Ferré & Consulting Blog (English Version)

UK cellulose acetate film supplier Clarifoil has produced a new ultra-gloss white film for luxury confectionery packaging to meet the demand for differentiation in this category.

The satiné lamination film was launched in Q1 2010 and took 2 years to develop. Clarifoil said the new film is made from a renewable polymer and is biodegradable. The film is accredited to EN 13432 and ASTM D6400 standards which means it biodegrades at least 90 per cent within six months and has low heavy metal content.

Clarifoil marketing manager Marion Bauer told that the standout qualities of this new material was its “bio-degradability and compostability, its brilliance and its scratch- and scuff-resistance”

Properties and benefits

The film, which possesses similar physical properties to Clarifoil’s standard P20 grade cellulose di-acetate films, is produced using cellulose from non-GM wood from managed forests.

The firm said extremely pure whitening additives with a small amount of brightening agent gave the film a bright white finish.

“The film gives good adhesion with standard water and solvent based laminating adhesives, and also accepts foil blocking well,” said Clarifoil

The company also advised using primers and/or over-varnishes for over-printing, especially with UV curing systems.

Metallic trends

Bauer said that demand for an environmentally friendly high gloss metallised film were informing future developments in cellulose acetate film manufacturing.

Confectionery industry trend watchers claim that white is the new black in premium chocolate packaging, with the organisers of the 2010 Cologne-based Pro-Sweets trade show at the end of January noting that the colour white symbolises freshness and lightness and, as it is a reserved colour, “it also reflects a certain qualitative value”.

European Union Producer Responsibility Obligations, set to take effect in 2012, stipulate that EU companies with a turnover of over £2m and that use over 50 tonnes of packaging annually, must ensure some or all packaging is recyclable, compostable or reusable.

packaging cellulose acetate, Clarifoil, film, packaging

Raisio PLC, a food and functional food ingredients provider, has partnered with Romanian bakery company Doprogea Grup to launch a cholesterol-lowering bread under the Benecol brand. According to Raisio, the bread will be the first cholesterol-lowering food product launched in Romania.

“The launch in Romania will increase the awareness and visibility of the Benecol brand in Eastern Europe,” Raisio said. “Raisio’s strength is in the ability to adjust, together with its partners, to local inhabitants’ purchasing behavior and in launching Benecol products suitably applied to the markets in question. The Benecol bread on the Romanian market is a good example. Raisio will continue the preparation work with its local partners to launch new products on new markets.”

Benecol, whose active ingredients are plant stanol esters, is a global trademark owned by Raisio. Plant stanol esters are one of the few ingredients to have received approval from the European Union to be used as a health claim.

In a 4 May trading update, the company said net sales of Benecol in the January-March period reached €13 million, up 12% from the first quarter of last year. Raisio attributed the sales gains to volume growth in current markets and launches in new markets. Specifically, the company cited solid sales growth of Benecol products in Spain, Greece and Belgium, while strong growth in Poland and Great Britain evened out.

Thailand and Indonesia are fairly new markets, Raisio said, and as such sales of Benecol products in those countries have developed well considering the time needed for the launching and creating the awareness of products and brand.

Bakery Benecol, bread, Cholesterol, Romania

This year marked the 13th year for the Bakery China tradeshow, held annually in Shanghai. This year’s show, held 12 to 15 May, hosted 65,180 visitors and 914 exhibitors. It was the largest trade fair for bakers and confectioners in Asia. Held at the Shanghai New International Exhibition Center, the 70,000-sq-m exhibition floor featured packaging solutions, chilling and refrigeration technology and ovens and machinery for bread production.

The next edition of Bakery China will be held once again at the the Shanghai New International Exhibition Center , 11 to 14 May, 2011. There are plans to expand the exhibition hall to include a seventh hall in 2011.

Events

The food industry needs to communicate effectively with consumers in order to lower people’s salt intake, it has been claimed.

According to the European Salt Producers’ Association (ESA), responsible salt consumption is part of a healthy diet, meaning that companies promising to reduce salt use by set amounts is not helpful.

“We are opposing the focus on nutrient reductions as these are misleading the consumers and will be providing a much bigger health problem,” the body’s managing director Wouter Lox told Food Navigator.

“Consuming nutrient reduced foods does not equal installing a well-balanced diet and a healthy lifestyle.”

He added that the food industry should be promoting eating salt in moderation alongside a balanced diet and active lifestyle.

Earlier this year, research undertaken at Stanford University in the US highlighted that lowering people’s salt intake by just ten per cent could prevent thousands of heart attacks from occurring annually.

Health healthy diet, salt consumption

Confectionary giant Hershey is inviting people to visit its Create Your Own Candy Bar experience.

Located at the firm’s Chocolate World factory, the experience allows people to select their own ingredients and design packaging for their sweet treat.

Ingredients on offer include graham crackers crumbs, crisped rice, blueberry fruit gels, chocolate cookie bits, vanilla chips and rainbow jimmies.

They will also be able to activate the machinery that makes the chocolate bar, dressed in official factory aprons and hairnets.

“Hershey’s Chocolate World’s new Create Your Own Candy Bar attraction will allow each guest to play the role of a chocolate innovator,” says Amy Hahn, general manager, The Hershey Experience.

“Giving people a chance to create their own chocolate bar and see how authentic factory equipment operates is not common in the chocolate industry. It marks another reason to visit Hershey’s Chocolate World.”

Hershey’s most popular confectionary products include Hershey’s Kisses, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, Jolly Ranchers and Twizzlers.

Chocolate chocolate bar, chocolate industry, Hershey

The Belgian food group Vandemoortele announced an agreement for the takeover of the margarine and fats division from the Dutch company Van Dijk Food Solutions. Vandemoortele would pay about 70 million euros to conclude the deal. ‘Because Bencis Capital, the private equity group controlling Van Dijk since 2008, opts to focus on the sauces division only, the margarine and fats division was set for sale. An excellent opportunity for us to consolidate our position in The Netherlands, as 80 percent of Van Dijk’s margarine and fats unit’s turnover, totalling 138 million euros, is realised in The Netherlands’, Dirk Durez of Vandemoortele Group explains. With a cumulated of almost 600 million euros, Vandemoortele’s fats division now will become as important as the group’s deepfreeze bakery products division again. The bakery division in 2008 took a giant leap forward with the acquisition of the French Panavi company, but that particular deal had severe financial consequences, which eventually resulted in the ‘forced’ sale of the soy division Alpro and the participation in the group’s capital by the GIMV XL fund. The present agreement however would mean that Vandemoortele’s finances are in good shape again.

Companies