Packaging Technology

MATT REYNOLDS | EDITOR, PACKAGING WORLD

Multi-Component Package for DIY Berry Yogurt Parfaits

With an existing 4-oz Chobani yogurt pack format as a starting point, berry parfait product collaborator Naturipe worked backward and reverse-engineered an optimized PET cup and closure that nests components and seals them into a single package system.

NATURIPE IS A FARMER-OWNED grower and marketer of premium berries that, for more than 100 years, has been producing fresh, frozen, and value-added berry products. Because Naturipe’s growers share with each other valuable resources, skills, labor, and knowledge, they improve themselves as farmers and, in turn, strengthen the local farming community.

This past summer, the company launched its new Berry Parfait line of on-the-go snack packs, featuring Chobani Yogurt, Naturipe fresh berries, and film-wrapped granola, all within two nested cups that are sealed by a PET film closure. Each of the constituent ingredients is kept separate and uncompromised in-pack until the consumer decides to combine them.

“We’ve been trying to do something like this; it has been on our wish list for a long time. But we really wanted to o er something that set itself apart from the products that are currently out there,” says Janis McIntosh, director of marketing innovation and sustainability at Naturipe. “One thing that slowed us down was that we were initially trying to utilize packaging formats that we already had. We kept asking ourselves, ‘Rather than reinventing the wheel, is there something already in our packaging landscape that we’re already using that we could repurpose for a parfait?’ Finally, we realized that this was going to have to be a whole new design.”

The decision to break from existing packaging freed decision-makers to seek exactly what they wanted rather than make do with leftovers. They wanted something nice and clean that would clearly demonstrate that Naturipe had partnered with Chobani—a brand that people recognize, trust, and like. They wanted a pack that would broadcast to

A clear, lidded PET cup lets the two stars of the show shine through on a shelf: fresh berries and Chobani brand yogurt. consumers that there would be high-quality yogurt, as well as fresh berries, in each parfait.

“We knew that we had a win-win with our partners at Chobani,” McIntosh says. “They’d never done anything like this either; a fresh produce project like this was unique for them.” But just because Naturipe had determined to start fresh with a new pack design didn’t mean that Chobani had to. “We wanted to do something unique and di erent, but we didn’t want them to have to start from scratch on their side. So, the easiest thing was to ask them, ‘What do you have that we can take advantage of for this important project?’”

Chobani was already producing a 4-oz traditional format polypropylene yogurt cup with a sealed foil closure that had originally been designed for airline foodservice situations. The 4-oz size would be workable as a starting point to build around. The Chobani pack was also in a prime position for important factors like calorie content and price point.

“Both Chobani and Naturipe are all about health, and we’re always innovating around healthy snacks that hit a certain level of calories and nutrients,” McIntosh says. “This 4-oz Chobani cup was perfect for us because we knew we were going to be pairing it with granola and berries, both of which are bringing some calories of their own to the table.”

PHOTO COURTESY OF NATURIPE

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The Chobani cup’s closure circumference is the same as its more familiar and larger 5.3-oz cups, allowing them to be heat sealed on existing packaging equipment. The only change for the targeted cups is their depth. That got the Naturipe innovation team thinking. If the short Chobani cup were nested in a larger, deeper thermoformed cup, the enclosed yogurt pack would occupy the head space of the outer cup. But there would also be an open cavity underneath the cup that could contain berries. This outer cup, in which the finished Chobani cup would nest, would need to be molded with a shelf or flange around its upper circumference on which the inner cup’s closure neck could rest. When nested, it would rest above the empty cavity beneath it.

“We looked at what’s currently on the shelf in terms of height and realized, ‘Well, why don’t we just put our berries at the bottom of a slightly larger cup, and nest the Chobani cup above?’ Our biggest challenge was determining how much head space we would need in that cavity to accommodate berries that sometimes come in di erent sizes throughout the year.”

