Natural Products Expo West

Come see Aaron Thomas Company at the Natural Products Expo West trade show March 12-14, 2010 in Anaheim, California. Our booth number is 1590.

Attended by more than 53,000 industry professionals from across the globe, Natural Products Expo West is the premier trade show for the healthy products industry. Co-located with SupplyExpo, the Nutracon conference, the Healthy Baking Seminar and the Fresh Ideas Organic Marketplace, these combined events showcase the entire value chain of healthy products from start to finish, identifying the bestsellers of today and the trends of tomorrow. Natural Products Expo West is ranked as one of the top 100 shows in the US and one of the fastest 50 growing tradeshows in the US and Canada.

For more information please visit the Natural Products Expo official site.

SNAXPO 2010, Snack Food Trade Show

Aaron Thomas Company, Inc. is proud to announce that we will be exhibiting at SNAXPO 2010. Come visit booth #620 and learn about contract packaging, our latest turnkey packaging services, food packaging solutions and organic packaging capabilities!

SNAXPO is the Snack Food Association’s annual trade show devoted exclusively to the international snack food industry.

SNAXPO showcases the latest equipment, technology, ingredients, products and services aimed at improving snack manufacturer’s operations. An estimated 1,500 industry professionals from around the world are expected to attend SNAXPO 2010. The show attracts leading manufacturers and suppliers from all areas of the snack food industry.

SNAXPO 2010
March 3 - March 5, 2010
Fort Worth Convention Center
1201 Houston Street
Fort Worth, TX 76102, USA
Booth 620

The Snack Food Association (SFA) is the international trade association of the snack food industry representing more than 400 snack manufacturers and suppliers around the world.

About SNAXPO

• SNAXPO is the world’s premier event for the snack food industry.
• SNAXPO is the world’s best forum for networking with some of the best and brightest minds in the snack food industry.
• SNAXPO exhibitors and attendees help define the future direction of the entire industry.
• SNAXPO presents the latest innovations, ideas, products and new ways to cut costs and build profits that you won’t find on the Internet.
• SNAXPO attracts snack industry manufacturers from around the world including: Latin America, Europe, The Pacific Rim, etc.

Why Attend?

• Over 2000 industry professionals, including buyers, decision-makers and industry leaders.
• Over 200 exhibitors from virtually every aspect of the snacking industry.
• Expert speakers and industry presentations.
• Educational Programs on a variety of industry issues.
• Special Latin American Track with the entire program in Spanish.
• Special events to honor international attendees.
• SNAXPO Golf Tournament.
• A historic city filled with a superior variety of attractions, shopping, restaurants, hotels and nightlife.

Aaron Thomas will have pouches, portion packs, pillow packs, overwraps and samples of kitting on display. Be sure to drop by our booth!

Brand Value in Packaging

Market competition in this day and age is quite stiff, and as a result, businesses and other organizations are frantically trying to find new ways to get customers to purchase their products. So how is it possible to stand out amidst such stiff competition? By utilizing excellent packaging, your company can bring more customers in. Nothing tends to get the attention of a customer the same way that outstanding packaging design can. At the point of purchasing a product, packaging is what serves as a direct link between the product within and the customer looking to make a purchase.

Packaging will appeal to the sense of style and the desires of your customers, which will help them make a decision. Marketing and advertising will both play important roles in the process, but neither of these roles are nearly as close to your product as packaging is, because the decision to make a purchase during the shopping experience is made specifically at the store level and not at the marketing or advertising level. Packaging is capable of drawing the consumer in, in addition to changing the view of a brand in order to help the customer make the purchase that they need.

What we need to think about then, is our packaging that we are using as well as the choices that we are making when it comes to packaging and selling our products. If the packaging is not doing anything when it comes to drawing attention to the product, then nobody is going to buy the product. Great packaging designs are going to support the brand, and in many cases, good packaging is also capable of building, creating and reflecting the brand. Whether your packaging is designed for business to business sales or consumer retail sales, packaging is everything when it comes to truly reflecting the brand.

