In the coming months, IPM Foods LLC, a start-up contract manufacturer, will try to resurrect low-acid canning without the can, using Tetra Pak’s Recart packaging system.

A dozen types of chili ushered in low-acid retorting with Recart four years ago. A “preservative free” star burst reinforced the freshness message the container is meant to convey.  Source: Tetra Pak Inc.




Pawel Marciniak, owner of Beloit, WI-based IPM, is completing refurbishment of the former Wisconsin Pretzel facility in the Gateway Business Park. The Illinois-Wisconsin border community of Beloit also is home to the Hormel plant that packaged and processed Hormel and Stagg chili in Recart containers in 2004, the container’s first North American low-acid application. Hormel dropped the package the following year, and the Recart line was removed.

Marciniak is a former Tetra Pak employee who worked on Recart, a six-layer structure that is two-thirds cellulose laminated to polymer, foil and adhesive layers. Tetra Pak developed a special form/fill/seal machine for the package, which can withstand steam and water sprays up to 266