Flexible packaging

Listerine packs strips in 'vials'

Pfizer Consumer Healthcare, Morris Plains, NJ, debuts Cool Mint Listerine PocketPaks™, tiny hinged "vials" within a carded blister pack. The vials, which measure 1 3/4’’ x 1’’ x 1/4’’, contain paper-thin, postage stamp-sized oral care strips. The strips dissolve instantly on the tongue where they kill germs on contact.

October 31, 2001

Leaders (UNIVERSAL TAXONOMY PW): Page 1667

Coding, Printing & Labeling

Choline claims approved

FDA will allow a nutrient content claim for choline submitted by Central Soya Co., Inc. Labels of food or dietary supplements may characterize the level of choline as "Good source of choline," "Contains choline," "Provides choline," "Excellent source of choline," "Rich in choline," and "High in choline."

October 31, 2001

Coding, Printing & Labeling

And for oxycontin

Concerned about growing numbers of reports of diversion and abuse of the drug oxycontin, FDA strengthened the warnings and precautions sections in the labeling of the prescription drug used to treat moderate to severe pain.

October 31, 2001

Closures

Achievements

Owens-Brockway Closure (Toledo, OH) was named the 2001 Manufacturer of the year by the National Assn. of Container Distributors. —ISO 9001 Certification: Liberty Carton (Golden Valley, MN).

October 31, 2001

Coding, Printing & Labeling

Holding it together

USDA has issued a final rule requiring labeling of natural sausage casings if they are derived from a different type of meat or poultry than the sausage.

October 31, 2001

Coding, Printing & Labeling

Non-GE labels misleading, says CSPI

The Center for Science in the Public Interest has called on FDA to take action against seven food manufacturers for making false and misleading label claims related to the absence of genetically engineered ingredients.

October 31, 2001

Flexible packaging

NECCO mints in a snap

New high-intensity Ultra mints from NECCO (New England Confectionery Co.) reached national retail stores in June packed in a 4 1/2-oz, 1.4-mil polypropylene bag with a laminated cast PP snap closure.

October 31, 2001

Converting equipment

Paperboard substrate

Forte™, a new packaging substrate from Westvaco (Stamford, CT) is a 36-pt solid fiber board that provides compression strength equal to or greater than F, G, or N mini-flute board.

October 31, 2001

Flexibles

Pouched gels prove 'fun and different'

“I think people respond to the package initially because it’s fun and different. But once they use it, they find it’s functional as well.” That’s how Amy Baldwin of Plano Molding Co. of Plano, IL, describes consumer response to the stand-up pouch recently added to the firm’s Caboodle’s Pure Heaven line of bath and shower gels.

October 31, 2001

Flexibles

Pouch replaces Hawaiian Punch box

An unusual, shaped stand-up pouch is now bringing kids the taste of Hawaiian Punch in seven southeast states. Hawaiian Punch is a brand of Cadbury Schweppes plc, packed for Mott’s, Stamford, CT.

October 31, 2001

Closures

Abita tests pasteurizable beer in PET

Abita Brewery next year plans to commercialize beer in a one-way multilayer plastic bottle that’s pasteurizable. Until now, the plastic bottles typically used for beer didn’t have sufficient thermal resistance to withstand pasteurization, so brewers choosing to use plastic have had to rely on some form of cold filtering or flash pasteurization. But the availability of this new tunnel-pasteurizable bottle could make one-way plastic beer bottles a viable option for a lot more brewers. Abita Brewery, based in Abita Springs, LA, is a regional craft brewer.

October 31, 2001

Labels

'Tis the season for apple gum pack

Just in time for the fall season is Amurol Confections’ Caramel Apple Bubble Gum, packaged in a reusable apple-shaped polypropylene cup and a removable acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene lid. A polyvinyl chloride heat-shrink label conforms to the shape of the container, delivering graphics via a modified flexo press.

October 31, 2001

Converting equipment

Coke 'endorses' new mold-making technology

The Coca-Cola Co., Atlanta, GA, has endorsed new technology for making tooling for injection and blow-molding equipment. The process is patented by Metallamics (Traverse City, MI) and improves the cycle times of, in this case, molding of preforms and plastic soft drink bottles.

October 31, 2001