Canadian Packaging April 2023

ALON FARBER, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, PRANA BIOVEGAN INC.

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LOOKING BACK. PRESSING FORWARD. ALWAYS INNOVATING.

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DEPARTMENTS

NEWSPACK

7-8 Packaging news round-up.

NOTES & QUOTES

10 Noteworthy industry briefs.

FIRST GLANCE

11 New packaging solutions and technologies.

ECO-PACK NOW

12 Sustainable packaging innovations.

IMPACT

14 A monthly insight from PAC Global. PEOPLE

43 Career moves in the packaging world.

COLUMNS FROM THE EDITOR

4 George Guidoni

Exploring and assessing the promise of monomaterial flexible packaging.

CHECKOUT

48 Elena Langlois

Joe Public speaks out on packaging hits and misses.

COVER STORY

canadianpackaging.com

18 CRUNCH TIME

Leading processor of organic and all-natural snack foods boost productivity and line efficiency with turnkey high-tech end-of-line packing solution.

FEATURES

24 Celebrity Status

Thriving Ontario goat cheese producer doubles up on key highperformance processing and packaging machinery to boost its production capacity and expand its market reach.

32 Automatic Response

A new landmark industry report on the future of packaging automation sparks lively discussion and ideas exchange at our Automate Now 2023 Roundtable forum.

38 Best In Show

Your preview to the upcoming SIAL Canada 2023 food industry innovations showcase in Toronto next month at the Enercare Centre.

ISSN 0008-4654. Canadian Packaging is published 10 times per year by Annex Business Media. Canada Post Publications Mail Agreement No. 40065710. Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: Circulation Department, 111 Gordon Baker Rd., Suite 400, Toronto, ON M2H 3R1. No part of the editorial content in this publication may be reprinted without the publisher’s written permission. © 2023 Annex Publishing & Printing Inc. All rights reserved. Opinions expressed in this magazine are not necessarily those of the editor or publisher. No liability is assumed for errors or omissions. All advertising is subject to the publisher’s approval. Such approval does not imply any endorsement of the products or services advertised. Publisher reserves the right to refuse advertising that does not meet the standards of this publication. Printed in Canada.

ON THE COVER PRANA Biovegan Inc. co-founder, chairman and chief executive officer Alon Farber.

Cover photo by Pierre Longtin.

Advancing the promise of monomaterial flexible packaging

$160 BILLION US

Global market for flexible packaging in 2020

Keeping promises in the times of nasty surprises and epic disruptions can be an arduous task—especially for the multitude of flexible packaging manufacturers and end-users who have made emphatic pronouncements about making their packaging fully compliant with the Circular Economy principles by the end of this decade.

But as the evidence of growing plastic pollution continues to mount in the planet’s waterways and on the beaches in unsightly heaps of callously discarded plastic trash, packaging suppliers worldwide are quickly finding out that time is not on their side.

It is one of the industry’s greatest ironies that one of flexible packaging’s greatest technological feats—the combining different substrates into one uniform structure offering multiple shelf-life and protective barrier benefits—may be its greatest undoing due to the inability of mechanical recycling systems to manage this global waste stream effectively.

While it remains to be seen whether the new-generation advanced (chemical) recycling technologies can ultimately help resolve this challenging paradox, there is a sense of heightened urgency in industry circles towards reverse-engineering the existing structural complexity back to its basics, while retaining the benefits.

According to a new industry report by Chicago-based market research firm PreScouter, the switch to monomaterial packaging is quickly gathering steam in face of aggressive government regulations and looming EPR (extended producer responsibility) directives aimed at drastic reduction in the amount and types of plastics consumer goods companies use for their products. Released at the end of last year, the Monomaterial Packaging report makes a compelling case why monomaterials are bound to become the future of flexible packaging, if flexible packaging is to have a long-term future.

“Monomaterial packaging has become a buzzword in the packaging industry, particularly in the flexible packaging sector, and will play a significant role in supporting a Circular Economy across sectors,” the report states.

“The current flexible packaging sector

depends on multi-material packaging, which is difficult to recycle.

“Such materials can be mechanically recycled, but given the different materials involved, the resulting material is of low quality,” the study points out. “Hence, multi-materials are not recycled or could potentially be chemically recycled, which is a more complex and less desirable route from a sustainability point of view.”

According to the report’s authors, “Monomaterial packaging can be designed to be fully recyclable as all layers are made of the same type of plastic, leading to cleaner recycling streams and contributing to the Circular Economy.

“For instance, there is potential to replace metallized flexible packaging, which contains an inseparable thin layer of aluminum, making it problematic in the recycling process.”

But before that happens, there are some serious technical challenges and limitations that need be resolved. According to. According to PreScouter, these include heat-sealability; adhesion; printability; achieving high transparency; surface enhancement; food contact compliance; increasing stiffness; and the reduction of used material, without reducing productivity.

While it looks like a daunting multipronged challenge, many of the world’s leading flexible packaging producers— including SABIC, Mondi, Huhtamaki and Klöckner Pentaplast , among others—already have commercially available monomaterial solutions that brandowners can start using today. What’s really missing right now is the sheer volume and a broader range of applications for these solutions to become standardized all over the world.

While no one says it will be easy, worthy noble causes rarely are.

And as PreScouter report points out: “In terms of ESG goals, companies who have adopted monomaterial packaging report are achieving a lower carbon footprint and less use of resources such as water.” Truer words rarely better spoken.

GEORGE GUIDONI, editor GGuidoni@canadianpackaging.com

APRIL 2023 | VOLUME 76, NO. 3

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Nova Scotia healthy beverage pioneers following their gut instincts with no-sugar soda

After striking gold with their unique Kombucha recipe, Nova Scotia-based functional beverage pioneers Cove Gut Healthy Drinks seems to be poised for even bigger things in the fast-growing product category for shelf-stable healthy drinks with the recent launch of Canada’s first zero-sugar functional soda.

Available in Orange, Grape, and Lemon Lime flavors, the new Cove Gut Healthy Soda is a lively carbonated beverage infused with an organic, proprietary natural plant blend sweetener that combines probiotics and prebiotics to enhance gut health, with zero artificial ingredients.

“Our success with Cove Kombucha has given us great insight into consumer behavior, including their continuous desire to educate themselves on improving gut health,” says Cove Drinks chief executive officer John MacLellan.

“We’ve continued to innovate based on these learnings, along with consumer trends that reveal a strong interest in decreasing sugar consumption,” says MacLellan, who co-founded the company with his brother Ryan in 2016 from their mother’s kitchen in in Malignant Cove.

“Cove Soda allows us to respond to consumers’ desire to decrease their consumption of sugar, while simultaneously improving their gut health,” he says, citing the 2023 Global Food and Drink Trends report from Mintel showing that 57 per cent of Canadian consumers value food and drinks which offer health benefits such as heart health, gut health, stress management or immune support.

Packaged in standard-sized 355-ml aluminum cans adorned with colorful graphics created by Chase Design Group and printed by Craft Coast Canning of Fredericton, N.B., the Cove Gut Healthy Soda now retails across Canada in fourpacks and 15-can multipacks at over 1,200 Sobeys and Loblaws locations, as well as leading health-food stores.

“Our product had to have a taste profile consumers would enjoy,” says chief product developer Ryan MacLellan, adding the company is already working on adding new flavors to the brand before its planned expansion to U.S. markets later this year.

All-Canadian oats at the center of new wholesome snack bars from Leclerc

With a large array of snacks in supermarkets and grocery stores, making the right healthy choice can be a daunting task. But with the three new oatmeal-based nutrition bars from Canadian baked-goods manufacturer Leclerc, that choice has just gotten a lot easier. Made with 100-percent Canadian oats, the soft oven-baked Go Pure bars come in three comforting flavor varieties— Chocolate Chip, Carrot Cake and Brownies—packing plenty of fiber and less than seven grams of

sugar per bar to offer Canadians plenty of choice for healthy, affordable and balanced snacking. Available at leading supermarkets and mass merchandisers in five-pack cartons designed by Pigeon Branding, the peanut-free bars are made at Leclerc’s state-of-the-art production facility in Cornwall, Ont., and contain no palm oil, artificial flavors or colors, while providing plenty of energy with high protein and carbs conent.

Cove Gut Healthy Drinks co-founders and brothers John (left) and Ryan MacLennan.

Shoppers Drug Mart’s new beauty products address climate change

Leading Canadian pharmacy chain Shoppers Drug Mart Inc. has launched a highlly innovative new Quo Beauty collection of cosmetic products featuring nearly 30 vegan and cruelty-free beauty products and accessories under the Big Planet, Big Love brand label.

This new sustainable collection comprises an assortment of color cosmetics that were developed in close collaboration with Oceanworks—a global network of plastic

waste collectors and recycled plastic suppliers—to ensure they were designed and made with a keen focus on sustainability, including the use of renewable materials and reclaimed, oceanbound plastic.

“We are committed to finding innovative product and packaging solutions to support our sustainability goals,” says Kelly Jessop, vice-president of category management at the Shoppers Drug Mart

headquarters in Brampton, Ont.

“For example, we’re making it easier for Canadians to create more sustainable beauty routines with our Quo Beauty brand,” Jessop states.

“Working with Oceanworks on select cosmetic products means that consumers can take an active role in reducing ocean plastic pollution with their beauty purchasing decisions.”

As Jessop explains, the Big Planet, Big Love collection from Quo Beauty includes color cosmetics, hair and make-up accessories, nail color and jewelry.

The entire collection is vegan, cruelty-free and PETA-certified, with a focus on sustainability.

Packaging innovations include the use of Oceanworks’ reclaimed ocean-bound plastic in eye and face palettes (100 per cent), facial mist bottles (76 per cent) and lip/cheek products (37 to 45 per cent).

Other notable product innovations include include the launch of reusable accessories such as swabs and cleansing pads, and the use of

bio-sourced materials from renewable vegetal and sources in formulation of the brand’s plant-based nail color range.

According to Jessop, the Big Planet, Big Love launch is the latest in the long list of announcements related to the ambitious ESG (environmental, social and governance) efforts pusued by its parent company’s, Loblaw Companies Limited.

Notably, t, Loblaw is committed to ensuring that all control brand and in-store plastic packaging will be fully reusable or recyclable by 2025 in an effort to help fight global climate change.

The Quo Beauty Big Planet Big Love collection is now available exclusively at Shoppers Drug Mart and Pharmaprix (in Quebec) locations across the country.

With more than 1,300 Shoppers Drug Mart and Pharmaprix stores operating in prime locations in each province and two territories, the company is the largest Canadian retailer of home healthcare products and services.

Nothing says fresh like Fabbri packaging

Fabbri Automatic Stretch Wrappers produce low-cost, highly attractive packages that make your products look fresh and “just packed”.

