Page 59 - Food & Drink magazine June 2021

BEYOND DAIRY
Post 2000, Tetra Pak turned its attention to opportunities in the fruit juice and fledgling plant-based beverage markets, where soy milks were vying for shelf space with other nut and grain-based milks... all packaged in Tetra Pak cartons. In the last decade, coconut waters and milks have joined the fray, and most recently, water itself – with the JUST Water brand launched in 2019, produced in Australia by the company’s customer Slades Beverages and now exported to other markets in Asia. Pooch tells PKN the pack developed for JUST Water will soon be protecting other beverage brands.
Along with the advances in Tetra Pak processing technology, its packaging portfolio has expanded dramatically. Pooch says, “When I joined Tetra Pak in the 1980s, we had only four different sortsofasepticpackages–
200ml, 250ml, 500ml and one-litre.”
Today the variety of shapes, sizes and closure combinations number in the hundreds, along with a range of material options, a portfolio designed and curated for the different markets it serves and attuned to the ever-changing consumer preferences in each of these.
LOOKING AHEAD
So, what is next for the F&B industry and for Tetra Pak? With a billion more consumers by 2030 populating mostly Asia and Africa, and the expanding palate for Western-style products, Pooch says Tetra Pak sees a huge opportunity for food producing countries like Australia and New Zealand to supply dairy products and other foods to those consumers.
“As an industry, we should continue to focus on export, that includes plant-based yoghurts and cheeses. We are alsoseeingariseinpreference
ABOVE: The JUST Water filling line at Slades Beverages.
for products that are produced and consumer-packed at source, driving a move from powdered to liquid milk-based products, for instance.
Tetra Pak is driving innovation from the outside – via insights-driven understanding of market and consumer trends – and the inside, engaging with a diverse spectrumofpeoplefrom
different industries, to enrich the R&D process and design processing and packaging technology that will be a fit for the future factory – one that is sustainable, supports zero waste, and delivers customised, targeted products to consumers with optimum efficiency and the highest level of safety. This is what Tetra Pak stands for, whatithasalwaysstoodfor. ✷
www.foodanddrinkbusiness.com.au | June 2021 | Food&Drink business | 59
FOODPRO IN-DEPTH