Coding, Printing & Labeling

Tabletop filler boosts soups

Since a tabletop filler was installed last December, restaurant Barnum & Bagel is enjoying solid growth in supermarket sales of its frozen soups in PP tubs and lids

April 30, 1998

Prepared Foods: Page 73

Secondary Packaging

Food innovations on display at U.K. show

Two notable packages uncovered at Pakex 98, held recently in Birmingham, England, both come from food marketers. One is for soup, the other for a product designed to look like Chinese take-out food.

April 30, 1998

Bakery/Snack

FDA expands 'healthy' label to frozen and canned produce

Processors of frozen and canned produce are studying how best to take advantage of a new ruling by the Food and Drug Administration allowing frozen and canned fruits and vegetables to be labeled "healthy." Using that term to describe all fresh fruits and vegetables has been allowed since 1994, but no such broad allowance was made at that time for frozen or canned fruits and vegetables.

April 30, 1998

Bakery/Snack

Cereal grain products 'healthy,' too

FDA also approved the use of a "healthy" label claim for certain cereal grain products such as enriched flour, enriched rice and bread, even though until now they could not be labeled "healthy" because many do not meet the 10% nutrient requirement.

April 30, 1998

Closures

Automated bagger

The Paxem(TM) is a new high-speed automated bagger from Colt Eng. Corp. (Calgary, Alberta, Canada) that allows flexibility in product and bag sizes at high production rates.

March 31, 1998

Multipacking/shrink bundling/banding

Catching the rays

Packagers seek FDA approval of resins for use in overwrapping and trays for irradiated beef and poultry.

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

Additives, coatings & inks

Freezer-to-oven CPET trays

A thermoformed tray of crystallized polyethylene terephthalate holds frozen, unbaked muffin batter and can be put right in the oven to allow foodservice operators in Australia to offer fresh-baked goods on-premise.

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

Feeding/inserting/unscrambling

Woodland Poly casts for western film business

Cast and blown film-making equipment, using metallocene resins, enable Woodland Poly to produce rugged stretch-wrap film in thin gauges for its customers in the west.

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