Artypac Automation Inc., Laval, Que.-based manufacturer specializing in the design and manufacture of automated packaging equipment, has announced a new ownership structure with the arrival of two new partners, Gabriel Laurin and Olivier Goulet, who will take over from company founder Randy Aucoin to ensure Artypac’s long-term continuity and future growth. Founded in 1996, Artypac has evolved into a prominent and well-respected manufacturer and distributor of VFFS (vertical form-filland-seal) machines, horizontal flow wrappers, tamper-evident applicators, combination scales, and volumetric cup-fillers used by customers in the food, chemical and pharmaceutical industries across North America. “From the beginning, we have been impressed by the quality of the Artypac team, the company’s position in its industry, and the growth opportunities that are within reach,” says Artypac’s new president Gabriel Laurin, noting that founder Aucoin will remain involved in the company’s operations. “Artypac is greatly positioned for the future with an

experienced, motivated and agile team,” adds vice-president of finance and operations Olivier Goulet. “With labor shortage a challenge for all businesses, Artypac offers turnkey packaging solutions to its customers to minimize the effects of this problem on their operations, in addition to allowing them to realize their growth objectives.”

Improve

ABB Robotics and Discrete Automation has commenced a US$20-milllion expansion of the company’s North American headquarters in Auburn Mills, Mich., that will create 72 new full-time jobs after completion of the new, highly-automated facility in November of 2023. According to the company, the investment will see the latest digital

and automation technologies implemented to manufacture nextgeneration robots for customers in the Americas region, including utilization of flexible, modular robotic production cells using the latest AI (artificial intelligence) systems to handle tasks such as screw driving, assembling and material handling, while being serviced by intelligent autonomous mobile robots. “As the global mega trends of labor shortages, uncertainty, the near- and reshoring of production, and a desire to operate more sustainably accelerate, more businesses are turning to automation to build resilience while improving efficiency and flexibility,” says Sami Atiya, president of ABB Robotics and Discrete Automation. “Our expanded facility will help us to better serve customers in the U.S. and across the Americas.”

Flexible packaging products group

Constantia Flexibles, headquartered in Vienna, Austria, has signed a joint-venture agreement with Indianbased packaging supplier SB Packagings and private capital investment group Premji Invest, as part

of Constantia’s plan to expand its presence in India’s fast-growing consumer markets. Says Constantia Flexibles chief executive officer Pim Vervaat: “I have the greatest respect for SB Packagings’ achievements and look forward to the joint venture, supported by Premji Invest, to grow the combined business profitably.” In another strategic move, Constantia Flexibles has signed an agreement to acquire the Polish company Drukpol Flexo, a well-established player in the Polish flexible packaging market with strong capabilities in flexo printing and extrusion lamination, employing 183 people at two production sites near Poland’s capital city Warsaw.

the detection of ultra-thin metal contaminants often encountered in the bakery and snack industries. The Interceptor DF metal detector uses Divergent Field Technology to enhance food safety and brand protection.

The landmark Constantia Flexibles global headquarters building in Vienna, Austria.

BEST OF BOTH WORLDS

Combining the best of industrial and collaborative robotics, the new RoboAccess Pal S palletizing system from Sidel delivers speeds of up to 12 cycles per minute, while easily handling case payloads of up to 25 kilograms. According to the company, the compact machine incorporates three new features to provide an even higher level of agility, operability and compactness, with the ability to stack pallets in various layer patterns up to 1,700-mm in height. A lightweighted carbon fiber and 3D-printed clamping head help deliver higher payload capacity and overall machine footprint reduction, while handling a wide range of secondary packaging. The system’s patented folding guarding system ensures effortless movable plug-and-play capabilities, while a patented mobile physical curtain guarantees full operator protection while supplying/removing the pallets.

Sidel

MOVING ALONG

Featuring a painted steel frame for added durability, the new DCMove Belted conveyor from Dorner Mfg. Corp. offers a rugged solution for tough material handling applications such as e-commerce, logistics, packaging, palletizing, and many others. The new conveyor comes standard with many features and performance specifications of Dorner’s heavy-duty platforms, including a wide load capacity range and a motor mounted inside the tails to reduce the conveyor’s footprint within a larger material handling system. According to Dorner, the DCMove Belted fits accuracy demanding applications involving labelers, printers, side transfer sortation, and restricted spaces, while the availability of the plug-and-play iDrive v2 configurations allows customers to select the best control methods for their application ranging from a ready to run conveyor to a flexible control operation. Available in a wide range of widths from 10 to 48 inches, the DCMove Belted conveyor can handle loads of up to 400 pounds on the end drive and up to 1,000 pounds for the center drive at speeds of up to 600 feet per minute.

Dorner Mfg. Corp.

FULL-METAL JACKETS

The new ICF Full-Metal inductive sensors from CARLO GAVAZZI Inc. are designed to deliver optimal uptime with their durable stainless-steel housing and intelligent monitoring capabilities in harsh industrial applications such as agriculture, food-and-beverage, machining, etc. Engineered specifically to withstand extreme operating conditions, exposure to a wide range of temperature variations, frequent high-pressure and high-temperature washdown cycles, the new sensors provide accurate and reliable detection of actuating parts when used for:

• Skid conveyor positioning in food-and-beverage conveyor lines;

• Monitoring bucket positioning on agricultural equipment;

• Counting revolutions of an axle in CNC machinery. Operating across an extended temperature range of -40°C to 85˚C, the new sensors also provide new intelligent monitoring capabilities through the

optional IO-Link for monitoring the quality of detection, which allows for predictive maintenance to be scheduled before the risk of downtime.

CARLO GAVAZZI (Canada) Inc.

OUT TO SEA

Designed specifically for seafood packaging applications, the Reepack ReeEco tray-sealing machine from Ossid is a compact, robust and energy-efficient system capable of producing both MAP (modified atmosphere packaging) and VSP (vacuum skin packaging) formats without using compressed air. Capable of handling 10K OTR (10,000 oxygen transmission rate) film suitable for seafood products, the all-electric machine features a standard infeed conveyor that allows for up to three loading positions, easy tooling changeover, automatic output belt conveyor, and a user-friendly control panel for a high level of functionality.

Ossid (Div. of ProMach)

Circular packaging solutions need holistic problem-solving

Environmental sustainability is a defining challenge of our time. It is a complex topic that affects virtually every industry, and there is a strong consensus between lawmakers, businesses, and consumers that more needs to be done to ensure the future of our planet.

The issue of plastic waste is at the top of many agendas. While plastic has many benefits, it has poor recycling rates due to a lack of infrastructure in many countries. This means even recyclable plastics often end up as waste, leading to an increasingly negative perception from consumers.

Many studies show that consumers are more willing to buy a product that has packaging that they consider to be ‘more sustainable,’perhaps containing less plastic or made from alternative materials. However, relying on a single magic bullet solution to provide all the answers to the multifaceted packaging sustainability equation

is too simplistic.

Plastic is still essential in some food packaging applications to maintain shelf-life or provide important barrier properties. And with lawmakers across the world taking firmer action on plastic consumption, food producers, brands and retailers must be ready to pull off this balancing act quickly.

It is impossible to discuss packaging in Canada without discussing the recent Single Use Plastics Prohibition Regulations (SUPPR) legistlation, which bans the manufacture, import, sale, and eventually the export of several categories of single-use plastic, with the central aim of decreasing the impact of plastic waste and litter.

At present, the banned categories are checkout bags, cutlery, foodservice ware, certain plastic rings, stir sticks, and straws. Given the federal government’s commitment to achieving zero plastic waste across Canada by 2030, it is

highly likely the number of in-scope categories will increase over the coming years. Many provinces are going further, beginning the process of implementing extended producer responsibility (EPR) reforms or product stewardship programs.

The new fiber-based cartons from Graphic Packaging enabled apple grower BelleHarvest to achieve 15-percent reduction in product damage during transport.

Beyond Canada, the picture is largely the same. EPR reforms have been introduced in many national markets, while the French government has banned plastic packaging entirely for many fresh produce applications.

Plastic’s multi-functionality as a material means eliminating it is not so simple.

The oxygen and grease barrier performance associated with polypropylene (PP) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) for example, means it is vital in food packaging applications to preserve shelf-life.

One of the primary benefits of packaging is the prevention of food waste—by protecting and preserving products through the supply chain.

While ‘plastic-free’ packs do make for compelling marketing messages that appeal to today’s consumers, if these do not offer adequate performance, they can increase in food waste.

The impact of food waste is a huge environmental concern. The UN (United Nations) estimates that a third of all food produced globally is wasted. The carbon cost of this food waste equates to around six per cent of all GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions—far above the estimated 3.8 per cent attrubted to plastic production, according to reserchers at the Imperial College London

While choosing between food waste or pack-

aging waste seems like a dire choice, using a truly holistic approach to packaging may provide the ultimate solution.

The responsibility of the packaging industry is to propose fit-for-purpose solutions that will prevent food from being unnecessarily waste, while being as ‘circular’ as possible.

To that end, manufacturers must work with end users on a case-by-case basis to analyze the complete life-cycle of a product. This enables producers to observe where waste arises and where optimizing the primary, secondary, or transport packaging and, in some cases, the logistics and storage conditions of products, can reduce emissions through the supply chain.

Sometimes, selecting the right alternative material, along with great structural design, can provide the answer. An example of this can be found in Graphic Packaging ’s work with apple grower BelleHarvest , who switched from flexible packaging to a 100-percent fiberbased carton for their premium apples and observed a 15-percent reduction in defects due to

bruising as a result.

Other fiber-based packaging applications may require a barrier coating or liner to be applied to provide the oxygen, moisture, or aroma barrier required. Soft fruits, prepared salads, and coffee, to name three examples, may benefit from a hybrid solution that offers significant plastic reduction benefits, while using just enough plastic to provide the level of barrier protection needed.

Graphic Packaging’s growin range of hybrid systems includes the award-winning PaperSeal tray range, which comprises a paperboard tray with a removable liner, with the paperboard made from renewable plant-based fiber from sustainably managed forests. Available for modified atmosphere (MAP) and vacuum skin (VSP) packaging applications, it can enable an 80- to 90-percent plastic reduction when replacing a traditional plastic tray— without any compromise on shelf-life or performance.

Packaging must always balance the potential for food waste with the need to reduce plastic to achieve the lowest possible carbon impact, while also maintaining packaging recyclability and many other sustainability and circularity considerations. To achieve this balance, food producers, brands and retailers should continue to work with packaging experts to develop optimally tailored solutions for each application.

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Efficiency beyond the cut.