Building the perfect cup

The R&D process was an iterative one; nine di erent size and shape tests into the project, McIntosh and her team narrowed in on one that they felt would accommodate all the various growing regions’ berry sizes.

“We just didn’t know how the berries were going to sit,” McIntosh says. “The biggest consideration was to make sure the berries sit well and comfortably, so that was the driving force behind all those iterations. It was all about protecting the berries.”

But the space beneath the yogurt cup wasn’t the only consideration. There also needed to be space above the yogurt that would carry a flow-wrapped pack of granola.

Not every granola supplier had the equipment to produce the mini-sized film packs Naturipe was looking for. The flow-wrapped granola pack needed for this project was a challenge. A high-barrier BOPP film material protects crunchy granola from moisture that could come from the berries in the pack or could result from temperature-based condensation in transit or retail display.

Yet another challenge that would a ect the final pack format was a unique need shared by two specialty channels into which Naturipe intended to sell. Beyond traditional retail requirements, both convenience store and airline customers—key target markets for these berry parfaits—required these packs to include a spoon to make them self-contained and on-the-go friendly. Luckily, the wooden spoon form factor was thin enough that it would fit into the cup’s headspace, above the yogurt and below the granola pouch, before sealing.

With dimensions sorted, Naturipe opted for clear PET instead of the typical PP yogurt style cup. It’s a favorite material for the berry industry, plus its transparent nature allows consumers to get a good look at the farm fresh berries, which Naturipe would say are the star of the show. The visible berries are a big distinguishing factor in the parfait system compared with pre-mixed fresh yogurt and berries. Also, the transparent PET allows for the immediately recognizable Chobani brand name—as printed on the existing Chobani pack’s label—to clearly show through on a retail shelf.

Geometrically, the inner Chobani cup is cylindrical, but the outer PET cup uses squarer panels around its cylindrical yogurt cup contents. The closure shape on top of the PET cup is also more square-shaped than the circular yogurt closure within.

To take this idea from drawing board to reality, Naturipe worked closely with a thermoforming partner. The company was able to three-dimensionally model and validate how the cups and components would nest together, long before any expensive metal molds needed to be cut and, potentially, scrapped. Naturipe chose not to reveal any of its packaging material or equipment suppliers.

PHOTO COURTESY OF NATURIPE This exploded view of the Naturipe berry parfait pack illustrates all of the constituent packaging elements and how they nest together.

Automation on the packaging line

While some upstream and downstream processes are automated, the assembly of the individual components together before the top seal remains a manual process. Since the package system was invented basically from whole cloth, there isn’t any standard, o -the-shelf equipment that could handle the task. But that might not always be the case.

Downstream case packing is also manual. Future equipment added to this area of the packing line, to automate the step marrying yogurt cup to outer PET cup, will need to be able to handle cold-room temperatures around 32°F.

JOYCE FASSL | SENIOR EXECUTIVE EDITOR

FDA Proposed Rule for Traceability— Are You Prepared?

Perishable items and nut butters will be among the foods requiring increased traceability records under the FDA proposed ruling expected later this year. Automation, increased due diligence, and perhaps additional sta ng are in the o ng for a ected food processors.

IT MIGHT SEEM to the average consumer that product recalls are on the rise. But for the past few years, there has actually been a downturn in recalls, according to Eric Edmunds, food safety director with The Acheson Group (TAG).

“That [consumer perception] could have been caused by COVID or a lack of investigational activities happening on the FDA side in particular,” Edmunds explains. “But the science is improving, and the ability to detect and tie illnesses to actual causes is definitely getting better.”

The food industry, in general, is doing a better job of controlling hazards, Edmunds says. Today’s scientific advancements, including whole genome sequencing, are able to identify the cause of many foodborne illness outbreaks, but mainstream news and social media have led to an increased awareness of food safety among consumers.

