A very tasty selection

30 November 2010



Packaging suppliers are offering ‘new, improved’ materials and technologies to give brand owners a very tasty selection of flexible formats, writes Joanne Hunter.


American snack maker Frito-Lay switched back to its old-style packaging made from conventional plastics for the SunChips range because of complaints that the new biodegradable bags were stiff and noisy. Only the original plain flavour has stuck with the new plant-based packs which launched in 2009.

However, a compostable pack claimed to look, feel and sound the same as the traditional one has been brought to market by another North American manufacturer, Boulder Canyon Natural Foods. The company has avoided upsetting its consumers thanks to Innovia Films. The bag for All Natural Kettle Cooked Potato Chips is said to be the first of its kind on the market to be made from a structure that incorporates Innovia’s metallised NatureFlex NKM.

NatureFlex cellulose-based film contains over 90% renewable content as measured by ASTM 6866 and is compostable in home and industrial settings, according to ASTM D6400 and EN13432 standards.

Bill Reilly, the Development Manager at Canadian packaging converter Genpak who recommended NatureFlex NKM to Boulder Canyon, says: “The film performs well technically and has excellent moisture, gas and light barrier properties thatenhance shelf life and protect the product.”

Boulder Canyon’s Senior Vice President of Marketing Steve Sklar adds: “Our new packaging ensures that we set a positive example for the industry by diverting waste away from landfills.”

Lately reported is that PepsiCo’s crisp brand Walker’s is looking to use potato peelings for bags instead of cellulose from wood pulp that promise to be less ‘crackly’. The innovation will divert the peelings that would normally go into animal feed. Apparently the new bags could be on shelves within 18 months.

The concept of ‘environmentally friendly’ flexible retail packaging will gain even greater appeal in the eyes of brands and retailers when it can compete with the traditional material in terms of colour and functionality, it is argued. How much of a difference this in fact will make will be put to the test by users of Clariant’s new compostable and eco-safe masterbatches that are designed to allow for more colourful bioplastics and performance-enhancing additives in biopolymers.

Renol colours and Cesa additive masterbatches incorporate conventional (non-natural) additives and pigments in a biopolymer carrier resin that meet standards for compostability and ecotoxicity, says Clariant.

“Until recently, companies developing products from biopolymers such as PLA and Mater-Bi had a difficult decision,” explains Hendrik Kammler, Global Head of Segment Additives, Clariant Masterbatches. “They could use all-natural masterbatches and accept that the range of colours and additives was limited, expensive and not very process or light-stable. Or, they could use conventional pigments and functional ingredients and compromise on the environmental friendliness of their product. Now, we can provide them with a very attractive third alternative.”

The march of progress in flexible formats continues with Dow Chemicals, which is promoting its new recipe for creating easy-open packs that have consistent peel performance. Sealution polyolefin-based, single pellet formulations are for use in blown and cast film applications, with polyethylene (PE) or polypropylene (PP) substrates, and for peel seal applications, such as pouches and lidstock.

“Think of opening the bag inside the cereal box, the bag-like sleeve used to keep crackers fresh in the box, or even a package of cheese,” says Julia Schlenz, European Strategic Marketing Manager. “Dow’s peel polymer technology does a good job of keeping those bags reliably intact through the packaging and shipping process – yet also allows the bags to peel open easily when consumers pull to open them.

“The result is that the package requires less effort, and opens reliably where it should.”

International Food Partners (IFP)’s sealing technology for flexible packaging is believed to be a way for food manufacturers to save ‘thousands of tonnes of film per year’. Global frozen food company McCain Foods has installed Integrity Seal on all its filling machines in three factories in the UK, says IFP. Integrity Seal is a retro-fit system for use on vertical form/fill/seal and horizontal flow wrap machines. It uses new generation weld technology to produce very narrow bead seals that are 1mm wide compared with conventional crimp seals that are typically 15mm wide. This can save 10% in the length of the pack as well as improve product quality and give longer shelf life, according to IFP.

“The food industry was in need of a superior seal system on packaging that uses flexible films, and I am confident that we can make a significant impact on reducing film packaging,” says FP Director Graham Clough.

Convenience is one of the major innovation drivers in food packaging and the origin for the development of the Zip&Valve Pouch, states Christian Kolarik, Managing Director, Mondi Consumer Bags & Films.

The retortable PET/CPP stand-up pouch for cooking in the microwave is said to offer shelf life, reclosability and nutritional benefits, and is suitable for rice, popcorn, cereals, sauces, and fresh vegetables.

The PP zipper lets the user season the food to taste, add the liquid as required, and divide the contents into portions. Opening a fresh-made popcorn pouch is easier and safer because the steam has already escaped through the valves.

The colour of confidence

A brand colour makes a product instantly identifiable among the many competing products on the store shelf, but to deliver this can be challenging. It is not uncommon for the accuracy of the brand colour to get lost in the maze of processes between initial creative design and final production printing. Variants of the target colour can arise across the different packaging types on a variety of substrates and constructions.

Smart Colour from Sun Chemical promises to come to the rescue. The system captures the knowledge of how brand colours are reproduced and supplies the information upstream to the brand owner and design teams from the outset. Colour standards are created on print specific substrate structures on the correct print process and with the correct ink technologies.

When Sun Chemical is the ink supplier for production, it can complete the loop by ensuring that accurately matched inks are issued to presses anywhere in the world so that time and costs incurred in packaging development are minimised.

A further development by Sun Chemical involves taking accurate colour measurements of the ‘print realistic’ colours. The Smart Colour Engine is a central digital library of Sun Chemical brand spot colours across flexo, gravure and litho, capturing the solid and also the full tonal vignette of the colour. The goal is to enable designers and prepress operators to be able to develop designs for the brand owner that are known to be achievable from the outset of the project.


The Kettle Cooked Potato Chips bag incorporates Innovia's metallised NatureFlex NKM film. Kettle Mondi’s Zip&Valve Pouch: shelf life, reclosability and nutritional benefits. Zip&Valve

Zip&Valve Zip&Valve
Kettle Kettle


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