Flexible packaging

Pack Expo turns packaging concepts into production realities

Packaging containers tend to be the milestones by which packaging advances are measured. But thousands of packagers coming to Pack Expo 96 (November 17-21, McCormick Place, Chicago) will assure you that there would be no visible packaging advances without the unseen contributions of packaging equipment.

September 30, 1996

Prepared Foods: Page 80

Conveying & accumulation

Robotics automate portion packing

Robotic packing cell case-packs delicate portion cups at speeds of 500 cups/min. Integrated system incorporates a stand-alone case erector and automatic tier sheet placer.

August 31, 1996

Palletizing/depalletizing

Load 'roping' helps Callery Judge quality

Florida fruit grower produces top quality pallet loads that reflect its computerized state-of-the-art packinghouse technology.

August 31, 1996

Conveying & accumulation

Skin packs serve up Swift's pork chops

A multilayer film coextrusion combined with vacuum skin packaging machines help Swift gain a stronger presence in supermarkets with newer varieties of marinated pork chops.

August 31, 1996

Prepared Foods

Frozen produce marking proposal

The U.S. Customs Service has again proposed that country-of-origin must be marked on the front panel of frozen produce packages. A similar front-panel marking rule by the agency was declared null and void in 1994 by the Court of International Trade.

August 31, 1996

Prepared Foods

Supplier news: Appointments, promotions

American Frozen Food Institute (McLean, VA): McNair Bishop, vp, industry & govt. affairs.

August 31, 1996

Flexible packaging

Frozen--and functional--Paradise

Frozen Paradise Drinks(TM), Seagram Beverage Co.'s late entry to the successful premixed, shelf-stable frozen drink category, may prove that good things happen to those who wait.

August 31, 1996

Converting equipment

Brewers turn to PET bottles, wide-mouth cans

A six-month shelf life is claimed for amber 1-L bottles of polyethylene terephthalate holding dark beers produced and marketed by Canada's Algonquin Brewing Co., Ltd., Mississauga, Ont.

July 31, 1996

Closures

Natrel nets 30-day shelf life

A 30-day shelf life for fresh refrigerated milk?

July 31, 1996

Blisters/clamshells/skin packaging

Vend packs turn to new materials for new markets

Designed initially for vending sales, a new material blend permits skin-packed frozen Mini Meals for microwave heating to expand into diverse outlets.

June 30, 1996

Flexibles

Bowling them over in the produce aisle

The latest innovation from Tanimura & Antle is a line of single-serve fresh-cut salads packed in a thermoformed bowl. Refrigerated shelf life is two weeks.

June 30, 1996

Coding, Printing & Labeling

FDA wants access to claims data for food labeling

FDA wants to change the rules so it is better able to enforce the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act while not impeding the development of new food technologies.

June 30, 1996

Meat/Poultry/Seafood

Native American design for salmon

Juneau, Alaska-based Health Sea, Inc., and the Native American community of the Kake Tribal Corp. are counting on package design to successfully launch the Keta(TM) line of 99% fat-free smoked salmon products within four U.S.

June 30, 1996