Social media has played a big role in recall awareness, notes Ti any Donica, a continuous improvement coach at SafetyChain Software and former food quality director for some major manufacturers. “Before Snapchat, TikTok, and Facebook, you might have heard about a food safety incident in the news, if it was major. But now, at the

Critical Tracking Events and Key Data Elements for Romaine Lettuce

Grower KDEs* Receiving KDEs* Receiving KDEs* First Receiver KDEs* Receiving KDEs* Receiving KDEs*

Shipping KDEs* Shipping KDEs* Shipping KDEs*

*More information is available by clicking on each box on this web page: www.fda.gov/media/142291/download. Receiving KDEs*

Transformation KDEs*

Shipping KDEs* Shipping KDEs*

SOURCE: FDA

The FDA website has several examples of CTEs and KDEs for products, such as soft cheese, seafood, and fresh-cut romaine lettuce.

drop of a hat, somebody can post something on one of those platforms,” she states. “It goes viral, and the whole world is in an uproar about something that we might have not heard about 10 years ago.”

While food manufacturing plants are already maintaining strict traceability records, traceability regulations for perishable foods and nut butters are expected to be announced later this year by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). (For a list of the foods included under the proposed rule, see the chart on page 22.)

The proposed rule is covered under the Food Safety and Modernization Act (FSMA) signed into law in 2011. “The underlying reason why Congress passed a law is there’s basically a slow response time to investigating certain outbreaks and foodborne illness events,” says Edmunds. “The idea was that by creating more records, especially for high-risk foods, it would facilitate quicker investigations and prevent illness overall. If the FDA’s able to find the problem quicker, they’re able to put out public notices faster, e ectuate recalls, and prevent more people from getting sick.”

The proposed rule shows a proactive approach to food safety challenges, according to Pablo Coronel, director of food safety at CRB. “With the suppliers knowing that everything is going to be traced, they’re going to be careful to supply good ingredients,” he states. “It puts a lot more responsibility on the ingredient supplier and is a very big help in keeping the cold food supply safe.”

Enhancing traceability and recordkeeping is going to improve food safety, Donica says. “Now, is it going to require a lot more diligence? Absolutely. And it could also cost facilities a little bit more in capital,” she states. “It’s going to require a lot more diligence in the food industry, especially in regulatory, food safety, and quality initiatives.”

Tech-enabled traceability is preferred, but not required

While some larger processors already have software and sta in place to adhere to the proposed rule, many plants are still using Excel spreadsheets or paper documentation for traceability. While these methods are still acceptable to the FDA, processors a ected by the proposed rule should be aware that all traceability records involved in a recall incident must be sent to the FDA within 24 hours.

“While the FDA would prefer food processors have tech-enabled traceability, the statute actually doesn’t require it,” states Edmunds. “If the FDA is investigating a foodborne illness, or acting on recall-level activities, you must share a sortable spreadsheet with all of the required information for your critical tracking events [CTEs].”

For those companies still documenting traceability records on paper, Edmunds thinks an investment in automation is well worth the price. “From a business perspective, automation is going to save time in the long run,” he says. And he expects most companies to experience this kind of request at some point. “It’s not really an if, but when,” he adds.

Many mom-and-pop food operations currently do not have the knowledge to handle the additional requirements under the proposed traceability rule. Donica says these operations will see added costs for which they might not have budgeted. Software like SafetyChain can aid them in implementing some benefits, but it does come with a price tag, she explains. “It’s almost like you have to have a person solely [dedicated] to ensure that the documentation from beginning to end is being captured appropriately, and that it’s being validated.”

Coronel says it is mostly medium-sized companies that will have to implement software solutions and documentation on every ingredient they receive. The challenge for them, he says, is how to do the proposed recordkeeping. “They’re going to have to implement traceability systems,” he says.

