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DuPont Awards’ 19th editionThe 19th annual DuPont Awards Competition once again shines the spotlight on innovation in packaging. From 135 entries, 26 packs received awards.Similar to the pull-open feature on baby and home care wipes, Kraft’s Chips Ahoy! packages offer a ‘Snack ’n Seal’ resealable top that’s unique among cookie products. The package won a Gold Award in this year’s DuPont competition.
“Snack ’n Seal is a patented product packaging system that, through the use of technology and consumer insights, delivers a true innovation to the marketplace,” says Laurie Guzzinati, senior manager, corporate and government affairs at Kraft’s facility in East Hanover, NJ.
The Snack ’n Seal package allows consumers to open and reseal the cookie pack from its top panel, rather than from the end of the pack, which is more traditional. The film consists of .7-mil metallized oriented polypropylene that gets extrusion-laminated to an extrusion lamination of 48-ga polyester and 14# white opaque low-density polyethylene. Graphics are delivered via eight-color reverse-gravure printing on the 48-ga polyester.
Kraft refers to the resealable top as a label. It consists of a 2-mil OPP facestock with a Food and Drug Administration-approved adhesive for direct food contact. According to Kraft, “labels are created by rotary die-cut, partially deadened (to create a tab) and then printed with two colors to indicate ‘lift here.’ The labels are then applied to the printed rollstock, and precision die-cut from underneath.”
A 20-mil thermoformed polystyrene inner tray holds the cookies.
Asked about materials suppliers, Guzzinati could only say that the Snack ’n Seal project “was done in collaboration with Sonoco Products Co.” (www.sonoco.com).
From concept to product launch, the total development time spanned approximately a year and a half. “The impetus behind the development of the package was to improve consumer brand value by delivering a unique and innovative package to meet consumers’ desire for a resealable, portable package that keeps cookies fresh,” says Guzzinati.
“Snack ’n Seal also addressed feedback from consumers regarding previous products in the marketplace and their frustration with opening and closing overwrapped trays and the tearing of packaging film, often making them resort to repackaging the product once it was opened,” says Guzzinati. “With Snack ’n Seal, this is eliminated, resulting in a reduction in material waste from consumers not needing to repackage product.
“Many consumers have described the added benefit of being able to use the Snack ’n Seal package for other usage occasions, including on-the-go snacking and entertaining,” she continues. “Adding the Snack ’n Seal feature to our products provided additional value and uniqueness in the marketplace by addressing key consumer dissatisfiers and providing a point of difference versus the competition with limited capital investment.”
Guzzinati says the Snack ’n Seal feature is now used with several 14-, 14.5-, and 15-oz varieties of Chips Ahoy! that retail for $3.39, and with three Fig Newton offerings that sell for $3.59.
—Jim Butschli
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