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Dean Foods pours into extended shelf life

Dean Foods’ National Refrigerated Products Group employs extended shelf life technologies to market new products. New Marie’s Pourables and NesQuik demonstrate this strategy.

Dean Foods' newly introduced Marie's Pourables is a line of PET-bottled fresh salad dressings sold in the refrigerated case. The
Dean Foods' newly introduced Marie's Pourables is a line of PET-bottled fresh salad dressings sold in the refrigerated case. The

Last year, Franklin Park, IL-headquartered Dean Foods created a National Refrigerated Products (NRP) Group to market innovative products with extended shelf life (ESL) through the refrigerated distribution chain.

Lou Nieto, president of the company’s new business group, defines extended shelf life as 60 days and beyond, intermediate shelf life as 40 to 45 days, “which is about the threshold we need to go through the refrigerated distribution system. It allows us to ship product to a customer’s warehouse, and them to ship it to their stores.” He says, “A short shelf life is around 21 days.” Much of the ESL for these products is attributable, he says, to proprietary processing technologies.

In recent months, the NRP business group launched Marie’s Pourables, a line of refrigerated salad dressings sold in polyethylene terephthalate bottles, with a 120-day shelf life. The 8-oz bottle serves as an alternative to the brand’s established 12-oz widemouth glass jar, which is also sold refrigerated, with a similar shelf life. The new package allows consumers to conveniently pour out the fresh dressing, much like traditional shelf-stable dressings, instead of having to spoon it out of a jar. The bottle also eliminates the potential of glass breakage.

Also last year, NRP began to produce and distribute 16-oz PET-bottled NesQuik flavored milks under license from Nestlé USA’s Beverage Div., Glendale, CA. A 32-oz version of the sleek, tapered bottle was introduced late last year. The shelf life of these milks is approximately 60 days. Extending their shelf life is essential to merchandise these products, says Nieto.

Pourable dressings

Marie’s Pourables were introduced in limited Northeast markets last summer. Six 8-oz varieties are sold from refrigerated cases of supermarkets, each marked with a 120-day shelf life. The injection stretch/blow-molded PET bottles are supplied by Owens-Brockway (Toledo, OH). The bottle’s tapered side grips provide pleasing tactility for consumers, according to Dean Foods. Berry Plastics (Evansville, IN) provides what is reportedly an injection-molded polypropylene closure.

A sell-by date is ink-jet-coded onto the bottle’s front recessed panel, just beneath the front label. The samples shown in the photo above, however, are not coded. The colorful front label includes the product’s name, variety, weight, and an image of a serving suggestion. The black-and-white back-panel label lists ingredients, nutrition facts and a bar code. The labels, and a tamper-evident neck band, are supplied by Mail-Well Label (Englewood, CO).

A new labeler was added for Pourables, though Dean’s wouldn’t elaborate on the vendor or filling operation. Through its communications agency, Dean’s did say that no new filling equipment was necessary. Instead, new change parts accommodate product filling.

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New e-book on Multipacking and Case Packing