FDA Proposed Rule: Additional Traceability Records for Certain Foods

Foods Description

Cheeses, other than hard cheeses

Includes all cheeses made with either pasteurized or unpasteurized milk, other than hard cheeses. Includes soft ripened/ semi-soft cheeses (e.g., brie, camembert, feta, mozzarella, taleggio, blue, brick, fontina, monterey jack, and muenster) and soft unripened/fresh soft cheeses (e.g., cottage, chevre/goat, cream, mascarpone, ricotta, queso blanco, queso fresco, queso de crema, and queso de puna). Shell eggs Shell egg means the egg of the domesticated chicken

Nut butter Includes all types of tree nut and peanut butters; does not include soy or seed butters

Cucumbers (fresh) Includes all varieties of cucumbers

Herbs (fresh) Includes all types of herbs, such as parsley, cilantro, basil, etc.

Leafy greens (fresh), including fresh-cut leafy greens Includes all types of leafy greens, such as lettuce, (e.g., iceberg, leaf and Romaine lettuces), kale, chicory, watercress, chard, arugula, spinach, pak choi, sorrel, endive, etc.

Melons (fresh) Includes all types of melons, such as cantaloupe, honeydew, watermelon, etc. Peppers (fresh) Includes all varieties of peppers Sprouts (fresh) Includes all varieties of sprouts Tomatoes (fresh) Includes all varieties of tomatoes Tropical tree fruits (fresh) Includes all types of tropical tree fruit, such as mango, papaya, mamey, guava, lychee, jackfruit, starfruit, etc.

Fruits and Vegetables (fresh-cut) Includes all types of fresh-cut fruits and vegetables

Finfish, including smoked finfish Includes all finfish species, such as cod, haddock, Alaska pollock, tuna, mahi mahi, mackerel, grouper, barracuda, salmon, etc.; except does not include siluriformes fish, such as catfish1

Crustaceans Includes all crustacean species, such as shrimp, crab, lobster, crayfish, etc.

Mollusks, bivalves Includes all species of bivalve mollusks, such as oysters, clams, mussels, etc.; does not include scallop adductor muscle.

Ready-to-eat deli salads Includes all types of ready-to-eat deli salads, such as egg salad, potato salad, pasta salad, seafood salad, etc.; does not include meat salads

SOURCE: FDA

1Data for catfish were excluded from the Risk-Ranking Model because siluriformes fish (such as catfish) are primarily regulated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. “And at the beginning, they’re going to need people who are dedicated to do this all the time, until they understand what’s going on.”

Smaller organizations and emerging brands should reach out to food safety and food security experts for help, Donica says. “There are a ton of people that you can get resources from, and [you should] attend webinars to make sure you are up to date on exactly what is required,” she states. “Work with your networking group, ask questions, and get best practices from other industries, especially if you’re very new into the industry, as well as if you’re very small and just don’t have that bandwidth of resources to pull from.”

The proposed rule is not about additional data gathering, Edmunds says. “It’s a compilation or transmission of data to the FDA that is going to cause a little more legwork, especially in a crisis scenario,” he explains.

Recently, TAG has been presenting free webinars on the topic in its FSMA Fridays webinar series in collaboration with SafetyChain and has begun to perform assessments for clients covering the proposed rule. TAG suggests that processors know which CTEs apply to them, ascertain if they already have the key data elements (KDEs) in their records, and know where these records are located. Edmunds says TAG’s work will ramp up when the rule is final. “You don’t want to invest too much when it’s not set in stone yet,” he states.

Due diligence is mandatory

Even large companies could experience some headaches with the proposed rule, Donica says. In her experience, validation is extremely important, but is sometimes overlooked. She says processors should ask themselves questions such as: Is what we put in place functioning correctly? and Are we meeting all the guidelines?

In large facilities where many employees and departments are involved in traceability, due diligence is mandatory. Food processing facilities have a responsibility to ensure new guidelines get established, and that they are performed during the validation, Donica adds.