It is important that you really get to know your market well so that you can make sure you are having a positive level of penetration. Also, having a good packaging design will continue to work for your company and your product for many years to come, which will allow you to build a large amount of loyalty all along the way. It is important, for this reason, that you make a point to know your customers well, and that you choose your packaging options accordingly in order to be able to penetrate the market with your packaging. When you come up with a solid concept for packaging, that is when you can generate real brand power, garnering the appreciation of your customers and building business as a result.

Greener Packaging Design

Think about the traditional three R’s associated with waste hierarchy, which are reduce, reuse and then recycle. These three R’s associated with the waste hierarchy should absolutely be considered when it comes to product development and packaging development as well.

1. Prevention is step one, because waste prevention should definitely be a primary goal when it comes to product and packaging development. Packaging should only be used where it is absolutely needed. Proper packaging is also an excellent way for your company to help to prevent excess waste. Packaging can play an important role in helping to prevent loss or damage to the contents of the packaging. The energy content as well as the material usage for whatever product is being packaged is usually going to be much greater than the energy content of the package itself. One of the most vital functions of the package is to protect whatever contents are inside for their intended use. For example, if the product is either damaged or degraded, then its material content and energy content may have been entirely lost.

2. Minimization is also known as source reduction, and relates to the mass and the volume of packaging. The mass and the volume of packaging, for each individual unit of content, are capable of being measured as well as used as one of the numerous criteria for minimizing during the process of packaging and design. Reduced packaging makes it possible for costs to be significantly minimized. Packaging engineers are consistently working toward reducing their packaging.

3. Reuse is important because it is encouraged for packaging or components of packaging to be reused for other purposes. When packaging is capable of being returned, it is even more useful as well as more economically viable as well, especially when it comes to closed loop logistical systems. In some case inspection and cleaning are required, and repair and recouperage may also be required in some instances.

4. Recycling involves the reprocessing of packaging materials, including pre consumer materials and post consumer materials in order to create new products. Emphasis is placed on recycling the largest packaging components, especially when it comes to primary components such as paper, plastic, steel and aluminum for example. Smaller components can also be chosen but they are sometimes much more difficult to separate, so they are only chosen when they do not contaminate the operations of recycling.

5. Energy recovery allows for heat to be made available from packaging components through refuse derived fuel and waste to energy processes which can be conducted within approved facilities.

6. Disposal is needed for some materials used in packaging, which means incineration as well as placement within a sanitary landfill. Certain states located within the United States will regulate packages for contents that are potentially toxic, especially if these packages have the potential to contaminate the air from incineration. Packaging like this should never simply be littered.

We hope this provides you a good starting point for your greener package design.

Edible Food Packaging Trends

“Talk about your childhood wishes, you can even eat the dishes.” — Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

Can you imagine going to the store, purchasing a yogurt cup, and then eating not only the contents of the cup but also the cup itself? This is a new innovation that is happening in the trend toward creating healthier and environmentally friendly alternatives. There is an organic food company operating out of California that is working hard to research this type of product.

Another example of alternative food packaging is edible films. The Division of Agriculture of the University of Arkansas is working on inventing and patenting several different protein-based films that are capable of serving as a carrier for organic acids capable of inhibiting the growth of three major food borne bacteria, which are E. coli, Salmonella and Listeria moncytogense. Additionally, these films can be used as a vehicle to deliver antioxidants, flavors, nutraceuticals, colors and a number other functional types of ingredients. There are a number of anticipated applications which include meats, vegetables, fruits, seafood, frozen pizza and frozen snacks, cereals, nuts and seeds and much more. This category is proving itself to be at the very cutting edge for when it comes to innovative food packaging trends in this day and age.

