vary. In
general, as opposed to rigid materials like plastic and polyethylene (PET),
flexible packaging includes traditional paperboard containers as well as
more contemporary dairy packages like pouches, films, stand-up bags and
multi-layered brick cartons. Sometimes, the notion of flexible packaging
can cross into proverbial gray areas, such as shrink sleeves; although used
on rigid plastic bottles, sleeve labels themselves are considered flexible.
Whatever the format, the growth of dairy flexible
packaging can be tied to a surge in new and innovative dairy products as
well as to the development of high-tech materials and features from
suppliers. Today’s supermarkets, in fact, are full of new flexible
formats for an array of goods, from sleeve-wrapped mayonnaise jars to
upside-down plastic ketchup bottles. As more dairy manufacturers team up
with packaging companies to truly think out of the box, the result has been
products like zip-to-close cheese pouches, aseptic single serve cartons of
milk and bag-in-a-box beverages and liquid bases for institutional and
foodservice use, among other items.
Indeed, in the frenzy to catch the consumer’s
increasingly wandering eye, flexible packaging is often used to garner
attention. “One factor is more competition — the increase in
grab-and-go products that are available on the market,” notes Tim
Kenny, vice president of marketing for Londonderry, N.H.-based
Stonyfield Farm Inc., which developed its line of Squeezers tube yogurt three years ago.
“Flexible packaging also allows manufacturers to take a product like
yogurt — something that has not traditionally been seen as a
convenience item — and market it to a new audience by increasing its
portability.”
To be sure, flexible formats are a growing part of the
packaging business. According to the Linthicum, Pa.-based Flexible
Packaging Association (FPA), flexible packaging is a $20 billion industry
in the United States and is now the second-largest packaging type. Food
products comprise the greatest market for flexible packaging, accounting
for more than 50 percent of supply shipments, FPA reports.
Dairy processors have pursued flexible packaging for
products ranging from yogurt to ice cream to cheese, but also are balancing
their packaging priorities with other aspects of production and promotion.
“One of the things people are very focused on, by the virtue of their
packaging selection, is how to eliminate cost from their operations,”
reports Chuck Dunlap, dairy business marketing director for the Cryovac
division of Sealed Air Corp., Duncan, S.C. “That is the holy grail,
if you will — to continue to offer increasingly good products and to
be able to do it with high merchandising appeal and in a more cost
effective environment.”
Indeed, the need for cost-effective solutions and
consumer-friendly features continues to impact the decision-making process
among dairies. “Dairy processors have done an excellent job of taking
cost out of their systems. They are great at managing economies of scale
and at consolidating, but they are under pressure to provide solutions to
the marketplace,” notes Gary Allanson, president and chief executive
officer of Hanover, Md.-based International Dispensing Corp. (IDC), an
aseptic packaging and dispensing supplier. “We’ve joined forces
with leading dairy processors to address the dual demands for improved
barrier properties and aseptic dispensing capabilities at a cost-effective
price.”
In the package development process, collaboration does
become key, notes Dunlap, who cites the many cheese companies with whom
Cryovac works. “The cheesemakers focus a lot on the products they are
making and how to present them and move them through a number of
distribution chains. They look to packaging partners to help come up with
creative merchandising aspects,” he observes. “It is a
partnership, in which both bring ideas to the table.”
Film Fest
While bags and pouches represent a common type of
flexible dairy packaging, especially for cheeses and powdered dairy
products, many innovations have occurred on the film side of the business.
Films are becoming more advanced and are increasingly developed with food
processors’ needs in mind.
Cryovac, for instance, offers a variety of materials
for dairy companies, including shrink bags, thermoform films and films for
block cheeses, among other items. In 2003, the supplier introduced two new
films, HFP 1000 and HFP 1050, suitable for horizontal form-fill-seal
machines used for cheese packaging. “It broadens our
participation in the dairy business,” explains Dunlap, who
underscores the primary benefits of the new materials. “The clarity
of the film is outstanding and the gauge tends to be a less heavy gauge
product with practical implications for the customer, in terms of the
amount of footage that can be put on a roll and the increased productivity.
It has a wide utility.”
According to Dunlap, the clarity in the film provides
for high-impact graphics when using today’s printing technology. He
points out, though, there is a balance between what is possible and what is
pragmatic in terms of package appearance versus cost. “There is no
question that the whole graphic environment is changing in a lot of
respects and customers are taking advantage of it. But the thing that
customers have to analyze is, to what degree does taking advantage of a
whole array of colors and designs really increase sales and provide the
kind of return they like?” he says. “That is what marketing is
about — providing a package with a product that consumers want with a
special appeal.”
Another recent film trend in the dairy industry Dunlap
has noted is the use of rigid trays with film, similar to packages used for
sliced deli meats. “People are buying trays and film from us and
using them together as a package for slices and cubes. It helps the dairy
industry provide different offerings,” says Dunlap, adding that meat
and cheese combinations in such formats, like party trays, are increasingly
popular as well.
Other types of films have attracted notice among both
the packaging and dairy industries for their innovative qualities. Oshkosh,
Wis.-based Curwood Inc., for example, won an FPA award for technical
innovation earlier this year for its Clear-Tite® Surround Shrink Bag with EZ Peel® Opening Feature. The shrink tube can be slit open,
allowing the substrate to be printed as a flat film, eliminating the need
for a tube to be printed on one side and then flipped and printed on the
other. Used with Curwood’s EZ-Peel opening feature for products like
brick cheese, the printed film is made into a seamed bag with 360-degree
printing capability.
Cheese products are the focus for another type of new
flexible packaging from major packaging supplier DuPont, Wilmington, Del.