SafetyChain’s software platform handles traceability from the beginning to the end of the process. “Supplier compliance is one of the modules in our platform that enables you to better track and keep up with expiring documents, not keeping spreadsheets, and having everything in one spot where you can see what’s expiring, when it’s expiring, and to [store] documents from di erent suppliers,” she says.

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Records for Receivers

Establish and maintain records containing and linking the traceability lot code to:

•The location identifi er and location description for the immediate previous description for the immediate previous source • Entry number assigned to food (if imported) • The location identifi er and location description of where the food was received, and the date and time the food was received • The quantity and unit of measure of the food • The traceability product identifi er and traceability product description for the food • The location identifi er, location description, and point of contact for the traceability lot code generator • The reference records and numbers for documents containing the information • The name of the transporter who transported the food to you

IMAGE COURTESY OF FSMA FRIDAYS WEBINAR SERIES BY THE ACHESON GROUP (TAG), HOSTED BY SAFETYCHAIN

If food processors need to change suppliers, or there are changes in growing regions, they must update their traceability documentation quickly and accurately. With the industry’s continuing labor challenges, a lot of plants are struggling, she says.

If your suppliers are not up to standards, SafetyChain allows processors to give direct feedback to those suppliers and provide them with information on what they need to improve.

SafetyChain software can integrate with existing enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, says Donica, but it will require some work on the food company’s IT side, as well as SafetyChain’s part. “We do require an internal IT person to do the IT work on their side, because it is their ERP system.”

Lot codes, suppliers, and incoming ingredients require attention

One area that might cause some confusion for affected processors is lot codes. “There’s a new legal defi nition of a traceability lot code,” says Edmunds. Processors must know how traceability lot codes interact with the existing lot codes they are receiving and producing. “Is it going to create a new data element, or will you be able to transfer your existing lot coding system into the legal defi nition of the traceability lot code?” Edmunds asks.

The FDA’s website provides an overall outline, with frequently asked questions, on what is on the proposed food traceability list and how lot codes come into play. For example, the site has farm-tofork sample graphics showing where CTEs and KDEs would apply at each step along the supply chain.

While Edmunds believes audits won’t change much, bringing on new suppliers is an area to watch. He suggests establishing upfront documentation procedures for the information you need and how the new supplier is going to send it to you.

Coronel predicts FDA inspectors will fi nd audits challenging until they understand how the new system works. He says they will need to understand how ERP works with traceability. He also believes audits will likely take more time.

Over the years, food safety consultant Paul Cordes has found traceability mistakes in his work with processors. “If I’m using salt that comes in with a tag on it from the manufacturer, that might be the Julian date when it was produced. You don’t necessarily use that,” he says, because the supplier might have assigned its own internal codes. Cordes also says processors should be careful with the extra traceability documentation if they are producing variety packs or prepared meals with di erent types of foods, such as a salad kit.

When bringing on new suppliers, if you have multiple ingredients that are coming in, you keep individual receiving records for each of them, says Edmunds. “But if you’re transforming or creating, [using ingredients] coming from multiple traceability lot codes, and you have multiple ingredients that are already on the list and creating something else, there are going to be some growing pains in that area, such as fi nding out exactly how to transfer that information through your production process.”

Coronel has seen companies that can’t get certain products, so they replace them. “A few companies have called me and said, ‘Is it OK if we substitute this for this for food safety?’ And that goes back to having some fl exibility,” he says. “But I think, for traceability, it can be a nightmare because everything will change. But if those ingredients or those intermediate products have the electronic token and have been traced back, then it shouldn’t be that much more di cult.”

The key for a ected processors right now is to identify whether they’re holding or processing something on the food traceability list. “Food processors must look at their supply chain to see which CTE applies to them, and they’ll need to start immediate discourse with their suppliers to determine if they already have the pertinent information,” says Edmunds.

It is important to note that if food processors apply a kill step, the requirements do not apply to their subsequent shipping. If a processor receives a food that has been subject to a kill step, the requirements also do not apply to its receipt or subsequent transformation and/or shipping of food.

