MoreLansing-based Quality Dairy claims unit sales of five single-serve milk products increased 14 percent in the first quarter this year when it inserted pop-up straws in packages sold in its 31 convenience stores. A 10 percent gain was posted for three 16-oz. juice products.
The price premium was more than enough to offset the cost of the straw, which was developed by the PopStraw Co., Roseville, Mich. A second dairy company will incorporate the pop-up straws in its packaging operations early next year.
The straws are fitted with a foam collar that's half the density of water, "so it really wants to pop up" when the cap is removed, explains Peter Murphy, president and cofounder of PopStraw. "It's like a life preserver. It lifts the whole straw almost two inches above the top of the container."
PopStraw sells the sterile, double-bagged straws to beverage companies and installs the equipment to package them at no charge.
The lock-and-release insertion system devised for the first two customers relies on compression and the straw's ribs to match fill speeds of 300 units a minute. A vibratory bowl orients straws and feeds them to a 31-in.-sq. machine that inserts the straw into a container under pressure. The bottle then is filled and capped, at which point an 18-in. machine squeezes the bottle to release the straw inside.
A second system capable of filling 900 units a minute also has been developed. It incorporates a hold-down device to prevent an unlocked straw from popping out prior to capping. The system was developed for glass containers and high-speed operations.
Next year, the company hopes to commercialize an injection molding system that uses MuCell, a polymer with microscopic air pockets that give straws buoyancy without a foam collar. That system would expand the straw's market to aseptic containers and carbonated soft drinks filled at 2,000 units per minute, Murphy says.
The Food Defense Strategy Exchange (FDSE) is a forum for food defense professionals to interact and share their knowledge and experiences. At the most recent FDSE, a poll of attendees revealed that approximately two-thirds were either re-evaluating their existing food defense plan, or implementing new food defense plans. In this podcast, Don Hsieh, Director of Commercial and Industrial Marketing at Tyco Integrated Security, discusses this topic and other findings from the exchange, and offers some best practices to proactively protect a company’s brand from food adulteration.
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