Reliable, customizable workflow automation–from prepress to dispatch

Semi- to fully automated/robotic loading/ stacking, pick&place

Unsurpassed digital cutting modularity, versatility, adaptability

ZUND AMERICA based in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, is the U.S. sister company of Zünd Systemtechnik, the family-owned Swiss manufacturer of multifunctional digital cutting systems located in Altstätten/SG, Switzerland. For more than three decades, Zünd has been the world’s leading manufacturer of modular, single and dual-beam cutting solutions for many different industries. Suitable for graphics, packaging, leather, (tech.) textiles, composites, and many other industrial applications, Zünd cutters can process a wide range of materials with specialized tooling, various levels of automated/robotic material-handling, and highly efficient digital production workflows perfectly tailored to individual production needs.

Zünd has continually been at the forefront of developing multi-capable, highly adaptable, and efficient cutting solutions for packaging manufacturers looking to expand their digital cutting capabilities in anything from samplemaking to fully automated short-run production. High-performance tooling for all popular packaging materials (incl. up to 4” thick foam on machines with extended clearance) and a full range of automation/robotics make Zünd an exceptionally productive, digital production offering for this industry. Zünd cutting systems are built to reliably perform 24/7, with minimal operator supervision and exceptionally low cost of ownership. Zünd Cut Center and related digital workflow components are easy to integrate in any existing production environment and provide a user-friendly interface that ensures simple, efficient operation and unbeatable productivity.

#LetsTalkWorkflow:

Zünd offers a full gamut of customizable workflow automation with hardware and software components designed to increase digital production efficiency. PrimeCenter enables efficient file preparation and nesting. The Visualizer option and projection system help mark and identify individual cut parts for quick and easy cutting & kitting, picking & sorting. The system also provides an option to print labels that can be attached to each part to streamline and facilitate logistics. Zünd Connect monitoring and analyzing software identifies optimization potential in the production workflow, determines the KPIs of the Zünd cutters connected to it, and uses these to calculate their efficiency.

Robot PortaTable:

The Robot PortaTable 130, is one of the latest innovations for automated (smallerformat) material handling. This robotic pick & place option consists of a roller table equipped with a collaborative robot arm and bins for parts placement. Unlike industrial robot systems, the PortaTable does not require fencing and can be quickly set up and moved from one Zünd cutter to another for a maximum ROI.

Industrial-Level Production

8142 South 6th Street, Oak Creek, WI 53154

Tel. 414-433-0700 | Email infous@zund.com

Canadian Territory Manager:

Shawn Couture Tel. 514-892-0700 | shawn.couture@zund.com

Business Segment Manager, Graphics/Packaging

Martin Thornton Tel. 414-931-9418 | martin.thornton@zund.com

Zünd’s fully automated Board Handling System BHS150 is designed for digital cutting at an industrial level. Capable of processing 1.5m stacks, materials up to 4” thick, and maximum processing speeds of 2.8m/9.2ft per second, the system delivers unprecedented non-stop productivity and throughput, especially when paired with the Zünd dual-beam D3 cutter. The latter can accommodate 3 different tools (e.g. cutting, creasing, perforating) on each beam and, depending on the job, provides double the throughput of a single-beam system. Automatic file retrieval via QR code further enables continuous cutting even if the stack of uncut materials consists of multiple, short-run jobs. https://youtu.be/R1cxQ4eOxFU

PRANA Biovegan’s vie-president of operations Julie Séguin proudly shows off some of the company’s high-end organic and natural snack products primarily packaged in vibrant signature resealable stand-up pouches adorned with eye-catching graphics for high-impact shelf presence.

PRIME TIME AT PRANA

Organic snack-food trailblazer raises its packaging game with integrated end-of-line turnkey packaging solution

By George Guidoni, Editor

Photos by Pierre Longtin

hile the fledgling Triple Bottom Line (People, Planet and Profit) movement may not yet be the mainstream cause célèbre its proponents and early adopters hope it will become, its underlying notion of building a healthier and more sustainable world through responsible choices on everything related to food—from farming to consumption— is an idea that millions of Canadians could easily get behind.

In fact, many of them have already done so for the better part of the 21st Century—consciously or not—by switching to organic, minimally processed food

Wsources that naturally promote healthy eating and nutritional habits, with minimal impact on the environment.

Founded in 2005, Montreal-based company PRANA Biovegan Inc. is a bona fide corporate poster child for the 3Ps business model that embraces integrity, transparency, and social and environmental responsibility at the core of its everyday business operations.

Co-founded by the husband-and-wife team of Alon Farber and Marie-Josée Richer, who met each other while backpacking through India about 20 years ago, the company is one of Canada’s fastest-growing processors of organic snack products such as nuts, seeds, dried fruits and berries, cocoa, granola and trail mixes, and other plant-based vegan foods sourced from around the world. Sorted, processed and packaged at the

company’s SQF-certified, 60,000-squarefoot production facility in the Montreal suburb of Saint-Laurent, the PRANA brand organic products are nowadays readily available across Canada at most leading supermarket chains and independent grocers, in addition to being distributed as private-label store brand offering throughout major Canadian and U.S. markets.

Such fairly quick rise to market prominence is especially impressive in light of the company’s humble origins and early days.

After arriving to Canada from India in 2005, Farber and Richer decided to open up their own business specializing in fresh hummus, tofu, hazelnut spreads and ready-to-eat vegan dishes, which they would cook at home and hand-deliver to local specialty restaurants, health-food stores and farmer’s markets.

At a time when organic foods were still a very narrow market niche across North

America, the fledgling start-up had a hard time getting significant capital backing from potential investors, Farber recalls, prompting its co-founders to strive to become entirely self-sufficient through hard work and word-of-mouth marketing.

Despite all its limitations and challenges, the company managed to generate about $100,000 in revenues in its first year of operation, according to Farber, growing to about $250,000 in its third year.

“It was all work seven-days-a-week in those early days,” says Farber, adding the couple originally used Richer mother’s kitchen to create the earliest products, before renting out space at the back of a local coffee shop.

“Not having access to a lot capital was definitely a disadvantage,” he notes, “but it also had the advantage of forcing us to learn to be frugal and not be too shy about putting in real hard work.

“So it was a really good learning experience that way.”

But after three years of hard aroundthe-clock wok, Farber and Richer decided they would need to change the company’s product portfolio and market focus to grow the business further.

“After couple of years we realized that making and managing all these perishable products was a complicated endeavor that required a much more sophisticated supply chain than what we had,” says Farber, “so we decided to get out of the perishables to concentrate on selling non-perishable organic foods.”

With solid knowledge of the agricultural business obtained from growing up and being raised on a farm in his native Israel, Farber put that knowledge to work by identifying and sourcing the organic nuts, seeds, fruits and other ready-to-eat crops that would appeal to the growing segment of population becoming more aware and better-informed about organic food production in general.

Around the same time, the company

Manufactured by EndFlex, the BOXXER case erector is an integral part of Paxiom’s end-ofline packaging solution developed to improve efficiencies and productivity on PRANA plant’s stand-up pouch line.

hooked up with a major local food distributor in a partnership aimed at expanding its customer base.

“Our ability to continue our growth trajectory and reach more customers was limited without expanding our distribution network,” Farber explains, “so it was important for us to start looking elsewhere.

“They asked us if we could supply them with some packaged nuts, seeds and dried fruits,” he recalls, “and that quickly became an important business focus.”

Says Farber: “Right from the beginning, we had the mindset to supply products that would provide a responsible alternative to the food choices available to consumers in Canada.

“That became our mission,” Farber asserts, “and we were lucky in the sense that the health-food movement was just begin-

ning to get traction here in Quebec, and across Canada, to drive growth in demand for cleaner, organic products.

“Hence, we wanted to position ourselves as a brand that cares about the environment; cares about the quality of nutrition consumers get; cares about the suppliers, the farmers and everyone else in the supply chain—all the things that we believe are important.

“It was hard work to get the message out,” he says, “but it all paid off by resonating with the Canadian consumers.”

It certainly has, with sales of the company’s flagship PRANA Organic brand not only catching fire across Canada since its 2005 launch, but also earning a fast-growing market share in the U.S.

With keen focus of continuous product innovation and experimentation, the PRANA Organic brand family itself has grown exponentially over the years to comprise dozens of different product blends and flavor varieties.

Packaged primarily in high-quality resealable plastic stand-up pouches incorporating high-impact product photography and imagery of the many exotic healthy foods and ingredients used to make the product, the PRANA product portfolio covers a broad array of inspired and unique offerings ranging from granola bars and chia seeds to varied trail mixes, salty and savory snacks, chocolate treats, cookies, dried fruits and many other imaginative snack-food creations.

As one of the earliest Canadian food businesses to receive the vaunted global B Corp certification for “meeting the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose,” PRANA goes through great lengths to ensure that the lion’s share of all the different raw ingredients it sources worldwide meet its exacting criteria for non-GMO origins, Fair Trade practices, ethical working conditions, and minimal carbon footprint.

Manufactured by Valtara, the PKR Delta 1300 modular robotic pick-and-place cell provides exceptionally gentle product handling at robust throughput speed of up to 180 picks per minute.

Close-up of a corrugated blank (foreground) being formed into a shipping box by the BOXXER case erector manufactured by EndFlex, one of several packaging machine manufacturing sister companies operated by Paxiom Group worldwide.

Not surprisingly, PRANA’s earnest and genuine commitment to environmental sustainability applies to everything that unfolds on the production floor of its new production facility in Saint-Laurent, where the company moved in 2019 to accommodate its growth plans.

Aiming to become a food waste-free facility by the end of the year, the modern high-ceiling facility houses three packing lines and 80 full-time employees working on a two-shift, five-day weekly production schedule to churn out ever-growing quantities of the company’s branded and private-label products.

With one line dedicated to pillow bags

and second one to stand-up pouches, the plant employs two fully-automatic multihead weighscales and two high-performance vertical pouch bagging machines running at average speeds of up to 120 pouches par minute.

Until recently, the relatively high level of automation at the front end of the process presented a real challenge for the downstream personnel at the end of the stand-up pouch line, who were tasked with the grueling and repetitive jobs of removing the incoming pouches off the conveyor belt and placing them inside the corrugated shipping carriers used to ship the product to customers.

Employing up three people to keep up with the product flow, the manual process was in dire need of a switch to more automated mode of operation, according to Farber, to enable better line efficiencies and a more productive use of the company’s personnel to perform more value-added tasks elsewhere in the plant.

“With the cost of labor becoming more expensive, and finding people to do these kinds of jobs becoming harder to find, end-of-line packaging has been an area of concern for some time,” Farber acknowledges.

“The whole COVID pandemic experience only accelerated our need to invest in additional automation.”

Buoyed by substantial government assistance from the Quebec Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAPAQ) as part of the ministry’s Food Transformation Program: Robotization and Quality Systems, Farber finally had the required funding in place to address the end-of-line shortcomings.

