Cajuns call it lagniappe: a little something extra, added for good measure. Donut makers do it with a baker’s dozen.

It took half a century, but the San Francisco treat’s first truly new product hit national distribution in late 2012 when PepsiCo’s Quaker division rolled out microwavable instant rice in single-serve cups.

If market share numbers are indicative of trade show attendance, 27,000 packaging machinery buyers from food and beverage companies prowled the aisles at the 2012 PACK EXPO event, and they had the kind of checkbook balances that make equipment fabricators’ eyes water.

‘All-natural’ and good-for-you claims on food packages are fueling a growing number of class action suits.

The tea bag’s image can use some polishing, and what better way than to create a championship competition where the winners use an alternative to the standard flat-pack tea bag?

What Mars did for M&Ms, digital printing is doing for beer and other products in customizing and personalizing products, though US converters are just beginning to tap those capabilities.

A new report outlines the similarities and contrasts of China’s emerging beer market and its American counterpart.

A carton is a carton, but a catchy look is forever.

Survival of the fittest applies to packaging systems, too, and pulsed UV light is the apparent winner of the nonchemical sterilization competition for food containers.