SupplySide News
Sopako Shelf-Stable Meals
When it comes to shelf-stable, heat-and-serve meals, Sopakco is the taste of things to come, offering brand owners turn-key solutions that allow swift market entry and a high quality experience for consumers. Headquartered in South Carolina, Sopakco is a world leader in the design, processing, and packaging of shelf-stable meals—from budget to gourmet—in retort pouches and microwaveable bowls and trays.
Our experience, financial stability, and willingness to collaborate make Sopakco a preferred partner of many major food companies. Sopakco-made products can be found in stores across North America. For more than 40 years, Sopakco has been among the world’s largest suppliers of meals ready-to-eat (MREs) to the U.S. military, producing more than 80 million units annually. We are consistently ranked number one in quality, performance and service.
With three fully equipped facilities and warehouses on both the east and west coasts, Sopakco has the capability and capacity to serve retail and institutional customers. Solutions include recipe formulation, food processing and packaging. Our resources include culinary, engineering and packaging experts; R&D labs and test kitchens; automated batch and blending operations; volumetric filling and form/fill/seal lines; high-speed packaging lines, high capacity retort chambers, and meticulous quality controls.
For more information, visit www.sopakco.com.
RCPharma Launches OTC
RCPharma, LLC of Sterling, Virginia, debuted IQ Health at PLMA’s 2009 Private Label Trade Show. IQ Health is RCPharma’s control brand in the U.S. that offers an extensive catalog of over-the-counter medications, nutriceuticals, and dietary supplements.
The line is produced in strategic partnership with an Indian manufacturer with an ISO 9001 certified plant, daily capacity of 1.6 million tablets, and 17 years of success internationally.
This launch follows on the heels of RCPharma’s release of Skin Benefits (www.skin-benefits.com), a skin care line also available for private label opportunities. RCPharma is the exclusive Americas region distributor of Skin Benefits, a line of South Korean-manufactured skin-friendly products featuring herbal and botanical ingredients in natural, paraben-free formulations and recycled packaging.
For more information contact Ron Czerniec at 703-444-0974 or visit www.rcpharma.us.
Fonterra Packs Protein Punch
Fonterra Ingredients, the world’s leading dairy ingredients supplier, showcased the next generation of healthy, natural ingredients at SupplySide West 2009.
Fonterra provides innovative dairy ingredients solutions in the areas of functional beverages, snack foods, organics, cultured products, cheese for meals, cheese ingredients, pediatric nutrition and foodservices.
Satiety products are rapidly growing in the nutrition industry as consumers are increasingly aware that protein, and more specifically milk or whey protein, can effectively control appetite and boost nutrition. Fonterra sampled a satiety drink made with Fonterra’s innovative ClearProtein Whey Isolate, which gives consumers the satiety power of milk protein in water. The ClearProtein range of ingredients provides the superior nutritional performance of whey protein with a clean, clear and neutral taste that keeps beverages refreshing. One 8-oz. serving of this fruit-flavored beverage made with ClearProtein has five grams of protein, only 20 calories and is fat-free.
Fonterra also showcased protein bars made with their PowerProtein range of ingredients. The challenge in developing high-protein snacks is that they can be poor tasting, hard and chewy. PowerProtein is specifically made for use in bars and snack foods, providing the texture and flavor consumers demand along with the nutritional advantages of high-quality dairy protein.
Another big hit at the show was Fonterra’s premium Organic Cheddar Cheese, which is produced without synthetic inputs or genetically modified materials. Known for its buttery texture and mild flavor, Fonterra Organic Cheddar Cheese is perfect for everyday enjoyment. Fonterra currently produces 15 premium quality certified organic dairy products and ingredients, including Organic Cheddar Cheese.
For more information visit www.fonterra.com.
LiDestri Names New Director
LiDestri Foods, located in Fairport, NY, has announced the appointment of Alex Pesce as director of national accounts.
“Working with our key accounts, Alex’s primary responsibility will be to develop corporate brand programs for all the categories that LiDestri Foods now manufactures for private label. He will also have responsibility for development and implementation strategies to grow our two national brands - Francesco Rinaldi Pasta Sauce and Spike’s Santa Fe Salsa,” said Edward Salzano, COO/executive vice president of LiDestri Foods.
Most recently, Pesce was regional sales manager at LiDestri Foods, a position he has held for the past 5 years. As regional sales manager, Alex was successful in opening new accounts for both LiDestri Foods’ private label and branded business.
Prior to joining LiDestri Foods, Pesce was vice president of sales and marketing at Grandmother’s Foods. He also served as director of business development for Marketing Management, Inc. as well as Daymon Worldwide. He started his career in the food industry as regional sales manager for HJ Heinz.
Outside of the office, Alex has volunteered his time for fundraising efforts for the United Way. He has also been involved in local youth sports both as a Board Member and softball coach.
Alex and his wife Stacey live in Tampa, Florida with their daughter, Cassie.
LiDestri Foods is a premier manufacturer of sauces, dips and salsas with manufacturing locations on both the east and west coast. LiDestri Foods is headquartered at 815 W. Whitney Road, Fairport, NY 14450.