Making traceability more effective

Co-packers or co-manufacturers also need to increase their awareness of traceability. They must have all the documents and be able to trace back any components of the food they are processing, says Cordes. “It’s their responsibility. They’re selling it as a final product. It is going to be di erent for variety packs, co-packing, or co-manufacturing of someone else’s goods,” he says. “Sometimes, you’re not the holder of all the information, but you’re going to have to be now.”

Cordes says the FDA is trying to make the system more e ective. “For some businesses, I think it’s going to be a little trickier than [for] others because it will cost them money in the end,” he says. “You have to track what goes into a product and be able to retain that information in the event that there is an issue.” It just means the FDA has a little bit more power to do things than what they have in the past, Cordes concludes.

The Acheson Group

www.achesongroup.com

CRB

www.crbgroup.com

Food Safety Consultant Paul Cordes

pcordesnm@gmail.com

SafetyChain

www.safetychain.com

FDA’s Recent Work on Prevention and Outbreak Response

ACCORDING TO FDA STATISTICS from December 2021, foodborne pathogens are estimated to sicken one in six Americans each year, resulting in an estimated 128,000 hospitalizations and 3,000 deaths. The agency says foodborne outbreaks require multidisciplinary e orts and, often, multijurisdictional coordination.

The FDA’s Foodborne Outbreak Response Improvement Plan (FORIP), introduced in 2020 as part the agency’s New Era of Smarter Food Safety Blueprint, is an operation the agency is undertaking to improve the speed, e ectiveness, coordination, and communication of outbreak investigations.

FORIP focuses on multistate outbreaks that require significant engagement coordinated by the FDA’s CORE Network. This plan is intended to complement two of the blueprint’s core elements: “Tech-enabled Traceability” and “Smarter Tools and Approaches for Prevention and Outbreak Response.”

Last summer, the FDA launched its Low- or No-cost Tech-enabled Traceability Challenge as part of the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010. The act asks companies to invest in innovation through R&D to improve U.S. competitiveness. The goal was to encourage stakeholders—from technology providers to public health advocates and innovators—to develop traceability hardware, software, or data analytics platforms that are low or of no cost to end users.

Out of 90 submissions from countries around the world, the FDA announced 12 winners from the U.S., Canada, and New Zealand. Some commonalities between winners include

To learn more about the winners of the FDA’s Low- or No-cost Tech-enabled Traceability Challenge, visit

pfwgo.to/FDAChallenge.

alignment with GS1 standards, multilingual options, and label generation. The following are some of the winners.

Atma.io, Avery Dennison’s connected product cloud—a platform for creating, managing, and assigning digital identities for individual items—is one of the components that provides item-level traceability to each participant in the food supply chain, from source to store and from farm to fork, using Avery Dennison systems and proprietary blockchain technology through Mastercard Provenance. Each item-level event is tracked in atma.io and subsequently written to Mastercard Provenance, allowing producers to automatically feed in product attribute information for each SKU—for example, weight, price, and shelf life.

Mojix uses industry standards to link traceability events for each individual item and/or lot throughout the food supply chain to enable a low-cost, collaborative open data network. Each item has a universal ID, and when an item is separated into parts, all key data elements (KDEs) and critical tracking events (CTEs) remain associated with the original ID. Distribution centers, processors, and wholesalers can attach information to an item through a digital link. The Mojix network synchronizes data from multiple sources and acts as a global repository.

Rfider from Rfider Ltd is software-as-a-service that simplifies capturing, securing, and sharing critical event data along supply chains, all the way to consumers. This system includes a mobile application with an intuitive interface for data collection, a platform for data management, and a data sharing system for easier sharing capabilities. The mobile app is further designed to present users with the tasks that are relevant for a product at any given step in the supply chain.

ProFood World Contributing Editor Melissa Gri en contributed to this article.