Before long, Farber approached renowned local packaging machine-builder

Paxiom Group to find an effective way to automate the end-of-line packaging process for the stand-up pouch line.

“We looked around and it seemed that no one had the machine we needed to take care of our specific requirements on that line,” Farber recalls.

“But with Paxiom being a local company, we felt comfortable to work with a local partner to develop a solution that would meet our needs.”

Happily for PRANA, his hunch to engage Paxiom as a partner in this endeavor turned out to be a perfect call.

As Paxiom’s territory manager Andre Strul recalls, “Their main objective was to reduce the number of employees hand-packing the product off the line, and thus avoid having them do repetitive motions all day long.

“Moreover, their existing hand-packing method allowed them very little control over their pouch alignment and feeding consistency, as well as quality of their corrugate boxes,” Strul adds.

“Being a local company, we were happy to take on the challenge of offering them cutting-edge technology to resolve their issue.”

Installed on the stand-up pouch line’s downstream area just past the METTLER TOLEDO combination metal detection/checkweighing station, the customized turnkey packaging solution provided by Paxiom is actually a fully-integrated turnkey system comprising three high-performance packaging machines manufactured by two different Paxiom manufacturing sister companies, Valtara SRL in Italy and EndFlex LLC in the U.S.

Installed and commissioned about four months ago, the fully-automatic turnkey

A METTLER TOLEDO Safeline metal detector performs a rigorous quality check to detect any possible contaminants inside each stand-up pouch making its way to the end-of-line packaging area.

A METTLER TOLEDO Safeline metal detector performs a rigorous quality check to detect any possible contaminants inside each stand-up pouch making its way to the end-of-line packaging area.

solution incorporates:

• The PKR Delta 1300 modular robotic pick-and-place workcell supplied by Paxiom’s Italian-based sister manufacturer Valtara

Designed for automatic top-loading of flexible bags and pouches into corrugated case or trays, the servo-driven system can be integrated with any case or tray former to reduce labor costs by eliminating manual packing stations, according to Paxiom.

Boasting a compact footprint that easily fits into any packaging line for precise top-loading of products in single or multiple layers, the PKR Delta 1300 is designed to provide exceptionally gentle product handling with vacuum or mechanical product pick-up to ensure optimal product integrity and consistent case/tray loading in a wide variety of sizes and pack patterns.

Deploying a multi-axis Delta robot capable of up to 80 picks per minute—depending on weight, distance, product and pack style—the PKR Delta 1300 is fully outfitted with advanced Omron controls, electronics, sensors, HMI (human-machine interface) control terminal, smart

machine vision camera, and other essential automation componentry for optimal machine performance.

• The automatic BOXXER case erector developed by Paxiom’s Florida-based EndFlex LLC manufacturing sister company.

Designed to transfer the knock-down RSC or HSC blanks from the hopper magazine to the erecting station, the machine uses vacuum cups to pull the blanks out of the magazine, fold the two minor flaps into the case, and erect the case within a blink of an eye.

Once done, the machine’s dual belt drives drive the erected case through the taping section, where the built-in tape head secures the bottom of the case and discharges the case towards the PKR Delta 1300 cell for loading.

Outfitted with reliable SMC pneumatic components and an Omron PLC (programmable logic controller), the BOXXER case erector utilizes venture vacuum technology to ensure highly reliable and repeatable case-erecting at speeds of up to 18 cycles per minute, depending on the model.

• The automatic EZTAPE CS-C50 uniform case closer and top-and-bottom sealer.

Also manufactured by EndFlex, the EZ TAPE CS-C50 is a user-friendly, fully adjustable machine incorporating dual masts to ensure optimal stability during the entire sealing process, along with heavy-duty side-belt drives to ensure perfectly squared cases and tight seals.

Designed for quick changeovers and height adjustments without any special tools, the EZ TAPE CS-C50 features toolless tape heads for accurate and consistent sealing, with easily removable tape cartridges.

According to PRANA’s vice-president of operations Julie Séguin, working with Paxiom to resolve the plant’s end-of-line packaging issues has already had a big impact on the stand-up pouch line’s efficiencies and productivity.

“We have been able to completely optimize our team at that step of our process,” Séguin states.

“Whereas we used to have a team of three people doing some very physical and repetitive work, were are now doing the job with an equivalent of 1.5-persons, with all the repetitive movement being completely eliminated.

“As a result, we were able to relocate our team members elsewhere in our production to support our ongoing growth,” she points out. “This is a big plus at a time when the workforce market is so competi-

tive.”

Says Séguin: “At first, we were a bit reluctant about adding robotic technology to our facility because our team had never worked with this type of equipment.

“However, this line is very lean and simple to operate,” Séguin states. “The system’s footprint fit perfectly into our available space,” she relates, “and Paxiom also provided full training and continuous support, which was an important part of our decision-making.

“We met a couple of suppliers from the Montreal region to see what was available on the market,” Séguin confides, “and Paxiom ultimately offered what we were looking for.

“The process of validation of our product running on their equipment was very clear,” she relates, “and we worked closely with Paxiom through each step of assembling the line.

“Moreover, Paxiom worked with us in providing the critical parts and user manuals we would need to do preventive maintenance on the equipment,” Séguin adds. “They trained our staff and were available at start-up and during our learning curve.

“We have had excellent support from the entire Paxiom team,” says Séguin, adding that PRANA is currently exploring the possibility of purchasing an additional VFFS (vertical form-fill-seal) bagger from Paxiom.

“With their complete packaging equipment portfolio, they will certainly be part of our future growth projects,” she states. Such ringing endorsement is naturally sweet music to Paxiom’s territory manager Strul, who says he thoroughly enjoyed the experience of working with a progressive and fast-growing customer like PRANA.

“We were very happy to provide full support during their learning curve as they reached full ownership of the new system,” Strul says.

“We educated the client on how to improve their overall system efficiency and to standardize their end-of-line packaging quality,” he adds.

“I am certain they will achieve quick ROI (return-on-investment) thanks to reduced manpower requirements and having tangible data on their production efficiency going forward,” he points out.

“PRANA quickly understood the areas they needed to improve to facilitate the integration with their existing line,” Strul concludes, “and they also invested the time to learn the new equipment.

“As a result, they were able to run production on Day One and they have not stopped since.”

Top A finished pallet loaded with five-layer stacks of filled corrugated boxes ready for shipping.

Bottom Close-up of the retail-ready display trays manufactred by Mitchel Lincoln are used for shipping PRANA products to Costco stores.

Please see a video of Paxiom’s turnkey end-of-line packaging solution in action at the Prana production facility in Montreal on Canadian Packaging TV at www.canadianpackaging.com

Mariposa Dairy plant manager Ben Brouwer proudly displays samples of the premium-quality goat cheese products produced at the company’s Lindsay manufacturing facility under the company’s own flagship Celebrity brand and as private-label offerings for a growing number of leading grocery chains across North America.

CELEBRITY STATUS

Thriving Ontario goat cheese producer reaping the rewards of proactive commitment to continuous capital investment in leading-edge processing and packaging equipment

By George Guidoni, Editor

Photos by Naomi Hiltz

Time will tell if it turns out to be the G.O.A.T. (Greatest of All Time) trend in the modern dairy processing industry, but the soaring popularity of goat cheese and milk among North America consumers is the greatest news a company like Mariposa Dairy could ever wish for.

As North America’s second-largest producer of goat cheese products, the Lindsay, Ont.-based company is confidently riding the wave of consumers looking for alternatives to traditional bovine (cow) milk for a multitude of health, dietary, ethical and other reasons—leading to creation of a whole new

product category of plant-based milk alternatives like soy-, nut-, oat-, riceand coconut-based beverages.

But for all the considerable innovation and product development that went into creating such products, none of them could hold a candle to goat milk when it comes to production of premium-quality goat cheese products that have already made Mariposa’s flagship Celebrity brand of soft goat cheese logs a household name in the dairy aisles of leading supermarkets and at deli counters across North America in with remarkable speed and aplomb.

Even more remarkably, the familyowned dairy—founded in 1989 by an enterprising local married couple Bruce and Sharon Vandenberg—is really just

getting started in its ambitious drive to entrench itself near the top of the industry’s pecking order.

“We had 25-percent sales growth last year from the year before,” says Mariposa Dairy plant manager Ben Brouwer, who joined the company 13 years ago and has been an integral part of the company’s transformation into a thriving and highly competent dairy operator with a firm grasp on modern processing and packaging methods and technologies.

Operating out of a modern, purpose-built 50,000-square-foot facility on the outskirts of Lindsay—a local business and commerce hub for southeastern Ontario’s famed Kawartha Lakes region—the multiple award-winning company has invested significant resources into its facility over the years, according to Brouwer.

In addition to earning and maintaining the vaunted global FSCC 22000 food safety certification over the last 10 years, the company has also spent millions investing in high-end processing and packaging equipment to boost its capacity and productivity levels.

On the processing side, Mariposa has more than doubled its production capacity since the recent arrival of a brand new Handtmann model VF 838 S vacuum filler—a flexible and powerful portioner featuring the most updated hygienic design and boasting a filling capacity of up to 9000 kilograms per hour.

Featuring smooth-surface design, automatic pre- and interim cleaning, and an ergonomic design to facilitate optimal cleaning procedures to maintain strict hygienic conditions.

A combination of high filling pressure and gentle product handling, along with stable portioning accuracy due to lowwear vane cell feed system, the new-generation VF 838 S was a perfect solution to accommodate Mariposa’s fast-growing production volumes, according to Brouwer.

“It has essentially doubled our production capacity,” says Brouwer, adding the Lindsay plant currently processes 26 million liters of goat milk per year, which roughly works out to about four million kilograms of finished goat cheese prod-

ucts.

“With the right downstream equipment, we’ll be able to process about 6,000 kilograms of product per hour,” says Brouwer, noting that the new VF 838 S machine also features many new leading-edge functionalities and networking capabilities than the company’s first Handtmann vertical filler, model VF 622, purchased about 15 years ago.

With the older Handtmann vacuum filler still in perfect working order, Brouwer says the Lindsay plant is very well positioned to meet its current and future production needs to maintain and grow its market share even further.

Much of that growth is currently driven by robust demand in the private-label markets across North America, says Brouwer, noting the private-label business currently accounts for at least a 60-percent share of the plant’s total production output.

To help improve the product transfer plant of the production flow between processing and packaging, the plant also invested in a high-performance Handtmann FS 510 —used to form bulk product into log-shaped cheese por -

tions—featuring an eight-lane flow divider to provide continuous product flow into the packaging area, which houses two high-performance MULTIVAC thermoform packaging machines to pack the fresh product inside high-quality Winpak barrier rollstock film in a broad range of sizes as per customers’ specs.

