Page 38 - Packaging News Magazine May-June 2020

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FOOD PACKAGING | www.packagingnews.com.au | May-June 2020
Innovation injection
PakPot and Chobani have teamed up to innovate a wholly new cup for Chobani’s popular yoghurt. PKN editor Ian Ackerman spoke to the developers about the technology behind the new-look packaging.
HE new Chobani yoghurt cup, introduced to the Australian market in December, uses what
shrink-sleeve label, and the chal- lenge for PakPot was to convert that to an IML pack.
BELOW: The IML design makes for more efficient
product to IML and the high standard that has been achieved,” Matto said.
Thevenot said it was a long pro-
the developers describe as “revo- lutionary” in-mould labelling (IML) technology, which they say boosts production efficiency and makes for a higher-quality pack. PakPot CEO Joe Matto says the
pack has been well received by the yoghurt-eating public. “In addition to the positive reception from con- sumers, we’ve had some good feed- back from the industry,” he says.
Nolwenn Thevenot, Chobani packaging project manager, says she is confident the new design will meet with consumer approval. “We are really impressed by the quality of the IML packaging and we know our consumers will be too.”
Matto explains that the original pack was made using a thermoform process, then decorated with a
“The advantage of IML is it is one process – meaning the label and the mould are injected as one, with the two coming together and the final product coming out straight to the customer,” he says.
“The previous pack was thermo- formed, the labels were produced and procured overseas, and there was a third process to combine the pack and the label together. Now, with the IML process, we’ve gone from a three-step process to a one-step process.”
“It has been a great outcome for PakPot and a great outcome for Chobani,” Matto said.
“Our international equipment-supply part- ners felt it was impres- sive to convert the
filling.
RIGHT: The new IML yoghurt cups are 100 per cent recyclable.
cess to get the pack right. “It didn’t happen overnight, but we wanted to do things the right way, not the easy way and we’re really happy with the outcome,” she says.
Matto says PakPot and Chobani had been discussing developing such a pack, but the technology to make it happen had not been avail- able until recently.
“At PakPot, we spent a fair bit of time on development for this prod- uct. Traditionally IML is a 2D pro- file, where you’re applying a label on a flat surface. Hence, a shrink sleeve tends to work well for a free- form shape,” he says.
Matto says that is why for cylin- drical curved packs, like drink bot- tles, shrink sleeves have tradition- ally worked better, as they shrink over the profile, whereas an IML product is traditionally more suited for 2D profile applications.
“With this yoghurt cup, we’ve created a label that behaves like a shrink sleeve but is applied with the IML process – it’s very uncon- ventional,” Matto says. “It’s an inno- vative process; we’ve also patented the process of applying the IML label over a 3D shape.”
The IML process also makes the pack more sustainable – it is lighter than the previous pack, and the IML pack is easier to recycle.
With this yoghurt cup, we’ve created a label that behaves like a shrink sleeve but is applied with the IML process.” — Joe Matto, PakPot