Berry Global container, oxygen barrier label keep sauces fresh

Plastic containers for shelf-stable pasta sauce will be among a wall of glass jars.

The maker of Scarpetta pasta sauces cut use of citric acid to keep products fresh with some packaging changes.

Berry Global, injection molding specialist, developed a new container using transparent windows so shoppers could see the sauces from BC Gourmet USA. “It’s one container that does it all—hot fill, HPP, flash freeze, reheat, high-end graphic, just about anything,” says Dave Burke, business development manager at Berry Global.

Verstraete IML developed the oxygen barrier label that makes the package 100 times more airtight than the regular label. The film wraps around the container’s entire exterior and uses a layer of ethylene vinyl alcohol (or EVOH) to reduce permeability.

“There is virtually no oxygen entering the package, so there is almost no need to add citric acid to act as a preservative,” says Thomas Coene, regional sales manager for Verstraete IML in North America. “You really taste the difference!”

The thin EVOH layer is below the 5% guideline allowing the package to be recycled as mono-layer polypropylene.

Printing can be added to the label anywhere on the package, even the base. The container’s “sqround” shape, a cross between square and round, maximizes branding space.

For more information, visit www.verstraete-IML.com.

Rose Shilling is a previous managing editor of Food Engineering Magazine. She wrote feature stories on a variety of topics and tracked the food packaging industry. A journalist with an editing background at news services and newspapers, she also has driven editorial projects in health care and higher education.