According to Handtmann, the FS 510 forming system is perfectly suitable for the multi-lane production of formed products of varying cross-sections and feed materials.

The highly versatile machine is capable of handling long, flat, cylindrical, disc-shaped, cubic, square, star-shaped

Left The Mariposa plant’s bran new Handtmann VF 838 S vacuum filler featuring sanitary design construction.

Bottom Close-up of the new vacuum filler’s built-in touchscreen HMI (human-machine interface) terminal for easy recipe call-up and programming.

Top Mariposa dairy plant manager Ben Brouwer flanked by Handtmann Canada’s sales representatives Rafal Rusiniak (left) and Ewan Molloy during the facility walkthrough.

and other intricate shapes over six to 24 lanes, as per customer’s requirements, with product diameters up to 80-mm and product lengths from 20-mm and upwards—offering maximum operational flexibility and modularity.

Offering high production output with up to 250 cycles (cuts) per minute, the system’s servo-driven flow divider accommodates a wide variety of product dimensions, while its traveling blade ensures gentle product handling and optimal final product appearance.

“The quality of the Handtmann equipment is really good,” Brouwer states. “I think the most important part for us is their sanitary design, as well as the accuracy of what they can portion.

“Like many industries, we work with very slim margins, so when the product is very accurately portioned, we can take advantage of that.

“The sanitary design is very important for us,” states Brouwer, noting the plant runs a sanitary shift every single day the plant is in production.

As Handtmann Canada’s business development and sales manager Rafal Rusiniak recalls, “Along with their regular goat cheese logs, Mariposa had the challenge of making small nine-millimeter goat cheese cubes, but it could not find any equipment that was capable of doing this.

“The Handtmann FS510 had just been developed at the time,” Rusiniak relates, “and we all saw an opportunity to see if it was capable of doing it.

“Producing small-dimension soft goat cheese cubes is a very unique challenge,” Rusiniak notes, “and there were problems with the outside lanes being longer than the inside lanes.

“Ultimately the machine was chosen

From top

The plant’s older Handtmann model VF 622 vacuum filler is still in prime working condition.

Left Close-ups of the freshly-made logs of goat cheese coming out of the Handtmann FS 510 former in eight lanes during transfer to the MULTIVAC thermoform packaging machines.

because our patented servo-driven flow divider can balance the pressure across all nozzles and create uniform shapes.”

Adds Rusiniak: “The FS510 was installed in 2016 mainly for the production of goat cheese cubes, but later it evolved into producing goat cheese logs.

“The Handtmann fillers and FS510 work seamlessly together through one control panel on the filler,” he points out, “the FS510 is also compatible with VF 600 series and new VF 800 series machines in the Mariposa facility.”

Designed to facilitate remarkably quick product changeovers, the new FS 510 forming system works exceptionally well in concert with the brand new MULTIVAC RX4.0 thermoform packaging system recently commissioned at the Lindsay plant—massively complementing its existing MULTIVAC R 245 thermoformer.

Recently launched into the market as part of the MULTIVAC X-Line packaging technology platform, the MULTIVAC RX4.0 machine incorporates cutting-edge ‘smart’ technologies to optimize the machine’s performance up to the Industry 4.0 standards with seamless digitalization, comprehensive sensor systems, and powerful networking capabilities with the MULTIVAC Cloud

to deliver top-class packaging reliability, quality and performance.

Aside from just making premium-quality packs, the new-generation machine significantly contributes to the performance of the packaging machine by providing valuable data that can be used for further optimization of existing packaging procedures.

In addition, the machine incorporates the proprietary MULTIVAC X-Map to ensure accurate and repeatable gas-flushing for MAP (modified-atmosphere packaging) applications.

“The new MULTIVAC certainly has a lot of new bells and whistles that will enable us to keep on improving our performance further with additional automation,” says Brouwer, adding the company is already exploring ways to integrate pick-and-place robots into the packaging process to replace the manual hand-loading of individual cheese logs into the MULTIVAC thermoformer’s film-lined cavities prior to packaging and sealing.

Brouwer estimated that adding such robots to the MULTIVAC machine would not just replace the four people used there now for loading the fresh cheese logs inside the machine cavities, but also improve the capacity of those

average output speeds from 160 to 240 pieces per minute—allowing those four workers to work elsewhere in the plant.

“This will probably happens sooner rather than later given the fast pace of growth in our business,” states Brouwer, lauding the operation flexibility of Handtmann and MULTIVAC equipment for accommodating the company’s fast-growing product portfolio that now comprises nearly 250 SKUs (stock-keeping units).

“The beautiful thing about goat cheese is that it pairs so incredibly well with just about any other food ingredient we can combine with it,” Brouwer points out.

While plain chèvre cheese is still the company’s largest single product offering by volume, Brouwer cites a growing list of prestigious industry awards earned by the company’s flavored varieties infused with cranberry, blueberry, cucumber, lemon, beet, chives and other tantalizing ingredients to provide a highly enjoyable eating or cooking experience.

In addition to its naturally unique and tangy taste profile, goat cheese also has a plethora of health benefits to complement its healthy nutritional profile, including:

Close-up pictures of the logs of freshly-made goat cheese logs being loaded and put through their paces on the new MULTIVAC RX4.0 rollstock thermoform packaging machine using high-barrier Winpak rollstock film to package the final product.

There’s

With MULTIPOND’s specialized approach our customer always gets the right MULTIHEAD WEIGHER customized for their specific product requirements. Whether your weighing confectionery, vegetables, frozen foods, fresh products such as cheese or meat, mixtures or non-food products, the Abbey Equipment team will make every effort to work with you to find tailored and optimized solutions.

only one way to weigh.

• High content of vitamins, hearthealthy fats minerals, and beneficial minerals like copper, which helps produce the red blood cells carrying oxygen from the lungs to the other tissues of the body.

• High Vitamin B2 (riboflavin) content, which plays an important role in the function and production of new cells.

• High content of fatty acids that are metabolized faster than bovine cheese, meaning the body feels full faster.

• While cow’s milk has both A2 and A1 beta casein proteins, goat cheese has only A2 beta casein, meaning that it’s easier on the body’s digestion system.

• Big source of beneficial probiotics that colonize the intestines and compete with any unhealthy bacteria or pathogens that they find there to improve the body’s immune system.

In addition to the extensive nutritional attributes and fabulous taste profile, goat cheese is also an extremely versatile product that can be enjoyed in a wide variety of ways, including salad and pizza toppings; sandwich and cracker spreads, pasta-based dish ingredients, and virtually any other way that traditional cow milk cheese is used.

This wonderful versatility and appeal is strongly reflected in market research and forecasts.

According to Data Bridge Market Research, the global goat cheese mar-

Above left Packaged finished product coming out of the MULTIVAC RX4.0 thermoformer being transferred towards the METTLER TOLEDO Safeline metal detector for the final product quality check prior to being loaded inside corrugated shipping carriers.

Above right The purpose-built, FSCC-certified Mariposa Dairy plant in Lindsay, Ont., was officially opened up for business in the spring of 2017.

ket is expected to increase from US$9.7 billion in 2021 to over US$14.6 billion by 2029, growing at the annual compound annual growth rate of 5.5 per cent, with the U.S. identified as the fastest-growing region due to frequent product launches with innovative flavors and taste profiles.

According to the research, “Due to its great nutritional value and along with being low in fat and cholesterol content, goat cheese, a common dairy product, has become a necessary component of many cuisines.

“Further, goat cheese is great for digestion and contains fewer calories, as compared to bovine cheese, and exhibits a rich nutrient profile.

“This in turn drives the consumption of goat cheese as health-conscious consumers are increasingly purchasing food products that help to improve digestive health,” the report states.

“Therefore rising consumer knowledge about the health advantages of goat cheese along with the increasing interest in gut health and improving diet are the key factors influencing the sales of goat cheese in the worldwide market.”

In addition, Brouwer points out, goat cheese is also a product that is very much on-trend with both the Millenials and the emerging Z Gen demographic group, who are both naturally much more predisposed to try out and experiment with innovative new products than their parents’ generation.

“The younger generations are definitely more willing and eager to try it,” Brouwer concurs.

“About 15 years ago, it would be fair to say that our audience was mostly looking for alternatives to mainstream food products, but today it is a lot of parents who are selecting goat cheese for their healthy nutritional and taste profiles.”

Like other progressive companies, Mariposa is always looking for ways to improve its environmental profile and reduce its manufacturing footprint, Brouwer points out.

“The roof our building in covered with

solar panels,” he relates, “and we reuse a lot of the water reclaimed, from our process water, using energy-efficient heat exchangers.

“We are always doing our best to cut down our carbon footprint,” he says, “and I think we have largely been doing a good job of it.”

As for the plastic film used for the product’s primary packaging, Brouwer points out there are two sides to its environmental equation.

“I think it’s important for the consumer to understand just how much effort and energy goes into producing the finished log of goat cheese,” he states.

“It is a low-yield process, with 85 per cent of the raw materials that go into it being left behind as by-product fluids.

“That’s why it’s important for us to ensure that the consumers get to eat all of this product, which requires good shelf-life and the right sort of packaging to maintain that shelf-life after opening.

“So if your packaging is not right, there is potential for a lot of unnecessary food waste at the end of the day, which is also an important part of the whole sustainability debate.

“That said, we are working closely with our film supplier (Winpak) to see what can be done to make the plastic we use more sustainable,” Brouwer sums up, “but for now we need to be able to use the best packaging format we can to ensure optimal product shelf-life and minimal food waste at the end of the day.

“Our product deserves it.”

As Handtmann Canada’s Rusiniak happily concurs: “Mariposa has been a great customer for a very long time, and both of our companies have grown together from a successful relationship.

“They are a true partner, who have brought us into their planning and innovation efforts to help introduce new innovative products.”

SUPPLIERS

Handtmann Canada Limited MULTIVAC Canada Inc.

We work collaboratively with our customers to ensure the best solutions are developed for their unique needs to deliver seamless integration and proven systemswith unmatched results

AUTOMATIC RESPONSE

Prominent

By George Guidoni, Editor

Saying that CPG (consumer packaging goods) companies need more automation to improve their manufacturing competitiveness is much like declaring that water is wet, but despite the virtually unanimous agreement on the importance of automation and digitalization as vital strategic assets and competencies, there remains much disparity in the success of their implementation to date across many manufacturing sectors.

Despite the billions of dollars spent by goods-producing industries on the latest robotics, artificial intelligence (AI), manufacturing software and other new-generation automation technologies, the gap between optimizing their full potential and the actual advances in process efficiencies and productivity on the shop floor still leaves a lot of room for improvement, according to numerous studies on the subject.

