AirLiner®
Cargotech

Highest Achievement Award Winner in Packaging Excellence
(Also a Gold Award Winner in Technical Innovation and a
Gold Award Winner in Environmental Achievement)

AirLiner is an inflatable insulating liner that converts a corrugated box into a cooler and is designed to ship temperature sensitive and perishable products. Its patented internal heat barrier technology uses layers of reflective barrier film that are heat sealed into proprietary geometry. Inflated with either air or inert gas, this structure forms a unique honeycomb shaped baffle system that inhibits radiation, convection and conduction. In independent testing, AirLiner's gas-filled panels outperformed foam by up to 18%.

Nestle's® Buitoni® Brand of Fresh Pasta Lidding
Sealed Air Corporation, Cryovac Division

Highest Achievement Award Winner in Packaging Excellence
(Also a Gold Award Winner in Technical Innovation)

This family of fresh pasta packages benefit from Cryovac's OS Films lidding material which removes residual oxygen from the modified atmosphere package and achieves oxygen levels in the package of less than one-tenth of one percent. This active scavenging process increases the shelf life of refrigerated pasta by more than 50%, and does not require moisture to activate the scavenging process, rendering it equally effective in low or high humidity applications.

Eldorado Farms Market Prize Peeled Carrots
Pliant Corporation

Gold Award Winner in Packaging Excellence

Utilizing Pliant's Relliant Series 200 Slider that allows complete closure without a notch in the zipper track, this unique bag also features a reliable, tamper-evident, perforated inner gusset liner. Made from 100% recyclable polyethylene, the bag incorporates macro holes to extend the shelf life of the fresh, peeled carrots, and features a wide opening for unrestricted access to the product.

Fuze™ Healthy Refreshment
Alcoa Flexible Packaging

Gold Award Winner in Printing Achievement

This new line of health beverages features bottles with colorful full body shrink sleeves that are printed four-color process, reverse rotogravure. The four-color process method allowed Alcoa to produce the challenging vertical gradation down the length of each label. Additionally, the fruit, which appear on the sleeve, were pre-distorted on the pre-press artwork to ensure the correct proportions when shrunk.

General Mills' Pop-Secret Caramel Nut Clusters
Stand Up Pouch
Printpack, Inc.

Gold Award Winner in Printing Achievement

Using an extrusion lamination of polyester reverse print/polyethylene/metallized polyester/polyethylene/film, this structure gives this resealable stand up pouch a crisp, upright look that maximizes the visual appeal of the package's graphics. The package's vivid colors are derived from 8-color flexographic printing which also helps achieve a greater tonal range from lights to darks as well as more definition and contrast.

Intellipac™ Ice Eliminating Case Liner
Apio, Inc.

Gold Award Winner in Packaging Excellence
(Also a Silver Award Winner in Environmental Achievement)

Currently used to ship fresh broccoli, this packaging uses a flexible case liner and the Intellipac breathable membrane, which is affixed over an opening in the case liner and closed with a hermetic heat seal. The majority of the airflow in and out of the package is regulated through the Intellipac membrane, modifying the atmosphere (ratio of oxygen and carbon dioxide) inside the case liner, and allowing the broccoli to be shipped without ice.

McIlhenny's Tabasco® Brand Green Pepper Sauce Portion Control Package
Rollprint Packaging Products, Inc.

Gold Award Winner in Technical Innovation
(Also a Silver Award Winner in Packaging Excellence)

This portion control flexible package for Tabasco® brand green pepper sauce was achieved through a reverse-printed, multi-layer structure which employs aluminum foil as a barrier, a white film to provide an opaque background for printing, and a proprietary polyester-based chemical resistant sealant layer which is coextrusion coated. This structure successfully overcame two challenges: the development of an off flavor in the green sauce indicating a scalping/leaching issue, and the problem of delamination which would occur due to an antioxidant ingredient present in the green sauce.

Nestle's® Nesquik™ Shrink Sleeve
Alcoa Flexible Packaging

Gold Award Winner in Packaging Excellence

Changing from a waxboard gable top carton to a contoured clear PET bottle and shrink label increased Nesquik's shelf life from 15 to 60 days, allowing it to go into other venues including vending machines, movie theatres, and amusement parks. The full body PETG shrink sleeve, made from Eastman Embrace™ copolyester, is reverse printed rotogravure for high color fidelity.

