Keeping Up With Demand – Food for Thought
Consumers are looking for a reduction in packaging materials, as well as a shift towards more paper, compostable, and biodegradable materials that have less of a negative environmental impact. Felins Foodie, Lisa Barrieau, explains an adhesive-free labeling and sleeving solution that allows food manufacturers to keep up with the consumer demands.
Video Transcript
Welcome! This is Food for Thought with Felins Foodie.
Food manufacturers today are looking for sustainable solutions that can be used for numerous applications allowing the marketing department to brand various products that both retailers and consumers will love.
Consumers are looking for a reduction in packaging materials as well as a shift towards more paper, compostable, and biodegradable materials that have less of a negative environmental impact.
Finding these types of materials is a challenge in itself, but also finding a way of applying these materials during production can present itself as another obstacle. As manufacturers are working to combat the labor shortage, it is increasingly important that they invest in equipment that can be used for numerous products and applications, increasing the value of their investment.
Companies like Costco and Sam’s Club sometimes require a trial launch to see how a product does in a club store setting. This puts pressure on the food manufacturer requiring them to have a flexible solution for a quick product launch.
Ask Felins Foodie: Q&A
I’ve actually received a couple questions. Let’s check them out.
Q: Does your current labeling or sleeving solution allow you to launch a multipack on a trial basis?
A: Many adhesive labels—while they look great—are not applied with tension, making them a challenging, if not impossible, solution for unitizing products successfully. Most paperboard sleeves would require glues or adhesives to unitize products in order to ensure that the bundle holds up during shipment. Ultrasonic technology, however, applies a label or a sleeve with tension and an ultrasonic weld, eliminating the need for glues or adhesives! This is an excellent solution for both single products and multipack.
Q: Can your labeling, sleeving or unitizing solution run paper, plastic, transparent film and compostable materials?
A: Most sleeving technologies run a paper substrate and most labeling technologies run a plastic substrate. The downside of this, it that manufacturers are limited to the type of materials that they can run for various products at the plant. It is easy for companies to switch between a paperboard sleeve or a plastic label when the process is very labor-intensive, but as companies are looking for a more automated option, it is challenging to find a solution that is just as flexible. A solution to this problem is banding! Did you know that with one banding system you can run pulpable papers, recyclable plastics, transparent films, as well as compostable materials?! This opens up the opportunity for marketing to explore creative ways of branding their product with substrate options that are aligned with what consumers are looking for!
Fun Fact:
Banding is great for co-packers because numerous brands of products can be labeled or sleeved with their unique artwork without requiring multiple pieces of equipment or manual labor.
Ultrasonic Banding
There are numerous ways for food manufacturers to brand their products in a way that speaks to the customer. With ultrasonic banding, we can become a partner, helping manufacturers brand various products with one solution capable of running sustainable, earth-friendly, materials with vibrant graphics as well as offering a solution that can run both single products and multipacks!
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