For packaging and related processing industries, this gap was comprehensively outlined in the recent landmark report, titled The Future of Automation in Packaging and Processing, released by PMMI, The Association for Packaging and Processing Technologies, during the latest PACK EXPO International global packaging industry showcase in Chicago in November of 2022.

Based on extensive interviews with

leading executives at 105 prominent CPG manufacturing companies across North America, the study confirms that while senior management is largely committed to further investment in automation technologies to support future business growth, many corporate leaders remain unimpressed by the concrete results those investment have yielded so far.

To explore this state of affairs in more detail, the Canadian Packaging magazine has recently invited some of North America’s leading automation providers and their manufacturing customers to a roundtable discussion at the publication’s offices in Toronto earlier this year, focusing on how manufacturers can better leverage the existing and forthcoming packaging automation technologies and strategies to boost their competitiveness.

Sponsored by leading packaging

automation providers Syntegon, FANUC, Festo and igus, the timely discussion highlighted the emergence of a game-changing new narrative in the manufacturing business that rarely featured so prominently in most conversations about automation before the outbreak of the global COVID-19 pandemic in the spring of 2020.

Whereas the need to replace manual labor on production and packaging line used to be cited as a key raison d’être and end goal in and of itself in pre-pandemic days, the severe labor shortages across many manufacturing industries prompted by the pandemic have made the imperative to automate an increasingly urgent priority for manufacturers large and small—in virtually every industrial sector and segment.

In addition, the hybrid roundtable discussion—featuring in-person and online Zoom-connected participants—

The Canadian Packaging magazine’s recent AUTOMATE NOW 2023 Rountable forrum was a hybrid event featuring in-person and online participants offering their views on the current state and the future of packaging automation technologies.

CPG industry stakeholders reflect on new postpandemic realities driving demand for further capital investment in newgeneration industrial automation technologies

reflected on the growing importance of industrial automation as a means of reducing the manufacturing industry’s environmental footprint in light of increasingly vocal calls for action to address global climate change.

Using the aforementioned PMMI report as the backdrop to launch the discussion, PMMI’s vice-president of industry services Tom Egan cautioned that some of the report’s findings were based on responses received before the end of the pandemic, thereby leaving a certain margin of ambiguity for some specific questions and responses.

For the most part, though, the report’s finding were largely in tune with what PMMI was expecting and researching over the last couple of years, according to Egan.

“It is not surprising that the highest areas of automation focus predominate in the packaging and processing areas at consumer packaged goods firms,” said Egan, noting that 55 per cent of the respondents cited these two areas as the most viable candidates for continued automation.” (See graph below)

According to Egan, processing and packaging functions appear to be getting the bulk of automation investment allocation because that’s where many companies feel most comfortable to bring in new automation.

But such familiarity and comfort levels drop significantly (13 per cent) when it comes to automating their distribution, warehousing and fulfillment operations, noted Egan, with less than a third of respondents (31 per cent) agreeing that both upstream areas present good opportunities for further automation.

As the PMMI survey reveals, many of the secondary and tertiary production processes related to warehousing and inventory management are still relying on manual methods of operation to a surprisingly high extent.

For example, 68 per cent of respondents identified the receiving and storage of packaging materials as being “highly manual” at their plants, along

with raw materials receiving and storage (61.3 per cent), and pallet transfer and storage retrieval (58.8 per cent).

“These seem to be the areas that are ripe for automation,” Egan said, “including robotic automation.”

Conversely, just over a third of respondents thought of their shipping/ distribution, secondary packaging and warehouse management as being highly manual—representing considerable progress in these areas in recent years.

The big surprise here, according to Egan, was to see secondary packaging, such as cartoning, still being a largely manual task for nearly two-thirds of the surveyed companies.

“That would indicate that many companies who have already automated their tertiary packaging (palletizing and stretchwrapping) are working backwards up the line to secondary packaging to bring in higher levels of automation,” Egan noted.

Indeed, seeing teams of workers manually hand-packing corrugated shipping containers with finished packaged goods is still a common sight at many production plants for a variety of reasons, despite the widespread availability of many leading-edge robotic systems available to automate these process steps.

While the use of industrial robotics has soared across many industries in

recent years—particularly in upstream primary packaging and processing areas—the introduction of so-called cobots (collaborative robots) into the manufacturing process has so far failed short of the widespread adoption that robotics manufacturers have been hoping for.

As Egan pointed out, 51 per cent of the survey respondents said that cobots only offer a small improvement to their existing processes, with another seven per cent saying they offered no improvement at all.

On the bright side, Egan noted that the continued chronic labor shortages and stricter focus on workplace safety should reverse this imbalance in coming years, as manufacturing companies realize the benefits of having the smaller, intrinsically-safe cobots working alongside humans without the additional expenses of wiring and safeguarding the larger industrial robotic systems that take up far more valuable floorspace.

Moreover, most cobots produced today are designed as exceptionally user-friendly and highly mobile mechanical servants outfitted with powerful machine learning capabilities to make them valuable productive assets working in tandem with their human counterparts.

“When you look at the forecast for 2026, you will see chemical, pharma -

AREAS OF AUTOMATION FOCUS

Left to right: PMMI vice-president of industry services Tom Egan co-moderating the Automate Now 2023 Roundtable discussion earlier this year at the Toronto headquarters of Annex Business Media, which owns the Canadian Packaging magazine along with dozens of other leading Canadian B2B publications.

Doug Alexander, V-P, Sustainability, Belmont Meat Products Ltd.

Wes Garrett, Executive Director, Global Accounts, Food & Beverage, FANUC America Corporation.

ceutical and food-and-beverage sectors showing robust growth for the use of robots in their production operations,” Egan said.

“It’s expected that cobots will continue to grow in those areas to show some pretty significant growth as we go into 2026.” (See graph on next page)

Doug Alexander, vice-president of sustainability at Belmont Meat Products Ltd., said he sees continued growth in the number of cobots being added to all kinds of food processing operations due to their compact design, mobility and the ability to work safely with humans side-by-side.

“One of the constraints we’ve had historically with traditional robots is where to put them,” Alexander said. “So if you have a giant palletizing robot, you needed a very large footprint.

“Food plants have typically advanced over the decades to the point where they don’t have the space large gargantuan robot systems,” he said.

“Cobots make it much more safe for (human) labor and machinery to work together in a smaller footprint,” he said, “and that really opens the door for more automation.”

As Alexander pointed out, “One of the challenges we have in food processing is that it is incredibly labor-intensive, so the significant improvements in the dexterity, tooling and machine learning tooling now provides the ability to have cobots interact between the steps that are traditionally manual.

“That natural interplay between the two allows for more introduction of automation even earlier, perhaps, than with traditional automation robots.”

For Wes Garrett, executive director of

global accounts for food and beverage business at leading robotic systems manufacturer FANUC America Corporation , the double-digit global growth in the sales of collaborative robots in recent years is compelling proof of the cobots’ viability at modern manufacturing enterprises.

Since launching the company’s CRX series collaborative robotic arms in 2019, FANUC has expanded the CRX cobot range to five models with different reach capabilities and payload capacities from five to 25 kilograms.

While cobots are not intended to replace the towering high-speed, high-capacity industrial robots employed on high-throughput product ion lines of large-scale mass manufacturing operations, “When we’re talking about small to medium-sized manufacturers, cobots can be a really good fit,” Garrett proclaimed.

“We have found that many smaller manufacturers tend to have a lot of product mix, rather than a lot of high volumes, so the flexibility of cobots really comes into play for them,” Garrett noted.

“So even if they can’t have a cobot at every single line running around the clock, they can literally move their cobots to a different line as they need to,” he explained, noting that their ‘plugand-play” operability allows for continuous redeployment of the collaborative robotic arms to wherever they are needed without much process interruption or line downtime.

In addition to their flexibility, cobots also offer a fairly economical alternative to permanently-mounted industrial robots because they do not require all the

safety wiring and guarding systems to prevent close physical proximity to human workers.

“I think that our cobots are already fairly cost-competitive in the marketplace,” Garrett stated.

“I don’t know if the pricing is going to keep going down much further,” he acknowledged, “but it really comes down to the sheer amount of additional safety requirements for traditional robots,” such as safety light curtains, CG laser safety scanners and the actual protective fencing/wiring.

According to Nicholas Taraborelli, vice-president of prominent manufacturer of automated packaging machinery Paxiom Group , close collaboration between automation suppliers and endusers has a direct impact on the success and ROI (return-on-investment) of any capital investment project involving robotics, traditional or collaborative.

“While the costs of robots may not be decreasing, the costs of labor are increasing quickly,” he said.

“So for us, as a machine manufacturer, offering different robots across our whole product line is really important.”

Michael Butler, Robotics Product Owner, Syntegon

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CPG’s tend to focus on packaging and processing due to their existing knowledge and the skillset of their workforce.

Said Taraborelli: “All applications are unique, but all businesses are the same: they are all tasked with providing shareholders with value.

“And that value will come from greater efficiencies, better cost control, and delivering more product to market.

“So I think it’s important to work with every client by working in reverse and asking, ‘What are your needs? What are your pain points? Where can you save costs? Where can you find that value-added?’

“And then you build your machine solutions around those new pieces of automation,” he said.

“It’s not just about the straight ROI in terms of how many people I can reposition within my facility to justify the investment,” Taraborelli stated. “These days I find that employee reliability, just in terms of basic attendance, is becoming the biggest issue in preventing manufacturers from scaling up their business.

“You also need to be flexible enough to realize that sometimes less (automation) is actually more,” Taraborelli pointed out. “If the company’s marketing is driving its innovation, you may not want to automate you process to the gills because that is going to have a direct effect on the product (variety) that you’re delivering to the marketplace.

“You can’t just ram automation down people’s throats.”

Emilie Alen, vice-president of logistics at Canada’s leading baked goods manufacturer Biscuits Leclerc Ltée , says that continuous investment in auto-

mation technologies has played a major role in the company’s growth and expansion over the last couple of decades.

“We have an automated warehouse at four of our (eight) plants,” Alen revealed, “and we are now planning to automate the warehouse at our Brockville, Ont., plant automated as well.

“We have a lot of industrial robots doing palletizing at these plants,” she said, “as well as some cobots.

“We (Leclerc) have been investing in automation for the last 20 because it is a priority for us,” she said. “It has paid off because we can run our lines with less people, which at the end of the day makes the difference between running or not running your lines.

“And it’s evolving every year, becoming more flexible, faster and more reliable,” Alen stated, stressing the importance of working collaboratively with the company’s automation partners.

“We have key partners with whom we work with on a regular basis, who know how our needs and who know how we want to work,” she said. “That is very important to us.”

