Conveying & accumulation

Lassonde innovates with Italian aseptic filler

Squared off in shape like its 2-L predecessor, Lassonde’s 420-mL PET bottle is aseptically filled at 400/min. It’s sold in a three-pack format that’s new to North America.

March 31, 2000

Industries: Page 739

Beverage

Engineers express growing dissatisfaction

In PW's latest salary survey, overall job satisfaction among engineers is dropping. Greater responsibilities with little added pay rankles, as do packaging-related budget and staff cuts.

March 31, 2000

Flexibles

Soft graphics provide a hard sell

Since introducing its yo baby™ organic whole milk yogurt last September, Stonyfield Farm has enjoyed incredible sales success.

March 31, 2000

Closures

Cap ordering goes electronic

With the proliferation of Web sites devoted to purchasing complex packaging machinery, it seems only natural that buying closures online would be the next step.

March 31, 2000

Detergents/cleaners

Sebastian goes for clean and contemporary

When the Sebastian Collection reaches Sebastian Collective Salons next month, it will include four hair cleansers and three conditioners in 250-mL custom bottles from Captive Plastics (Piscataway, NJ).

March 31, 2000

Flexibles

Prisma-powered drinks are aimed at adults

An acknowledged leader in aseptic filling of PET bottles, Lassonde Industries is among the first to install a Prisma aseptic packaging system from Tetra Pak. It is used for 236-mL packages.

March 31, 2000

Consumer packaged goods

Notable web sites

Materials Marketplaces B2Boxes.com is a corrugated marketplace/supplier locator site. Buyers can locate a local box manufacturer from an extensive database.

March 31, 2000

Controls & Machine Components

Smurfit-Stone: Paper canister

Smurfit-Stone (Chicago, IL) has developed PaperCan™, which uses a paperboard body with an integrated easy-to-open-and-close paperboard lid. Made of laminated or barrier-coated paperboard that can be linear or blank-formed.

March 31, 2000

Coding, Printing & Labeling

Labels on crab

Some people in Maryland don’t want consumers to think they are eating Maryland crab when they’re not. The Maryland legislature is considering a bill that would require country-of-origin labeling of any container of crab meat packed or processed outside the U.S.

March 31, 2000

Coding, Printing & Labeling

Milk questions soy labeling

The National Milk Producers Federation filed a complaint with the Food and Drug Administration in February seeking to prohibit soy beverages from being labeled as “milk.” Soy drinks are popping up in dairy cases in packaging that closely resembles milk cartons, and NMPF is trying to protect the distinct identity of its product.

March 31, 2000

Dairy

Frost-bitten graphics

As the official ice cream of the St. Paul, MN, Winter Carnival, Kemps’ Below Zero ice cream needed packaging that would exude chilliness. Compass Design (Minneapolis, MN) used frosty colors like shades of blue, gray and white throughout the packaging.

March 31, 2000

Sustainable Packaging

Achievements

Petroleum Packaging Council (Chicago, IL) will fund university scholarships to junior and senior packaging science students at Clemson University, Michigan State University and California Polytechnic State University.

March 31, 2000

Additives, coatings & inks

Domestic acquisitions, agreements

Chevron Chemical Co. (Houston, TX) and Phillips Chemical Co. (Houston, TX) have merged to form a new joint venture co.

March 31, 2000