Developed in conjunction with packaging company Lawson Mardon Morin, a new
permeable packaging film is being used for soft cheeses with surface mold,
such as camembert. The paraffin-free package combines DuPont’s Bynel® resin layer and
Selar® PA 3426 resin layer for better barrier properties and
optimal cheese maturation.
Flexible films are also used for an increasing variety
of labels. The most common and obvious example is the growth of
shrink-sleeve labels used for flavored milks, drinkable yogurts and other
dairy-based beverages and now extending to other types of packages like
cultured product containers.
Alcoa Flexible Packaging, Richmond, Va., was
recently recognized by the Packaging and Label Gravure Association for the
shrink-sleeve labels it provides to Swiss conglomerate Nestlé, for
the company’s Rolo® milk beverages sold in Canada. Most recently, Alcoa
has expanded its line of shrink sleeve labels to include a new oriented
polystyrene (OPS) label. “These labels have a better yield than PVC
or PET-G, so they are cheaper and more environmentally friendly,”
remarks marketing manager Terry Copenhaver. Alcoa, which sells its
traditional sleeves to Nestlé for the company’s flavored
milks, is currently supplying the OPS film for Nestlé’s
chocolate syrup bottles.
Like Dunlap, Copenhaver notes that companies are
taking a closer look at graphics and package shape and size to help them
stand out from the competition. “In print quality, we are seeing more
complex graphics on shrink labels,” she says, adding that that the
company is working with advanced print technology.” “We are
also offering more unique inks, such as the technology that includes a
‘flip’ — there is one color, but when you tilt the
container you get another color. And we can put pearlescent inks on the
outside to give a package an element of depth.”
Copenhaver sees more changes ahead for flexible-sleeve
designs as well as for the types of rigid bottles with which they are used,
especially for the fluid milk segment. “The market now is flooded
with single serve and companies have to differentiate from each
other,” she notes.
Flexible Features
Beyond the material itself, flexible packages are
sporting an array of additional features today, most of them designed
around the convenience factor. From recloseable features to tear-off
openings to tamper-evident closures, it is clear that the film, bag or
carton itself isn’t the only focus of package development.
Press-to-close packages of shredded or grated cheeses
developed in the late 1980s were an early example, a technology that has
now been supplanted in many circles by the use of slider closures. Lake
Forest, Ill.-based Pactiv Corp., for example, helped Plymouth, Wis.-based
Sargento Foods shake up the cheese category in 2002 with the application of
the supplier’s Hefty® Slide-Rite® advanced closure system. After an exclusive two-year
arrangement with Sargento, Pactiv is now marketing the Slide-Rite zipper to
other dairy-based companies, according to marketing manager Larry Rebodos.
There is still great potential, says Rebodos, and an
untapped market for the Slide-Rite closure for cheeses and perhaps other
dairy products sold at both retail and foodservice levels, especially as
manufacturers continue to grow their product lines to include items like
individually wrapped snacking cheeses. “On the dairy side, I can see
more things coming,” he says, citing pre-sliced deli meats sold in
trays with zipper-topped bags. “We’ve seen that conversion and
that should drive a lot of cross over between the deli meat and deli cheese
cases. They go hand in hand.”
Although such package features are more costly than
traditional formats, consumers have continually demonstrated a willingness
to pay for such options. “It is amazing how packaging has really
taken over price. You can spend your money on a lot of different areas, but
with packaging, convenience is truly driving a lot of decision making for
the consumer,” Rebodos observes.
Flexible-package features aren’t merely limited
to closures. International Dispensing Corp. (IDC), for example, is the only
flexible-packaging company with an FDA approved aseptic dispensing valve
that enables low- or high-acid foods and beverages to be aseptically
dispensed from a flexible bag. According to Allanson, IDC’s
valve extends the shelf-life and use-life of low- or high-acid products
because the valve does not allow oxygen or bacteria to enter the flexible
package. “IDC’s patented technology offers the food and
beverage industry a composite technology that significantly improves
product quality and product safety,” he explains, noting that the
valve is currently being used to dispense commercial dairy products such as
half and half, whole milk and ready-to-drink coffee beverages. In addition
to low-acid dairy products, IDC’s aseptic valve is able to dispense
aseptic teas, juices, isotonic beverage and cocktail mixes and allows for
new product markets for the bag-in-the-box package for foodservice and
in-home markets.
Automated Response
Meanwhile, machinery used for flexible packaging is
also growing more sophisticated as demand for such materials grows.
Appleton, Wis.-based CMD Packaging Systems, for instance, has developed a
new USDA Dairy/3A-approved line of vertical form, fill and seal packaging
machinery designed for the production of portioned cheeses.
“Most of our customers do a combination of all
different products and most are buying equipment that can be used to shred,
grate or chunk products. They are looking for flexibility in bag style sand
sizes, recloseability, different ranges and capabilities for the equipment,
and versatility for any type of washdown,” says regional sales
manager Margaret Valinski. “They may do a one-pound package in the
morning and a 25-pound package in the evening.”
Cryovac also continues to broaden the choices
customers have in using automation in their packaging operations.
“There is a clear need and appreciation for automation in the dairy
industry,” says Dunlap, adding that the company’s BL-110 loader
for shrink bags of mozzarella and provolone cheese and its CL-20 for
40-pound blocks of cheese has helped customers package items quicker and
more efficiently. “There are numerous activities, both in the US and
around the world where different types of our automated packaging equipment
are being used to help customers. It helps them manage their packaging and
gives them greater flexibility in terms of labor usage.” df
Lynn Petrak is a freelance journalist based in the Chicago
area.
$OMN_arttitle="Bending to Pressure";?>
Looking for a reprint of this article?
From high-res PDFs to custom plaques, order your copy today!