As Alen related, many of the packaging lines at Leclerc facilities are today running at high speeds with minimal personnel thanks to the highly automated flow wrapping and other packaging machinery supplied by leading global packaging equipment manufacturer Syntegon, which supplied some of the key pieces of equipment to the company’s most recently opened manufacturing facility in Cornwall, Ont., started up in 2019.

ROBOTS HELP ADDRESS LABOUR SHORTAGES

To what degree can robots and collaborative robots (cobots) help address labour shortages in your plant?

expansion, future capacity, and making sure that the system is done right the first time in a way that’s going to keep them their production up-and-running consistently and robustly,” he stated.

... AND GROWTH IS EXPECTED TO CONTINUE

According to Alen, choosing Syntegon machinery for the Cornwall plant was based in large part on the considerable success that Leclerc achieved with Syntegon equipment at its other plants earlier.

Syntegon’s robotics product owner Michael Butler said the current labor shortages are forcing CPG manufacturers worldwide to look beyond quick ROI as motivation for automating their operations, but rather as a means to keep their lines running at all.

“Because of the workforce constraints, we’re seeing requests for automation in places like Central America, where typically automation could never justify an ROI,” Butler said.

“It has now become a decision between automating or shutting down,” said Bulter, citing “greater flexibility, greater redundancy and future planning” as new important considerations for justifying additional automation expenditures.

“Many of the companies we’re working with want to look at not just the bare bones minimum of what they can get by with through automation,” he explained.

“They are also looking at having future

According to FANUC’s Garrett, the customers’ growing demands for more innovative automation solutions is also driven by the fact that many of the “low-hanging fruit” applications at their factories have already been automated to their full potential and capacity.

“With palletizing and case-packing already automated, it’s now about getting more tasks done within the same footprint, where you not only case-pack, but also load the blanks, insert the slipsheets and palletize, all with one robot,” he said.

“People are trying to automate everything they can.”

Butler agreed: “We are seeing more and more people are looking to automate (production of) more challenging products that were typically unapproachable with robotics and automation.

“Whereas packaging things like cookies has been well automated at this point,” he said, “packing donuts, or building sandwiches with robots, or mixing variety packs on the side with a high mix of products going into the same box … these are the more challenging applications for which companies are asking for

From Top Emilie Alen, Vice-President, Logistics, Biscuits Leclerc.

Nicholas Tarobarelli, Vice-President, Paxiom Group.

plant(s)?

Source: PMMI, The Association for Packaging and Processing Technologies - 2022 The Future of Automation

Source: PMMI, The Association for Packaging and Processing Technologies -

automated solutions to be provided.

“And that’s where the real growth and opportunity are today, as more sophisticated end-effectors come into the market, with more sophisticated picking strategies, and more powerful software for the robots.

“The growth in the cobots market is not going to come from replacing the high-speed overhead delta robots,” he said, “but rather from doing the intermittent low-speed tasks, whereby a cobot mounted onto and AGV (automated guided vehicle) would be used for machine tending, supplying raw materials from the warehouse, or to load rolls of film onto the wrapper.

“These are all things that still require a good number of operators to keep a line running,” he said, “but if that secondary level of the process can get automated, it would really get us closer toward that ‘lights out’ facility where the process just runs all day, with maybe just a couple of humans to oversee it.”

With rapid advances in machine vision and gripper technology, today’s robots and cobots are being increasingly used to handle more complex tasks that would have unthinkable even 10 years ago, the roundtable participants agreed.

“It’s great to hear about the complexity moving forward,” said Belmont’s Alexander. “I think the next phase in this evolution will be the integration of more advanced scientific instrumentation like spectroscopy.

“So that when a chicken breast is going along the conveyor, it (robot) might be able to make a qualitative decision about not just the shape, size and color, but understand whether it has too high of a fat content and make the right judgment call,” Alexander explained.

“So adding in more instrumentation to enhance that decision-making and taking on more complexity—making multiple decisions and performing multiple steps within one workcell, rather than in a larger footprint—is fantastic.”

According to the panel’s two Festo representatives, the rapid recent advances in AI technology will make further integration of advanced instrumentation and other cutting-edge increasingly

... AND GROWTH IS EXPECTED TO CONTINUE

by Industry - Collaborative Robots vs. Industrial Robots (Excl. Cobolt)

Source:

possible and seamless, especially as CPGs become more comfortable with digitalization, machine learning, data analysis and other hallmarks of the fast-evolving Industry 4.0 smart manufacturing systems.

As Festo’s global product manager Frank Latino pointed out, AI-embedded automation devices and components are becoming an indispensable pre-requisite for smarter and more reliable machine performance across the factory floor through the use of predictive analytics and digital machine-to-machine networking.

“For customers using robotic vacuum technology to pick up different items, for example, we can provide vacuum sensors to not only monitor the performance of the suction cups or soft grippers, but be able to predict their performance to inform people of any pending problem they may want to address earlier, rather than later, to avoid downtime,” Latino said.

specialist Nicolas Fleuriot, there is no such thing as too much data when it comes to optimizing the performance of automated manufacturing and packaging equipment.

“When it comes to data,” Fleuriot stated, “you really want to collect as much data as you can.

“You may not need it right now, but in six or 10 years you may want to go back and look at this data,” Fleuriot said, “and be able to make a decision based on the history of what’s been done with this data.

Source: Interactive Analysis - Industrial Robots May 2022

“We (Festo) come into the picture by providing the OEMs’ (original equipment manufacturers) PLCs (programmable logic controllers) and instruments with the components to give access to data, which is also passed on to the SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition), the MES (manufacturing Execution System), the ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) and, finally, the Cloud,” Fleruriot explained.

“On the maintenance side of things, AI tools are going to become very dominant in the future for providing analytics for predictive maintenance and predictive quality,” Latino stated.

For Festo’s business development

“Automating the business process means populating all these areas are populating information into a (data) pool that all other users and stakeholders in the enterprise are able to subscribe to and use as they see fit.”

The above text is a sample of the Automate Now 2023 Roundtable podcast, initially broadcast to the North American packaging audience several weeks ago, edited for brevity and clarity. To see a video of the full event on Canadian Packaging TV, please go to www.canadianpackaging.com

Nick Fleuriot, Business Development Specialist, Festo Inc.

BEST IN SHOW

Upcoming national food industry showcase a perfect backdrop for food industry innovation and know-how

All people have their own reasons for hailing the arrival of spring after a long Canadian winter, but for food industry professionals, the return of the annual SIAL Canada food-and-beverage industry exhibition, produced by Comexposium Canada, is always a welcome prelude to sunnier days ahead.

Billed as the largest food innovation show in North America, the upcoming SIAL Canada 2023 exhibition—running May 9-11, 2023, at the Toronto’s state-ofthe-art Enercare Centre by the city’s lakeshore— is the country’s only national trade show to offer a complete range of food products under one roof to meet the needs of retail, foodservice and food-processing industries in one space.

As such, it is very much a ‘must-attend’ event for most companies operating in the country’s dynamic and ever-evolving packaging sector by offering them a priceless opportunity to stay on top of the latest food industry market trends, innovations and research that will have a profound impact on their own business in the months and years to come.

With that in mind, Canadian Packaging recently reached out to Julianne Pilon, communications and partnership manager at Expo Canada France Inc. in Montreal, for an early insight into what visitors to next month’s SIAL Canada 2023 exhibition can expect.

QHowbig of an event are you expecting at this year’s SIAL Canada 2023 in Toronto next month, and how do you expect it to compare to last year’s edition in Montreal?

AThe upcoming SIAL Canada 2023 exhibition is expected to attract over 20,000 professional visitors to its extensive show floor with more than 1,000 exhibitors showcasing the latest products and trends, including cutting-edge Can-

adian and international innovations.

Compared to its previous edition in Montreal, SIAL Canada 2023 will host a larger number of visitors from Ontario, Canada and the rest of the world.

This year’s event is anticipated to bring back a sense of normalcy following the COVID-19 pandemic, as it will feature the participation of over 60 countries— making it one of our largest shows yet.

QWhat are some of the exciting new and old-favorite show features can the visitors expect at this year’s edition?

ALike always, SIAL Canada is committed to its mission of inspiring food businesses through various means, such as thought-provoking content, interactive demonstrations, and world-class competitions.

There are several exciting features planned for SIAL Canada 2023, including the SIAL Canada Conference program, which will cover a wide range of topics. Also, the return of La Cuisine by SIAL, presented by Doyon Després, will showcase renowned chefs who will demonstrate their latest culinary creations and share their tips.

Additionally, our Inspire Drinks area will be back, where restaurateurs and food professionals will be able to participate in interactive workshops and live tastings, while exploring on-trend topics such as mixology, infusion, fermentation,

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and well-being.

We will also be highlighting The Food Professor Podcast with host Michael LeBlanc and Dr. Sylvain Charlebois, featuring interviews with industry trailblazers live from the show floor.

Finally, SIAL Canada’s worldclass competitions will be back, including SIAL Innovation, the International Cheese Competition, the Pitch Competition, and Olive d’Or, recognizing and rewarding the evolutionary products and people transforming the food industry.

QWhat kind of audience are you hoping to attract to the event?

AAs the only international food show in Canada, this year’s show will bring together the entire value chain—including buyers, sellers, thought-leader, trailblazers, CEOs and young professionals—to connect, learn and collaborate, while fueling innovation, unlocking business opportunities, and shaping the future of the ever-changing agrifood industry.

QWhat are some of the hottest trends in the agri-food industry today that will be highlighted at the show?

A. As SIAL Canada continues to respond to market trends by creating a new space dedicated to non-alcoholic beverages, we’ll be featuring a new ‘Village” are dedicated to such products. This new division, situated nearby our Inspire Drink area, will highlight the unique sectorization taking place in the North American beverage industry. Several important industry players will also enrich our programming throughout the three days of the show— including chefs Stefano Faita, Chuck Hughes and Matty Matheson—at the La Cuisine by SIAL area.

QHow big of a packaging component will there be at SIAL Canada 2023?

AOur packaging sector is the second-largest on the show floor, and it ranks within the ‘Top Five’ subjects of interest among our anticipated 20,000-plus professional visitors.

Driven by an increased demand for environmentally-friendly and innovative packaging options, our packaging sector is growing rapidly.

To that end, SIAL Canada will offer educational sessions focused

on packaging, including seminars and workshops on topics such as ‘Circular economy for Plastics: Meeting the Challenge with Innovation,’’ which will be led by our resident packaging expert Carol Zweep.

Also this year, SIAL Canada will be introducing new packaging solutions matching the trend known as the ‘Internet of Packaging,’ which utilizes technologies such as QR codes, smart labels, and digital chips to enable consumers to gain more information about products.

The show will also put greater focus on labels, which are becoming more important as they improve communication and foster stronger connections between consumers and brands.

