Pasta and sauces flourish in retort pouches

Award: Gold Award in Packaging Excellence

Winner: Buitoni microwavable retort pouches (Nestlé)

So many products that were once packed in glass jars and metal cans are now thriving in flexible packaging. What might be a first for heat-and-serve pasta and sauces are shaped, single-serve pouches in 150- and 220-gram sizes that reduce handling costs and logistical challenges for Nestlé.

In June 2006, the Swiss giant introduced shelf-stable pasta and sauces under the Buitoni brand in the microwavable retort pouches, which act as a line extension, Asia Food Journal hears, and eliminate the need for a costly cold chain.

CLP Industries, the Israeli parent company of US-based CLP Packaging Solutions (www.clppackagingsolutions.com), won a Gold Award in Packaging Excellence for its technology used to produce the shaped, premade Buitoni pouches that maintain a distinctive profile on supermarket shelves. They echo the products' traditional packaging profiles in stores, which helps to ease consumers' perceptions of the new, flexible container structures for the familiar brand.

Shelf-stable for up to one year, the products in their break-resistant, standup pouches take just 80 seconds to heat in the microwave.

Fine details

CLP says the retorting process used in Buitoni's case is quick, which preserves delicate flavors. Converted in Israel, the pouches are made of a nonfoil adhesive lamination incorporating a high-barrier polyethylene terephthalate film from Toray of Japan (www.toray.co.jp), a PET print layer from Korea's Kolon (www.ikolon.com), a biaxially oriented nylon layer from Caffaro (www.caffarochem.com) in Italy for puncture-resistance and flexibility, a polypropylene sealant layer supplied by Polyon (www.polyon.co.il/) in Israel, and retortable adhesives from Rohm and Haas (www.rohmhaas.com) in Italy.

The pouch film lends outstanding protection against oxygen and has stiffness, puncture-resistance and durability. The total thickness of each pouch is 122 microns (0.122 millimeters).

The shaped pouch construction for both products require precise registration and the skillful use of a specialized Totani (www.totaniamerica.com) system for making shaped pouches. CLP reverse-prints the PET layer and laminates, and converts the pouches on a line equipped with an eight-color Cerutti (www.cerutti.it) gravure press and a Rotomec laminator from Bobst Group (www.bobstgroup.com).

The retortable printing inks are furnished by Siegwerk Druckfaren AG (www.siegwerk.de). CLP says that printing the reverse side of the PET layer delivers appetizing images and highly-legible type, including the tiny typeface of the instructions.

The vibrant graphics were created to be as attractive as they would be if printed on conventional paper jar labels. Luscious photo vignettes of noodles or a bowlful of deep, red pasta sauce draw attention to the products on store shelves. A laser-scored tear notch—accomplished by only perforating one of the layers in the pouch laminate, leaving barrier properties intact—makes for fast, easy and neat opening from either side of the pouch top.

The products are copacked by Simpson Ready Foods, Ltd. (www.simpsonsfoods.co.uk), in Manchester, England.