StarKist is counting on packaging to attract consumer attention and help make this fledgling fish product fly.
"StarKist has been exploring frozen concepts and products in various forms for a number of years as a way of extending and leveraging the brand's equity," says Laura Wolfram, communications administrator for StarKist Seafood Co. "The Seaside Gourmet packaging was tested with consumers and selected from over a dozen designs because it presented the product with an upscale, fresh appearance versus the paper boxes frequently used to package frozen fish." Package design is the work of Lipson-Alport-Glass & Associates (Cincinnati, OH).
The 16-oz portion of uncooked fish is first vacuum-packed. The forming web is an 8-mil linear low-density polyethylene/nylon structure. Lidding is similar, but thinner at 5 mils. Both films are supplied by Curwood (New London, WI).
Vacuum-packed fillets next go into a charcoal-gray tray of foamed expanded polystyrene and are shrink-wrapped in a 74-ga D-955 film, from Cryovac (Duncan, SC). After the heat tunnel, operators apply a paperboard sleeve by hand. Brightly printed in six colors on an offset press, the 16-pt SBS sleeve is supplied by Field Container (Elk Grove Village, IL).
StarKist Seaside Gourmet sells for $5.99 to $6.99 and is currently being tested in Pittsburgh, San Antonio and Buffalo, NY.
