Hallie Forcinio

As demand for dairy snacks, single servings and customized products grows, pouch packaging captures a greater share of the dairy case.

Rigid packaging is a staple in the dairy case, but what’s stocked today differs from what consumers put in their shopping carts a few years ago. Containers have been lightweighted, sometimes with the help of in-mold labels.

Sustainable packaging materials reduce package weight, contain content from renewable or recycled sources and/or recycle easily.

It’s not surprising many dairy products launch in flexible packaging. It’s one of the fastest growing packaging formats in the United States, according to the Flexible Packaging Association, Annapolis, Md.

With a projected compound annual growth rate of 2.9% through 2022, demand for food packaging reflects growth in the U.S. food industry overall, according to Food Packaging Trends & Advances, a report published in September 2015 by PMMI, The Association for Packaging and Processing Technologies, Reston, Va. Globally, growth is even stronger.

A 14-ounce squeezable tube allows consumers to dispense sour cream precisely. A new sterilization process for cold-fill aseptic products eliminates the need for irradiation, hot-filling or post-pasteurization.