Prepared Foods: Page 63

Flexible packaging

Flexibles feed on innovation

Keebler’s contour pouch for cookies doubles as a hand puppet, while a wrap for frozen, microwavable sandwiches provides source reduction, and an all-plastic bag offers oxygen and moisture barrier for dry pet foods.

February 29, 2000

Secondary Packaging

Unsaleable product costs reach $4.2 billion in '98

Packaging is often the problem when products and packages are diverted from retailers to reclamation centers. Credits issued are a growing cost for distributors and manufacturers, says a new report.

February 29, 2000

Secondary Packaging

Dean dips into single-serve cups

Dean Foods creates a new refrigerated foods category with four-packs of 2 3/4-oz chip and vegetable dips marketed in colorful die-cut folding cartons.

February 29, 2000

Sustainability

Food packs sparkle in DuPont Awards

From an Ocean Spray package that won the Diamond Award to a vacuum-insulated container for foods and other temperature-sensitive products, this year’s DuPont Award winners are an eclectic and innovative bunch.

January 31, 2000

Flexible packaging

Pouch is part of a 'brand block'

In a major packaging initiative, Heinz launches a stand-up bag with a TransZip™ resealable closure as a replacement for lay-flat plastic bags for all Ore-Ida frozen french fries, hash browns and tater tots.

January 31, 2000

Controls & Machine Components

Evergreen Packaging: Fillers for milk or juice

Two new fillers from Evergreen (Cedar Rapids, IA) package fresh refrigerated milk or juice at speeds to 3ꯠ gabletop cartons/hr. The GTL-1000 (shown) fills 250- to 1걶-mL (8.45- to 38.9-oz) cartons, while the GTN-1000 fills 125- to 500-mL (4.23- to 16.9-oz) cartons.

January 31, 2000

Coding, Printing & Labeling

USDA says OK to irradiation

In late December 1999, USDA issued its long-awaited rule permitting the irradiation of frozen or refrigerated raw meat and meat products to kill harmful microorganisms.

January 31, 2000

Feeding/inserting/unscrambling

Packaging for kids at Kellogg and Dannon

When these two food processing powerhouses used existing brands as launch pads for kid-oriented new products, they were highly selective about their choice of containers.

January 31, 2000

Secondary Packaging

Retorted food pouches ready for market push

Knauss and Esskay introduce foods in retorted pouches without foil for retail. StarKist Seafood sells a foil-based pouch of tuna to foodservice accounts. Will others follow suit?

January 31, 2000

Conveying & accumulation

Contract packager blends vf/f/s systems

Unusual integrated blending scale systems enable a California contract packager to fill as many as nine different individually quick-frozen vegetables into a single bag.

January 31, 2000

Controls & Machine Components

Thermo Solutions: Vacuum-insulated containers

Thermo Solutions™ (Minneapolis, MN) has introduced square vacuum-insulated panel (VIP) containers. The EverKool Express™ and the EverKool™ VIP allow frozen food to retain a sub-zero temperature for 36 hr at a consistent 85°F ambient room temperature.

December 31, 1999

Dairy

Pushing meals to market

Breakaway Foods™ is touting its new line of paperboard cylinder-packed IncrEdibles™ portable meals as “a revolutionary new way for consumers to enjoy their favorite foods, and the ultimate meal for people on the go.” IncrEdibles are microwaveable meals packaged in a printed, spiral-wound paperboard cylinder that becomes a “self-server,” according to the company, when consumers push up a plastic stick that’s inserted into the cylinder’s bottom.

December 31, 1999