Prepared Foods: Page 69

Coding, Printing & Labeling

Ice cream maker melts label inventory

Nutrition labeling requirements threatened to throw a real wrench in the works at one family-owned dairy. Thermal-transfer printing on-site was the answer.

November 30, 1998

Sustainability

Brewers pouring into plastic

Brewers around the world have been on the fence about plastic bottles. Suddenly they're commercializing a variety of plastic barrier structures.

November 30, 1998

Palletizing/depalletizing

'Combo' pack puts Tropical Cheese at ease

Checkweigher and metal detector combine to reduce giveaway and help enhance quality control for this maker of natural cheeses marketed to retail and foodservice accounts.

November 30, 1998

Closures

Dairy debuts an ESL 'first'

Extended-shelf-life milk in gabletop cartons offering 60-day shelf life has been a proven pack- aging format for years. With the recent launch of its Moovers(TM) brand, Smith Dairy Products of Orrville, OH, wants to offer the same 60-day refrigerated shelf life for milk in bottles made of polyethylene terephthalate.

November 30, 1998

Recycling

Dean 'Chugs' along at Pack Expo 98

Overall attendance at November's Pack Expo reached 78괡, setting a new record. That figure is even more impressive considering that the number of international attendees reportedly declined by nearly 3%, presumably due in part to economic difficulties in Asia.

November 30, 1998

Flexibles

Chips-and-salsa MAP pack debuts

The creative minds behind the AriZona Beverages brand have made their first major foray into food, launching a unique salsa-and-chips meal kit (pictured is a prototype)under the new Blue Luna Café brand.

November 30, 1998

Flexibles

Stand-up package

To help customers maximize shelf space, Tiromat (Biedenkopf-Wallau, Germany) has introduced the TiroFreeze stand-up package for frozen products. These packages are thermoformed foamed PP trays topped with BOPP film, with or without a window.

October 31, 1998

Containers

Sam's Club product labels turn private

Long known for presenting national-brand merchandise, Wal-Mart's Sam's Club introduces new private-label Member's Mark line, in everything from soup to jeans.

October 31, 1998

Converting equipment

Welch's 'concentrates' on plastic can

Under development for nearly eight years, an all-plastic, easy-open, microwavable canister is now appearing in East Coast freezer cases holding several varieties of frozen juice concentrates for Welch's, Concord, MA.

October 31, 1998

Flexibles

Home meal replacements stay hot

With Americans still clamoring for convenience in the kitchen, food marketers find packaging that offers opportunities in the home meal replacement category.

October 31, 1998

Flexibles

Home meal replacements stay hot (sidebar)

Home-delivered HMRs

October 31, 1998

Labeling

New egg labeling

USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has decreed that as of August 1999 egg cartons must bear a label indicating that eggs must be refrigerated and that uncracked, uncooked eggs must be kept at a temperature of 45°F while being processed and shipped to consumers.

October 31, 1998