Cartoning

Looking for machinery trends? Read PMMI's numbers; forget DoC's

Ben Miyares is editor and publisher of the newsletter Packaging Management. He may be reached at 31408 Narragansett Lane, Bay Village, OH 44140. Telephone: 440/892-0998; Fax: 440/892-0208; e-mail: [email protected].

March 31, 1998

Meat/Poultry/Seafood: Page 96

Coding, Printing & Labeling

Catching the rays (sidebar)

Old MacDonald never had this kind of farm

March 31, 1998

Meat/Poultry/Seafood

New machines and materials fuel prepackaged fresh beef (sidebar)

New measures for meat profits?

March 31, 1998

Coding, Printing & Labeling

Digital-on-demand printing opens new markets for converter

Two six-color digital offset presses drive Watson Label Products into the packaging market. Machines specialize in short-run production of flexibles used primarily for prototyping and promotional purposes.

March 31, 1998

Conveying & accumulation

New machines and materials fuel prepackaged fresh beef

An unusual foam tray, seven-layer coextruded lidding, a high-speed rotary backflushing/lidding machine, and weigh/price labeling let this Florida meat packer respond to supermarket demand for case-ready ground beef.

March 31, 1998

Closures

Irradiation labeling

The National Food Processors Assn. (NFPA) has asked U.S. Dept. of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) to solicit and review public comments on labeling requirements for irradiated meat and meat products as part of its upcoming rulemaking.

March 31, 1998

Flexibles

Polyester film

Rhodia (Cranbury, NJ) has introduced Terphane® 14.31, a PVOH-coated film for lamination. Applications for the film include lidding for refrigerated and oxygen-sensitive foods such as fresh and processed meats, fresh pasta and cheese.

February 28, 1998

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

Bags stretch advantages for packagers and end users

Among FPA's winning packages sold at retail are a flat-bottom flexible bag made on first-of-its-kind vf/f/s machinery, a club-store bag incorporating a transverse zipper for reclosability, and a patented shaker bag that handily dispenses ice melt.

February 28, 1998

Labels

A wide-mouth first in PET

Shatter-resistant and lighter than glass, narrow-neck polyethylene terephthalate bottles for hot-filled beverages have enjoyed steady growth lately. But only now is a wide-mouth PET jar for hot-filled food being commercialized as Tree Top Inc.

February 28, 1998

Labels

FSIS considers labeling reviews without industry representation

A food labeling trade group has expressed concern that industry representatives may be barred in the future from face-to-face meetings with federal regulators that review new labels for meat and poultry products.

February 28, 1998

Flexibles

Technical achievements shine among FPA winners

A foil-based barrier bag for industrial applications, a multilayer structure for hermetic sealing of silicone gasket strips, and a coextruded sealant film all snare FPA awards.

February 28, 1998

Beverage

Shaped cans south of the border

"I have seen shaped cans from Europe and I have never seen anything like this." That's what Lawrence Boro, marketing manager for privately held Grupo Jumex, Xalostoc, near Mexico City, Mexico, says about the company's newest shaped steel three-piece can.

February 28, 1998

Flexibles

Cudahy takes bacon out of the fridge

Patrick Cudahy Inc. of Cudahy, WI, is probably the first to package precooked sliced bacon for display outside of the refrigerated deli case. "Shelf-stable packaging opens up more opportunities," says Cudahy marketer Jason Kapella.

February 28, 1998