The top Diamond Award went to Fall River Wild Rice, packaged in America’s first microwavable retort pouch. The pouch is manufactured by CLP Industries Ltd., an Israeli supplier with offices in Fairfield, N.J. The shelf-stable rice uses a four-ply structure (plus adhesive layers) that substitutes glass-coated PET for foil to create a gusseted pouch that can withstand retort pressure of up to 21.3 psi. Other layers are BONYL, CPP and PET. The standup pouch is reverse printed in eight colors on a gravure press and is laser scored only on the nylon layer for easy opening.
• ASAP Inc., developers of a gumball machine-shaped microwavable popcorn pouch, by LM Packaging Inc.