Innovation abounds in the beverage packaging sector where competition among brands in all beverage categories is so fierce that packaging must play a major marketing and selling role. This was evident in the 2006 DuPont Awards Competition where an aseptic transparent stand-up pouch and a beer can with a thermal barrier shared the top Diamond Award.

Tetra Pak won both the Diamond and Gold Awards for what it claims is the world's first aseptic transparent stand-up pouch, the Tetra Wedge Aseptic Clear 200S. Mexican beverage company Jumex was among the first to use the pouch. Source: DuPont.


The Labatt Blue Cold One can was the second Diamond Award winner. By using DuPont's Cool2Go barrier wrap, the beer in the can stays colder longer. Source: DuPont.



The 19th DuPont Awards Competition, which honors innovation in packaging, awarded Tetra Pak both the Diamond and Gold Awards for its Tetra Wedge Aseptic Clear 200S, designed especially for children's on-the-go drinks. The stand-up pouch's transparent see-through look appeals to 6 to 12 year olds while the aseptic process ensures safe, portable products with high quality taste and nutritional value without preservatives or hot filling.

Meanwhile, the Labatt Blue Cold One can was also awarded both the Diamond and Gold Awards for its beverage packaging breakthrough. The specially engineered can keeps beer crisp and cold longer by using a thin insulating layer that protects the beer from heat transferred from hands, condensation and outside temperature. The DuPont Cool2Go wrap on the cans is a polymer insulation sandwiched between two layers of DuPont Teijin Films' Melinex film, producing a thin thermal barrier.

Kraft Foods' Chips Ahoy! chocolate chip cookie pack won a Gold Award thanks to its innovative re-close feature on the package's top panel. Source: DuPont.

Other Gold Award winners included the Tradewinds Tea beverage in Amcor PET Packaging's panel- and rib-free PowerFlex PET container for hot-fill applications; the "Fridge Door Fit" ketchup bottle from Heinz North America featuring a novel bottle design from Graham Packaging and a closure system from Seaquist Closures that provides consumers a more convenient means of storing, handling, and dispensing ketchup from large-size containers; and the Snack ‘n Seal patented reclosable packaging system from Sonoco Products Company and Spear USA for Kraft Foods' Chewy Chips Ahoy! chocolate chip cookies.

Among the Silver Award winners were Alcoa Packaging for its shrink sleeve labeling for Barilla Restaurant Creations stacked pasta sauce jars; the FlexCan easy open and reclosable stand-up flexible container from Amcor Flexibles; the first commercial liquid nitrogen hot fill bottle from Graham Packaging for Martinelli's round apple-shaped PET bottle conversion; the Healthy FX multi-layer, self-venting microwavable packaging from QuickWave International Corp.; and the low-acid aseptic microwavable wedge-shaped Tetra Wedge carton from Tetra Pak.

For more information: Lois Marie Smith, DuPont,

lois-marie.smith@usa.dupont.com, 302-992-4004