All in all, attendees will be able to discover many new materials, designs and techniques that can help improve their product shelf-life, sustainability and overall appeal, thereby improving their own packaging strategies.

QWhat are some of the more notable and exciting conference sessions and educational opportunities to be offered at the show?

AThrough its conferences and networking events featuring high-profile speakers, SIAL Canada provides exhibitors and visitors with targeted education on hot topics including: regulatory issues related to packaging, nutrition labeling, and prevention of food fraud; sustainable trends and practices like upcycling, regeneration, cellular food and aquaculture; and food marketing trends in restaurant and retail industries, with special focus on the Gen Z demographic.

Participants will also be able to explore the latest food technologies (AI, digital twinning, store of tomorrow), and how they can be

used to target their marketing. Anyone planning on attending can easily find our full programming online at www.sialcanada. com

QDoes the recent launch of the annual SIAL America show in Las Vegas in any ways diminish the appeal of the SIAL Canada series?

ABeing a member of the SIAL Network is more than just having over 60 years of shared experience. It also means leveraging our global expertise while adopting a localized approach to cater to each market’s specific needs. As a result, we have become a leading reference point for the food industry all over the world.

The new SIAL America is the first-of-its-kind cross-category food and beverage show made in the U.S. But rather than being rivals, SIAL Canada and SIAL America are collaborating extensively to provide exhibitors, importers, foodservice companies, distributors, retailers, wholesalers, and restaurateurs with as many business opportunities as possible.

QHow will this year’s event highlight the growing trend and imperative towards greater environmental sustainability in the food-and-beverage industries?

ASIAL Canada 2023 has adopted a new powerful and unifying theme, ‘Own the Change,’ to encourage exhibitors and visitors to work together in reimagining the future of the industry.

The ‘Own the Change’ show slogan also means celebrating the industry’s trailblazers, change-makers and rising stars. Specifically, SIAL Canada will be spotlighting food entrepreneurs and the innovations that are revolutionizing the way we produce,

consume, and inform ourselves about food through the new StartUp Village , the Pitch Competition and the SIAL Innovation Awards

QWhatkind of legacy and impact do you hope this year’s show will leave behind?

ABy showcasing the latest products and trends, we believe that our event will encourage innovation and inspire change across the entire value chain.

The theme “Own the Change,” adopted by the entire SIAL network, will serve as an industry-wide call-to-action to seize the reins of change and reimagine the future together.

The SIAL Canada 2023 exhibition is organized to promotes a prosperous and sustainable future fueled by new ideas, creative solutions and game-changing innovations as that will help foster economic growth.

The event will bring together exhibitors from over 52 different countries, providing them with access to the North American market, while also supporting job creation and entrepreneurship by showcasing new products and business ideas are introduced to the market around the world.

We also hope to leave an environmental legacy by promoting sustainable food production and consumption practices. Our event always encourages the use of environmentally-friendly materials and practices, as well as promoting sustainable farming and manufacturing processes.

Last but not least, SIAL Canada 2023 will also leave a social legacy by once again supporting charitable organizations, notably the Daily Bread Food Bank , and other initiatives aimed at alleviating food insecurity and promoting healthy eating habits for all Canadians.

The executive board of Herndon, Va.-headquartered PMMI, The Association for Packaging and Processing Technologies, has appointed Patty Andersen, vice-president of human resources and after-market services at end-of-line packaging machinery manufacturer Delkor Systems of Arden Hills, Minn., as the 2023 chairperson of the board— marking the first time that a woman has held the position in the association’s history.

Menasha Corporation, Neehan, Wis.-headquartered manufacturer of corrugated packaging products, has appointed Christopher Drees as the company’s new president and chief executive officer, while also appointing Norm Kukuk as president of the company’s whollyowned subsidiary ORBIS Corporation, manufacturer of reusable plastic totes, pallets, containers, dunnage and racks.

Germantown, Wis.based electrical connectors supplier WAGO of Germantown, Wis., has appointed Diane Pena (right) as electrical contractor and wholesale sales manager; and Bill Prevo as regional sales manager for southwestern Michigan.

SKA FABRICATING NAMES STEVE SHERMAN ITS NEW CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

DURANGO, CO & GRAND RAPIDS, MI - After a nationwide search, Ska Fabricating’s Board of Directors has selected Steve Sherman to lead the company as its Chief Executive Officer. Most recently, Mr. Sherman served as Global VP of Operations for Spectralink Corporation.

Ska Fabricating builds heavy duty automated packaging line equipment, specializing in depalletizers, palletizers, custom conveyance systems, and more. “Our products are flexible and scalable…” noted Mr. Sherman, “...Regardless of business size, package type, or product segment – if you are building or improving your packaging line – we are committed to being your partner of choice.”

Mr. Sherman looks forward to seeing the next chapter of Ska Fabricating take shape, “When I look for a leadership role, I focus on smaller, fast moving, customer-focused companies with a strategy and track record of growth and service. And most importantly for me – great people who want to build something great and long-lasting. We spend so much time at work, that I want to work with people where I build lifelong friendships. Ska Fab is all of that.”

For more information, or to connect with Steve Sherman and Ska Fabricating, please contact: Elise Wright, Marketing and Events Manager, ewright@skafabricating.com

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Niche products need novel packaging ideas to match / Elena Langlois

When it comes to hair care products, I like to buy my shampoo and conditioner in large volume containers to reduce the frequency at which I need to run out to buy more, which is invariably at an inopportune time. With a refillable dispenser attached to the shower wall that holds all the product I need, these large bottles never clutter my shower, and get tucked away into the farthest recesses of the bathroom vanity on stand-by to refill, until they eventually are empty and are placed into the recycling bin. AG Care of Coquitlam, B.C., gets high marks from me for creating my favourite shampoo and conditioner, which incidentally makes my hair look the best it has in years, and they get massive bonus marks for relaunching their entire product line in, as described on the company’s website, “Sustainable packaging made from responsible and recycled materials with refillable options.” The plant-based Balance Apple Cider Vinegar Sulfate-Free Shampoo and Boost Apple Cider Vinegar Silicone-Free Conditioner are now sold in one-liter refillable pouches standing 18-25-cm tall and a gusset expanding to its maximum eight-centimeter depth. The pouches feel durable, and the matte silver with a light herbaceous green label with black text flexo-printed onto the pouch lends a nice fresh vibe to the product. While the company touts the new packaging as using 73 per cent less plastic and 62 per cent less energy to produce than the previous bottles, they acknowledge that only the cap at present is recyclable, as the pouch itself requires an inner layer to protect the product inside—rendering it non-recyclable. The company says it is actively working with suppliers to find a recyclable option, so I am watching their packaging evolution with great interest.

Bayview Village is a mid-size shopping centre located near some of Toronto’s most affluent communities and, as its website self-proclaims, “It is one of

Canada’s most prestigious shopping centres, catering to discerning foodies, fashionistas and décoristas, allowing its well-heeled customers to check things off their “to do” lists in the glam-est way possible.” Boasting high-end stores such as Stuart Weitzman , Tommy Bahama, Swarovski, Le Creuset and fine-foods retailer Pusateri’s , it’s no wonder that something as simple as a mall gift card would pack considerable panache as well. At first glance, what presents itself as a small, triangular, black, crocodile-leather clutch purse with black strap handles, turns out to be a clever origami-like folded gloss card stock printed completely black, with the pattern of the animal’s skin embossed all over and with white logo script emblazoned across the front as if it were a designer’s autograph . As the lucky recipient lifts the Velcro tab holding together the top, the two sided part just as they would with a real purse to reveal a miniature white pillow box, decorated with sketches of products on which the recipient may want to splurge their gift, while containing the snugly-fitted gift card with precision die-cut tabs to hold securely in place.

A silver lining to COVID-19 lockdown is that many people took the opportunity to startup their own home-based business doing something for which they had a particular skillset and a passion.

Clockwise from top New flexible packaging format from AG Care is claimed to have achieved significant carbon footprint reduction compared to traditional large plastic bottles; the i Bake special-edition boxes carefully stack up on the display shelves for maximum visual impact; an adorable miniature faux leather purse replica used as a gift-card holder.

While attending the popular One of a Kind exhibition in Toronto not long ago, I wandered up and down the aisles inspired not only by their creativity, but also their high level of professionalism. One such exhibitor was i Bake it of Oshawa, Ont., helmed by a vivacious entrepreneur Cathy S. A second-generation baker, she honestly admitted to being something of a packaging novice: “I was using Canva on my iPhone. I didn’t know what the heck I was doing!”

That said, I simply could not resist purchasing the i BAKE special-edition box featuring six seasonal flavors of 12 decadent, individually wrapped cookies sealed in clear film to retain its freshness, taste, and a longer shelf-life. As I looked at the delicious cookies through the cellophane window in the lid, I salivated at what I knew would be my favourite flavors: blueberry lemon with white chocolate, strawberry burst, and toasted coconut. I pulled on one end of a bow tied with pink organza ribbon threaded through a couple of two-centimeter slots that held the box closed. The magnetic lid lifted, hinged on the long edge of the box revealing the thick walls giving the container a feeling of luxury. On closer inspection, I could see that this box was likely shipped flat and could easily be popped into shape. The classy white surface with black trim allows the cookies inside to be the star of the show, and the branding on what look to be specific branding zones on the lid let the consumer know who made them. The bottom of the box declares what the products are, what they are made with, and where you can find out more about the with the website address, socialmadia links, and a QR code. So, here goes the nod of respect and recognitions to all the fedgling, innovative start-ups, and their more esablished counterparts, for offering attractive, well-priced, brandable packaging solutions in short-run quantities, at least for the time being.

ELENA LANGLOIS is a Toronto-based freelance writer.

PHOTOS BY ELENA LANGLOIS

Optimum Detection Meets Affordable Compliance with the M30 R-Series Inspection System

METTLER TOLEDO’s M30 R-Series delivers smart, digital inspection at an attractive price to match both your budget and compliance needs. It can be easily integrated with a wide range of conveyor systems to inspect, reject, and remove metal contaminated product from the line. Maximize your return on investment by minimizing false rejects and reducing product waste with the M30 R-Series.

Modular design

Built to be adapted over time and meet evolving compliance and production requirements

Affordable Compliance

Designed to meet your performance and budget needs

Game-Changing Technology

Advanced detection capabilities designed to detect small metal contaminants and lower false rejects

Learn more about how you can maximize ROI and ensure ongoing compliance by visiting www.mt.com/ca-m30-r-series-brochure

Victoria Bay products are both reliable and consistent in their performance.

From securely packaging your goods to protecting them from damage during shipping and storage, our products are designed to give you peace of mind.

• Stretch Film

• Adhesives

• Carton Sealing Tapes

Available through:

or call us at 1-800-387-3871