Seven days is the longest shelf life lobster meat gets, and that’s not long enough for retail distribution.

Annual growth in US bottled water will be less than 1% for the next five years, UK beverage researcher Canadean Ltd. forecasts, though the thirsty Asian market will help the category attain 2.8% growth worldwide this year.

Like Frank Sinatra, Scott Sechler’s mantra is, “I did it my way.” So when a key customer asked him to come up with case-ready packaging for his antibiotic-free, organic chickens, Sechler took pains to find something distinctive and different.

Breathtaking changes in food production are a hallmark of California agriculture. The latest is occurring in the Sacramento Valley, where the owners of California Olive Ranch (COR) have made a $60 million down payment toward an aggressive plan to produce four million tons of olive oil a year, about 5% of US consumption.

Sean O’Connor doesn’t think his company’s sales are coming out of the hides of Aunt Jemima or Bisquick’s Shake ‘n’ Pour. Instead, he sees his aerosoled pancake batter expanding the market.

Tad Pawlowski had a problem with the live lobsters he was shipping to Europe: most of them were dead before they cleared customs.

Closeted for years in boxes and kegs, the beverage bag is emerging in all its glory, thanks to a collaboration between US and Israeli packaging firms.

Probiotics and other healthy-living products flirt with the line between food and pharmaceuticals, and food companies are taking steps to make sure both the containers they come in and the products themselves have positive outcomes.

When concerns about product tampering spiked after September 2001, induction-sealer suppliers thought they might win more food and beverage business.

Less can be more in container performance when basic architectural principles are brought to bear. At least, that’s what Ropak Packaging Corp. contends.