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VERNON HILLS, Ill., Oct. 5: Tetra Pak, one of the world’s leading innovators of packaging for beverage and liquid food products and IPM Foods LLC, a premium food processing and packaging company, have announced the execution of a contract for the installation of the first-ever Tetra Recart low-acid food contract-manufacturing facility in the United States.
IPM Foods, located in Beloit, Wis., has been established to serve the contract manufacturing needs of the packaged food industry with a special emphasis on premium, gourmet, organic and natural food products. Having spent many years working at Tetra Pak, the owner of IPM Foods, Pawel Marciniak, is a leading authority on Tetra Recart in North America.
In addition to the 13.8 oz Tetra Recart package size, IPM Foods offers brand owners the capability to produce a new Tetra Recart package size, the 18-ounce. The production line is designed for maximum product flexibility with the first commercial production beginning in March 2008.
“I am excited to be working with Tetra Pak on this strategic alliance for Tetra Recart. This opens up several opportunities for brand owners and retailers to expand into new food segments and ability to produce organic, kosher and gourmet products in an USDA-inspected facility,” said Marciniak.
Today there are over 150 products sold in Tetra Recart packages in more than 30 countries in the United States. This new contract-manufacturing facility complements a high-acid facility installed in 2005 that co-packs tomato products in Tetra Recart 13.8 oz.
“IPM Foods co-packing capabilities will help brand owners lower initial investment costs and increase speed to market when launching new products in the Tetra Recart package,” said Steve Hellenschmidt, General Manager of Tetra Recart North America for Tetra Pak.
Tetra Recart is the first retortable carton packaging and processing system for chunky foods, opening up a world of new possibilities for revitalization of some traditional categories such as soups and beans.
With the Tetra Recart package, numerous benefits are delivered along the value chain. It is a way for brand owners to differentiate themselves on the shelf while providing consumers with a package that meets modern life demands in relation to convenience, quality, and the quest for more natural, organic and environmentally friendly products. In addition, retailers appreciate the package’s square shape, which offers excellent space efficiency and great shelf impact.
Tetra Pak cartons come primarily from a natural and renewable resource and are recyclable – nearly 50 million consumers can recycle their cartons in curbside programs today. The Tetra Recart package consists of 65 percent paperboard, which comes from wood, a natural and renewable resource grown in responsibly managed forests.
Tetra Pak packages use less material and are lighter in weight than traditional packaging, requiring fewer trucks for transportation, thus reducing total greenhouse gas emissions.
For every 100 million pounds of food packaged in Tetra Recart rather than traditional packaging, enough energy is saved to heat a city the size of Pittsburgh for one week or to drive 3,000 trucks from Chicago, Ill. to Houston, Texas. (*Source: Life Cycle Inventory Study, Franklin Associates, a Division of ERG, 2006).
For more information visit www.tetrapak.com.
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