However, there are a number of challenges that this type of packaging is liable to face. The prices associated with organic foods are tending to be higher when it comes to the supermarket channel. The problem is going to have more to do with supply and demand in this particular instance. According to a study by Arcus, organic food has grown by 20 percent over the period of the last decade. And yet, it is still being perceived as a small business, with only 3.5 percent of the food industry in Canada, or $1.8 billion dollars per year. Small changes in the way of supply and demand are capable of rocking the entire industry. For example, if a company has a 7 percent share and wants to grow to 10 percent, they will need to grow their entire supply chain by as much as 50 percent. The supply chain just does not exist the same way today.

The one thing that dissuades customers from buying organic today in most cases is the price of the food. The explosion that private label organic food is experiencing is definitely going to be a good thing. Private labels are finally entering into this market in a truly big way, allowing large scale retail chains such as Safeway as well as Whole Foods to focus on creating organic food products as a differentiator in terms of competition, allowing this category to finally reach out to people who shop based on price. Private label organic is also making organic more acceptable on a broad scale, allowing for a deeper level of society to be penetrated. Finally, organic private label will create additional supply to fuel supply and demand as farmers and suppliers begin to realize that organic food is here to stay and is not just another fad.

Innovative Packaging

Many of the products that have been innovative over the years have been successful as a result of packaging which has done its job. When the packaging is well made and well developed, you will fall in love with the product as a result. Sometimes the success of a product is completely dependent upon packaging that works. Everything needs packaging in some form of another, and when the packaging works, the product contained within is likely to work as well.

There have been a wide variety of different product packaging innovations that have come to make our lives a lot easier. There are also a number of different types of packaged products that we tend to simply take for granted, without necessarily realizing how the packaging made the product possible. For example, could we have potato chips or eggs without their packages? There are dozens of different egg drop contests all over the country that are held to create unique packaging options for eggs. Could we have toothpaste without the unique packing that makes it possible? Could we pop microwave popcorn without its unique bag?

There is a truly astounding list of packaging innovations that have been able to influence our everyday lives. There have been a myriad of different important packing innovations that have been developed in the last fifty years or so. There are a lot of key words that are regularly used when describing innovations in the world of product packaging, including terms like microwavable, shelf stable, juice box, meal replacement and home meal are all terms that have come as direct results from innovations in the world of product packaging. What many companies are now facing is how they can integrate innovative packaging concepts into their own project packaging in order to get the most out of their product packaging while utilizing the newest technologies as well as the most effective ways of packaging something.

How can you take your current type of packaging and somehow improve upon it? Looking at packaging innovations in the food industry is an excellent way to see how companies have been able to make packaging work for them. For examples, Sargento cheese was the first cheese company to put a reclosable zipper on the packaging for their shredded cheese. Wishbone Salad Dressing was the first company to develop salad dressing that could be sprayed rather than poured. Clorox developed a bleaching application capable of being applied directly to a stain, a Clorox bleach pen. By looking at these examples, it should not be impossible for you to see what it means to make packaging work for you. If your product can be improved upon in some way based on its packaging, or if you can somehow develop packaging that is innovative, then you are definitely making your packaging work for you.

Packaging Types

You can generally look at packaging as falling into several different types of groups. Transport packages or distribution packages, for example, are packages that are used to ship, handle and store inner packages or products. Some people identify consumer packages as packages that are directly aimed for a household or a consumer.

Packaging is also capable of being discussed in relation to what type of product is actually being packaged within, such as bulk chemical packaging for example, or medical device packaging, over the counter packaging for drugs, food packaging for retail sales, military materials packaging, pharmaceuticals packaging and so on and so forth.

Sometimes it is convenient for people to categorize the different types of packaging based on their layer of function, such as primary packaging, secondary packaging, tertiary packaging and so on and so forth. In this particular scenario when it comes to identifying packaging based on its function, primary packaging is described as the material that is designed to envelope and to d the specific product itself. Primary packaging is usually the absolute smallest possible unit of use or of distribution, and it is also commonly regarded as the packaging that actually comes in a direct level of contact with the actual contents. Secondary packaging on the other hand is the type of packaging that is outside of the primary level of packaging and this level of packaging functionality is often used specifically to group a number of primary packages together with one another. The third level of packaging is tertiary packaging, which is especially common for bulk handling, transport shipping as well as warehouse storage. The most common form of tertiary packaging is a palletized unit loan that is packed into tight containers.