Tyson Chik Rib
American Packaging Corporation

Gold Award Winner in Printing Achievement

This zippered, resealable pouch presents a high quality product image that is achieved through scuff-resistant reverse printing on a state-of-the-art rotogravure press capable of printing up to 10 colors. During the filling process, the bag's structure must endure the vertical drop of frozen chicken "ribs" from several feet above the bag. Additionally, the structure must retain its integrity at temperatures below 25 degrees Fahrenheit.

Apffels' Heritage Coffee Bag
RJR Packaging

Silver Award Winner in Printing Achievement

Replacing a previous blue coffee bag, this reverse printed polyester, foil laminate 9 color flexible package features an intricate design with multidirectional vignettes, duotones, and special effects to convey a transparent metallic gold. The details within the graphics draw consumers to the coffee bag in order to study it more closely.

Disposable Beverage Carafe
International Dispensing Corporation

Silver Award Winner in Packaging Excellence

Consisting of a puncture and burst proof flexible pouch that can withstand high temperatures as well as 6 foot drops, in conjunction with a combination corrugated and rigid plastic outer layer, this ergonomic beverage carafe offers end-users a disposable flexible package that is easy to assemble, fast to fill, and maintains a hot or cold temperature over a 3 hour period.

Generation Flex
Pechiney Plastic Packaging

Silver Award Winner in Technical Innovation

A new alternative to Saran-coated film technology in natural cheese processing, Generation Flex is a proprietary EVOH coextrusion technology that has eliminated processing concerns previously associated with EVOH. This coextrusion technology incorporates an EVOH barrier into the cheese film during the lamination process, thereby eliminating the use of Saran-coated films. The process produces a final structure that offers a significantly longer shelf life during typical cheese storage conditions.

Kraft Retail Shredded Cheese Pacmac Slider Zip Pouch
Pechiney Plastic Packaging

Silver Award Winner in Packaging Excellence

Employing a slider clip system from Minigrip/ZipPak integrated into a Pacmac V/F/F/S machine, this new slider package with laser scored film is easier to open and reseal, and provides greater security thanks to its tamper evident features - a zipper body that is enclosed in a shrouded header, and a peel seal incorporated into the zipper flange which provides a hermetic seal. The punch-out around the slider allows the consumer easy access to the slider, but prevents the slider from moving freely back and forth.

Pizza Film
Pechiney Plastic Packaging

Silver Award Winner in Technical Innovation

This package combines Pechiney's patented nylon coextrusion technology with peelable sealant technology to improve overall package integrity at a significant cost savings to the rising crust pizza market. A coextruded top web provides a tighter vacuum pack around the pizza toppings, resulting in increased visual appeal to the consumer. Additionally, the peelable technology provides a uniform peelable seal that offers easy access for the consumer.

Primary Grit Slip Sheet
Primary Packaging, Inc.

Silver Award Winner in Technical Innovation

This slip sheet helped a bulk carrot producer stabilize palletized bags of bulk carrots as well as facilitate the rapid removal of latent product heat from the stacked carrot bags. Extruded from polyethylene and a polymer which does not melt, these two materials in combination create a sandpaper effect that can hold the filled carrot bags together while the pallet is moved and shipped. The multiple holes provide ample free space for airflow through the pallet to remove heat from the produce.

Redken's Color Fusion Billboards
Specialty Films & Associates, Inc.

Silver Award Winner in Packaging Excellence

This metallized polyester and LDPE flexible mailer featuring a resealable zipper replaces the traditional white paper mailing envelope. Designed as a mailer but often used as a display or "billboard" in beauty salons, this package has tremendous marketing value due to its high impact graphics which are achieved through rotogravure. Since this package remains intact after opening, it can be used to store other items.

Sargento Shredded Cheese Package with IntegraScore® Opening Feature
Bemis Flexible Packaging

Silver Award Winner in Packaging Excellence
(Also Winner of Members' Choice Award)

Improving upon an existing package, this gas flushed package for shredded cheese encases the slider within a hermetic seal, maintaining tamper evidence, and allowing the consumer easy access to the product. Bemis' propriety straight-line scoring technique, IntegraScore, gives the consumer a more convenient way to access the product and remove the hooded portion of the package.

Sorrento Stuffsters
Cello-Pack Corporation
New England Extrusion, Inc.

Silver Award Winner in Technical Innovation

This new package made from a 3 mil Inflex M0466 polyethylene offers a dramatic improvement in the performance of the package over the previously used 3 mil cast polypropylene. The Inflex M0466 offers a wider heat seal range and better heat seal strength. The material has also eliminated film fractures, and offers a softer hand that reminds consumers of the soft creamy string cheese in the package.