Italian developer Filling and Packaging said the sachet - ezsnap - is now being released globally following trials with Italian and Austrian manufacturers.
Improved end user control
A scored notch on the semi-rigid sachet pack, said the company, is calibrated to the contents and allows for improved end user control and one hand operation when squeezing the contents from the pack.
Piero Radice, managing director of the ezsnap business division of the Bologna based firm, said the easy opening pouch, comprising PET, aluminium, PE, EVOH and PS layers, is suitable for liquids of all densities.
The films, he continued, remain intact until the sachet is folded between a user's two fingers, thus ensuring product safety, easy flow and no product waste.
Range of applications
Applicable to a range of foods from jam, honey, soft cheeses, chocolate, sweets and syrup as well as condiments such as vinegar and spreads, current sachet capacities range from 2 to 20 ml. The fill volume, states the developer, is dependent on product viscosity.
Radice, speaking to FoodProductionDaily.com at the IPA trade show in Paris, said that manufacturers can opt to invest in VVFS sachet packaging equipment tailored to filling the ezsnap sachet or can rely on the Italian firm to take delivery of their food products and complete the filling of the sachets at its Parma facility.
"We currently have production output capacity of 30 million sachets per year. However, with the upcoming installment of two new machines at the site, we can double that in 2011."
He said that the Model BB/3 VFFS sachet machine has a production rate of 135 sachets per minute. Radice said that it is an automatic unit, controlled by servomotors and a PLC programme, creating the ezsnap sachet from two reels of film and bulk liquid product.
The company also has co-packing facilities in Asia, North America, South Africa, the UK and Spain.