If the kids turn up their noses at Flintstone vitamins, maybe a packet of Italian herbs laced with B12 and niacin for their pizza is the way to ensure balanced nutrition.


Granulated garlic and five other spice varieties deliver daily vitamin needs in single-serve Funnelpacks, a new package shape. Sources: VitaminSpice LLC and Inland Packaging Inc.




Wayne, PA, entrepreneur Ed Bukstel came up with the idea of seasonings impregnated with microencapsulated vitamins while cooking in the kitchen with his young daughters in May 2008. Four months later, he started distributing PET bottles with 2 to 3 oz. of ground cinnamon, pepper and granulated garlic, and enough encapsulated vitamin C, riboflavin, folic acid and other essential vitamins, to meet up to 82% of daily recommended intake in a couple of shakes.

“Encapsulation helps prevent the vitamins from denaturing and ensures they impart no taste,” explains Bukstel. Each particle is 150 to 200 microns, and his firm, VitaminSpice LLC, soon will deploy technology to create even smaller spherical shapes.

Under- or over-dosing occurs when the user varies from the 2-gram/half teaspoon serving size. That issue, along with portability and waste, is resolved with Funnelpack, a sachet shaped like an isosceles triangle. “The first time I saw the Funnelpack, I said, ‘It looks like a pizza slice,’” which also happened to be the kid-friendly food Bukstel envisioned as the ideal carrier of his enhanced-nutrition seasonings. Ten days later, he was showing the single-serve packets at the International Pizza Expo to very favorable reviews, Bukstel says.

He learned about Funnelpack after January’s Winter Fancy Foods Show and contacted Gidon Reichstein, president of Inland Packaging Inc., a Plantation, FL, copacker and the North American representative for Funnelpack SL.

“The rectangular sugar pack was replaced by the stick pack,” observes Reichstein, “and the same thing is happening with the Funnelpack because it’s an unmessy format” and delivers a consistent product flow. A wide range of viscous products and powders are being filled in Funnelpack’s Barcelona, Spain, facility. Any laminated material can be used, and the manufacturer is addressing sealing issues with PLA to offer it as an option. All forming, filling and sealing of packets is done in Spain, though Reichstein anticipates offering Funnelpack as a copack option at his facility at some point.  


For more information:
Gidon Reichstein, Inland Packaging Inc., 954-730-8808, gidon1@gate.net