Dairy

Worldwide Food Expo returns

Described as the largest food processing and packaging event in the Western hemisphere, Worldwide Food Expo is expected to draw 35ꯠ to Chicago’s McCormick Place.

September 30, 2001

Bakery/Snack: Page 91

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

Bag/pouch fill/seal (pre-made bags)

Bakery wraps up production rates

Mail-order bakery Bellows House Bakery, Walpole, NH, found a resolution to high labor costs and low production rates in packaging its grab-and-go cookies and brownies. In fall ’99, manual labor and semi-automatic sealing was replaced by a Fuji-Formost (Woodinville, WA) Model FW-340mII horizontal form/fill/seal wrapper.

July 31, 2001

Recycling

Canister sends Rugrats to Mexico

In April, Mexico's largest baked goods company, Marinela, released a special line of cookies dedicated to the Mexican release of the Nickelodeon movie, "Rugrats in Paris." The product is housed in a slim 113x1110 composite canister from Sonoco (Hartsville, SC). It's topped with a molded plastic dispenser in the shape of one of the seven main Rugrats characters.

July 31, 2001

Labels

'Enfa' now says Mead Johnson globally

Nearly 600 SKUs of baby nutritional products around the world are now carrying a new Enfa brand design for easy recognition.

July 31, 2001

Flexible packaging

'Job shop' takes hands-on approach to skin packaging

Semi-automatic skin packaging machine improves protection of shipments of stainless-steel components and saves money.

July 31, 2001

Closures

The problem with patented packaging

The U.S. Supreme Court rules that patents almost always mean ‘functional.’ Does this mean trade-dress protection disappears after the patent runs out?

July 31, 2001

Conveying & accumulation

Case coders sparkle at Blue Diamond

New equipment delivers three lines of type for bulk boxes of nuts. The case coders reduce labor costs, downtime, and ink loss associated with previous units.

July 31, 2001

Flexibles

Produce, pet foods grow flexibles

The value of flexible packaging is expected to grow 3.5% this year to $19.7 billion, according to the State of the Industry Report 2001. Released in June by the Flexible Packaging Assn.

July 31, 2001

Coding, Printing & Labeling

FDA demands proof of botanical claims

FDA is cracking down on increasingly popular botanically enhanced foods and beverages, demanding proof they are safe and do not make false and misleading claims.

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

Closures

Nestlé package 'percolates' success

Nestlé Canada’s Nescafé Ice coffee syrup bottle earned the “Chairman’s Choice” award in the 2001 National Canadian packaging competition. Developed in conjunction with Graham Packaging Canada (Burlington, Ontario, Canada), the blow-molded, black opaque high-density polyethylene bottle has turned a lot of heads in grocery dairy aisles since its Canadian national rollout earlier this year. A U. S. introduction is expected at some point in the future.

June 30, 2001

Dairy

Nestlé debuts retorted carton; Hain gains competitive 'wedge'

Nestlé Friskies Italia is the first globally to use a retortable carton from Tetra Pak (Vernon Hills, IL). Commercialized in May for its new Friskies “Qualità Freschezza” petfood, the Tetra Recart™ technology is more than two years from a U.S.

June 30, 2001