Milk may soon be packaged in PET (food-grade plastic) containers, using the multi-layer barrier technology, to extend the product’s shelf life to anything between six months and two years. This is among the many packaging innovations being tested and introduced in the Indian market. Experts say the relevance of packaging, for a longer life of products and also for aesthetics, has gone up since a retail boom in India.
Leading packaging company Manjushree Technopack Limited is working with Gowardhan, a private dairy founded by Parag Milk Foods, to bring in the multi-layer technology for packaging fresh milk. It was seven years ago that Bangalore-based Manjushree acquired this Italian technology.
While the multi-layer technology will be used for the first time in plastics for packaging fresh milk, the solution is being used by companies, such as Unilever, DelMonte and Heinz for other products, such as ketchups, spreads and cut fresh fruits, according to Vimal Kedia, managing director of 1977-started Manjushree. “We are also in talks with leading brands, to pack jams in multilayer containers,” he said. With these barrier bottles, the “aroma of the product will not go out and the outside moisture won’t go in, he added”.
Devendra Shah, chairman of Parag Milk Foods, confirmed the Pune-based company would launch milk in multi-layered PET bottles in three to four months across 40 major cities in India. “We felt there was a strong demand among consumers for a packaging that would retain the freshness of flavoured and fruit-based milk for longer duration,” he added. The 1992-founded company aims to launch the product in 100 more towns in six months.
However, Tetra Pak, the world’s leading food processing and packaging solutions company, which offers carton packaging for milk and juices among others, said the multi-layered PET technology holds relevance from the distribution point of view rather than for consumers per se.
While India is not known for many R&D breakthroughs in packaging, a Mumbai-based private conglomerate is learnt to be working with various companies to develop a suitable grade of raw material that can enhance barrier properties in containers. Again, the goal of the project is to increase the shelf life of products stored in these containers.
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The Technopak study has quoted an industry leader as saying, food packaging is a “great place” to start the communication with the customer. Reason: “it serves as the first and the last thing consumers interact with when they purchase any food or FMCG product.”
The rapidly changing technology in the food packaging arena has uplifted the quality and shelf-life expectations of food products, according to the study. Anand Dikshit, Price-waterhouseCoopers executive director (consumer durables and FMCG), said packaging could make or break a product. Kedia agreed that the need for packaging has grown because of the retail sector boom in India.
But there’s another side to innovative packaging too. Kedia said companies also have to be constantly on their toes because any “innovation” in packaging gets quickly “copied”. Also, supply-chain systems in India have developed by leaps and bounds after new formats of retail have come in, and packaging should be such that it is suitable for multiple handling and storage for longer periods on the shelf, he added.
The Indian food and FMCG packaging market have grown 15-20 per cent annually, going by industry estimates.