TECH FLASH

Packaging for food startups

New entrepreneurs are entering the food industry in droves, but packaging for those on a tight budget can be challenging.

With changing consumer tastes and attitudes, the food industry seems to be at a crossroads. While some major legacy food brands have committed to taking artificial ingredients out of their products to produce cleaner label items, these types of companies may be losing market share.

According to a recent New York Times article, the investment bank Jefferies reports big brands lost market share in 42 of 54 categories, from baby food to yogurt, over the last five years. Seeing the growth of small food companies, more entrepreneurs are entering the industry. Marie Wilson and her sister are two of these enterprising individuals.

After working on their sorbet’s taste, texture and ingredients, the founders of Island Fruit Snacks, an all-natural sorbet company in Brooklyn, NY, wanted to take the next step for breaking into retail—tamper-evident packaging. However, Wilson did not want to spend a lot on production equipment.

“Just starting out, there is a lot of uncertainty, so we wanted to minimize our capital equipment cost,” says Wilson. To enhance their product’s safety and freshness, and to meet regulatory requirements, Wilson and her sister chose a table-top foil sealing machine from Wilpack Packaging, a Rockford, IL-based manufacturer of manual, semi-automatic and fully automated filling and sealing equipment.

Wilson says Island Fruit Snacks could not have gotten off the ground if it were not for the table-top foil sealing machine. The company has used it for testing, prototyping, product samples and production. The sealed cup offers not only food safety in terms of being tamperproof, it prolongs quality and shelf life.

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Debra Schug was Editor-in-Chief of Food Engineering. She began her media career over a decade ago writing and producing broadcast news for both television and radio at the local and national level. She spent many years as the managing editor for two trade magazines in the oil industry and the research editor for an annual petroleum report. She has a master’s degree in journalism and mass communication from Iowa State University.