When soda pop is poured into aluminum cans and sealed, the aluminum can is perceived to be the primary form of packaging because it is the closest form of packaging to the actual product. The aluminum cans are sold in cases made of cardboard, which are perceived to be the secondary form of packaging because they are the packages that contain the primary packages. Finally, the tertiary form of packaging is perceived as whatever specific form of packaging is used for the purpose of wide spread distribution, such as a pallet system for example, where a large number of cases of cans of soda are wrapped in shrink wrap and carried on large wooden pallets to their destination.

These broad categories are often viewed as being somewhat arbitrary in nature. For example, depending on the specific use, shrink wrap is capable of being considered as primary packaging when it is being applied directly to the specific product, but it is also considered secondary packaging when the shrink wrap is used to combine smaller packages, and in some distribution packs shrink wrap is used as tertiary packaging as it keeps large pallets of products together in one place.

Packaging Laws

For those of you interested in staying current on regulations that effect the food packaging industry, there is a website dedicated to this very topic.

PackagingLaw.com is an online resource for both national and international packaging laws. This is a free resource sponsored by the law firm of Keller and Heckman LLP.

PackagingLaw.com is the leader in up to date information on laws effecting the product design and packaging communities. The website features regular updated regulatory news, links to packaging industry and government websites, monthly focus on topics, the ability to consult a law specialist online, and information on the FDA Food Contact Notification system.

Don’t make a costly mistake. be sure to visit their site before you package your food or drug product.

Organic Packaging

When does “organic” truly mean “organic”?

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has recently established new standards for organically grown foods to clarify any confusion. The new rules define how and when products and marketing materials may bear the term “organic” or the new USDA “Organic” seal.

The rules state that:

• Products labeled “100% Organic”must be made entirely of organic materials.
• Products labeled “Organic” or “95% Organic” must consist of at least 95% organically grown ingredients.
• Products that have at least 70% organic ingredients may be marketed as “Made with Organic Ingredients” and may list up to three of those ingredients on the front of the product.

Products containing less that 70% organically grown ingredients may not make statements about the organically grown ingredients on the front of the product. The organic ingredients may only be declared in the list of ingredients.

Additionally, the new rules prohibit the use of irradiated and bio-technically enhanced ingredients in the production of any organic products.

Products allowed to display the new USDA seal must originate from farms and processors that have been certified by a private or public agency accredited by the USDA.

Most consumers believe that organically grown food is safer or more nutritious than conventionally grown foods. Many are willing to pay extra for the perceived benefits.

The USDA has stated that the new USDA Organic seal on packages is simply a marketing standard and not a stamp of approval. Still, many believe that the USDA Organic stamp will be perceived as an endorsement or a mark of quality.

Already there is talk that the new seal may have to be redesigned—or abandoned all together—if consumers misinterpret the meaning of the seal.

For addition information, download the official USDA publication:

Organic Packaging (39 KB | .pdf)

Security Packaging

We have all purchased product that the checkout clerk had to pass over a special electronic pad before they placed the item into the bag.

Why did the clerk have to do that?

Chances are, they were deactivating an electronic device attached to, or hidden within, the product you purchased.

Source tagging is the process of adding a small electronic device to a product in order to deter shrinkage (theft). The device sets off a store alarm if it is not deactivated at the time of checkout.

To everyone but would-be thieves, source tagging creates a win-win-win situation: the devices allow retailers to focus on honest customers instead of worrying about shoplifters; product manufacturers are being provided more shelf space for items that are normally considered high shrink; and customers are able to handle product that is normally stowed out of sight. The benefits so far outweigh any negatives that industry experts expect more and more product to contain these devices.

But who will apply these devices? Most retailers want the tags to be applied during the manufacturing or packaging process instead of at the retail level. Not only does it eliminate the possibility of employee tampering but it also makes the process of stocking shelves more efficient.

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