Flexible packaging

Listerine packs strips in 'vials'

Pfizer Consumer Healthcare, Morris Plains, NJ, debuts Cool Mint Listerine PocketPaks™, tiny hinged "vials" within a carded blister pack. The vials, which measure 1 3/4’’ x 1’’ x 1/4’’, contain paper-thin, postage stamp-sized oral care strips. The strips dissolve instantly on the tongue where they kill germs on contact.

October 31, 2001

Package Printing: Page 46

Additives, coatings & inks

Irradiation packaging

Although irradiation is now being recognized as a potent food safety tool and more and more foods have been approved for irradiation, its increased use may be limited by the small number of packaging materials and additives cleared for use in FDA regulations.

September 30, 2001

Sustainability

What's the opposite of 'green'?

Well, that’s not exactly the question that arises after reading a report in the Aug. 2 edition of The Economist. Rather than being the opposite of environmentally sensitive, the point of the report is that maybe “pale green” is closer to the truth.

September 30, 2001

Conveying & accumulation

Quick changeover sets off production overhaul

Mug manufacturer Aladdin revamps its production facility with a family of seven hand-loaded semi-automatic shrink wrappers.

September 30, 2001

Additives, coatings & inks

Hand wrap

StrengthWrap M™ from ITW Mima (Tamarac, FL) is a new kind of pallet wrap made with metallocene resins in a patented process. During this process, most of the stretch is taken out, making it stronger, more able to contain shifting loads, and much easier to apply by hand, company says.

August 31, 2001

Coding, Printing & Labeling

Food allergens nothing to sneeze at

FDA is looking more closely at food labels and processing/packaging materials to determine whether incidental additives must be declared.

August 31, 2001

Additives, coatings & inks

Materials Marketplaces

PolymerTrack (www.polymertrack.com) details the most competitive HDPE, LDPE, LLDPE, polypropylene, PVC, and PET contract prices for large customers.

July 31, 2001

Additives, coatings & inks

Group opposes California plastic packaging tax bill

The California Packaging Alliance, a coalition of state and national organizations supporting a comprehensive, integrated approach to solid waste management, strongly opposes legislation in the California Senate that includes a packaging tax to support plastic recycling requirements.

July 31, 2001

Additives, coatings & inks

FDA reorganizes food additive functions

FDA replaced its Office of Premarket Approval with a new Office of Food Additive Safety (OFAS) in an effort to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of its reviews.

July 31, 2001

Coding, Printing & Labeling

Industry develops guidelines for allergen labeling

The Food Allergy Issues Alliance, a group of food trade associations and other organizations focused on allergy-related topics, has issued the Food Allergen Labeling Guidelines to help the estimated seven million Americans with food allergies avoid foods that might make them sick.

July 31, 2001

Flexibles

Domestic acquisitions, agreements

Interfilm Holdings, Inc. (Piedmont, SC) has signed a distribution agreement with the Dow Chemical Co. (Midland, MI) to be a distributor of Opticite polystyrene label films.

July 31, 2001

Sustainability

Weirton stretches for film/paper 'cocoon'

This steel producer works closely with a distributor to protect shipments of its 36ꯠ-lb steel coils by stretch wrapping them in vapor corrosion inhibitor film.

June 30, 2001

Filling/capping, liquid & viscous

Marinade bottle delivers

Liquid marinades in 15 shelf-stable flavors from Excalibur Seasoning Co. Ltd., Pekin, IL, were repackaged earlier this year from an 86-oz bottle with pump dispenser to a 64-oz high-density polyethylene “Tip-N-Pour” container.

May 31, 2001