Dean Florentino Coffee, Las Vegas, NV, is the first coffee packer to put fresh roasted ground coffee in a "breathable" composite canister that's specially equipped with a one-way degassing valve.

Three years of legislative battles paid off for food and cosmetics manufacturers on September 4 when the California legislature passed a bill exempting food, beverage and cosmetics products from the State's 1991 Rigid Plastic Packaging Container Law.

"Because Nathan's is an old-fashioned Coney Island restaurant, we wanted to bring back the feel of an old-fashioned squeeze bottle instead of something modern." That's how Steven Gold, president of Gold Pure Food Products in Hempstead, NY, explains his firm's selection of a 12-oz high-density polyethylene cylinder from Silgan Plastics (Chesterfield, MO) for a new 12-oz addition to Gold's line of Nathan's® Famous Original Coney Island Deli Style Mustard.

According to a survey by the Flexible Packaging Assn. (Washington, DC), manufacturers of flexible packaging expect to increase salaries an average of 2.6% to 3.2% this year.

A pull-push sportscap closure adds extra appeal to Castle Springs' two new sizes of natural spring water. Supplied by Creative Packaging (Buffalo Grove, IL), the 28-mm closure includes a clear green injection-molded polypropylene base, a white polyethylene spout and clear PP overcap.

Special thermoformed packaging for a medical device from Medex of Dublin, OH, is designed so that clinicians in a non-sterile environment can open the package and present its contents to surgical staff in a sterile operating room without compromising the product's sterility.