For more information, visit www.lidestrifoods.com or call 201-944-1233.
Optima Nonwovens at Show
At Optima Group Nonwovens information booth at Tissue World America 2010, you will find information on its most recent packaging innovations. Among them, a packaging line for light-inco products, leading the market’s maximum performance with an astounding output of 1,500 products/min. The line comes with both a horizontal and vertical product infeed, making additional rotary functions unnecessary. Changeover of the infeed direction does not disrupt production. A wide format range, swift format changeover (15 minutes), and an easy access round off the system composed of an Optima HS (stacker) and an Optima OS1 (packaging line).
The use of foil packages instead of cardboard packaging, for example for packaging paper towels, brings significant cost reduction and a much improved eco-footprint. The Optima OS generates large packages of formats that correspond to the previous cardboard boxes, utilizing the best possible configuration of the pallets. In addition, stronger product compression allows an increase of the package content by 33 %. Considerable economization is achieved by using less expensive packaging material, and also by reducing transport costs incurred from the supply of the packaging material, and the shipment of the finished packaged paper towels as well.
The version of the special-design Optima HS stacker for processing femcare product is a world novelty. The machine’s design supports processing small and large, thin and thick femcare hygiene products. Within 60 seconds, the system picks up to 1,800 products, converts them into a maximum of 200 stacks, which are subsequently transferred to the downstream packaging machine. With the help of rapid-changeover technology, format changes take merely 15 minutes.
With its TQCC (Total Quality Coding & Control Center), Optima Group Nonwovens offers 100% quality safety for paper hygiene products. The TQCC features weight control, metal detection, packaging coding, product reject and statistics system. In case of a defect, the system only rejects the relevant package. The statistics function allows fast recognition and elimination of all regular or frequent errors.
You will find Optima Group Nonwovens information booth #775 in Hall A, Miami Beach Convention Center, at Tissue World America, March 24-26, 2010.
Foil-Packaged Paper Towels
The Optima OS is the solution for inexpensive high-grade paper towel packaging. The foil packages hold 33% more products - when compared to cardboard of the same dimensions, which is still in use.
Maximum output of the Optima OS reaches 15 strokes/min during which 15 large packs are formed from 120 primary packages. The package format of 600 x 400 mm optimally exploits the standard pallet length. Other formats, however, are also feasible with a maximum width of 540 mm and height of 280 mm. Format changeover takes less than 15 minutes.
The 5t maximum press capacity of the Optima OS5 allows extreme product compression. Applied by the use of shuttles, any quality loss is excluded: These shuttles convey the stacked and pressed formations into prefabricated polyethylene bags (secondary package) and then return to home position. During transport, there is absolutely no contact between the foils of the primary and secondary package, ensuring protection of a perfect product quality.
“The cost savings potential is impressive”, emphasizes Oliver Rebstock. “For the packaging material alone, it is justified to calculate a cost savings of 0.25 - or more.” In addition, there are significant logistic cost benefits: Because the foil packages are made from rolls, the number of truck loads required for transporting the packaging material alone is significantly reduced. Even less transport capacities are required for shipping - 33% in comparison to product compression, which, in turn, is a valuable contribution to protecting the environment.
For more information visit www.optima-group.de
U.S. Nonwovens Corp. Announces New Sanitizing Technology With Gel Cards
U.S. Nonwovens Corp. has announced an exciting new, patent-pending innovative product. The first ever single-use instant Hand Sanitizing Gel Cards* kills 99.9% of germs. The brand-new technology is the first of its kind to be introduced to the market.
The Gel Card is easy to use and travel with. Fold the card in half to open and sanitize your hands, discard Gel Card when done. Its small convenient design makes it easy to fit just about anywhere! Perfect for purses, lunch boxes, car consoles, even pockets!
Keeping hands clean is one of the best things a person can do to avoid getting colds and flu. The Gel Card is the quickest, easiest, and most convenient way to clean and sanitize hands in one easy step, reducing the use of paper towels and wipes. The innovative Gel Card uses a fast-drying gel that leaves no dull or sticky residue. Convenient and easy to carry, Gel Cards are great for the entire family on the go! For more information please contact info@usnonwovens.com.
*Gel Card(s) is a trademark of U.S. Nonwovens Corp.
California Cereal Adds Facility
California Cereal Products, Inc. has announced the addition of a new facility in Macon, GA, allowing it to increase its production capability and better serve its East Coast, Latin American and European customers.
California Cereal Products provides global and domestic customers with a unique range of cereals with quality comparable to name brand cereals. Traditional batch/whole grain cooking systems and advanced milling and blending processes, plus the expertise of employees who have long careers in grain processing and cereal manufacturing, result in products with superior taste, texture and appearance. Products are available in organic or conventional and include crisp rice, crisp brown rice, wheat flakes, multi-grain flakes, raisin bran, cereal blends, cocoa crisp rice, fruit flavored crisp rice, sugar coated flakes and gluten free cereals.
For more information Email californiacereal@msn.com.
Eat Better All Italian
Eat Better was born in 2005 from an idea of some young managers and entrepreneurs working in food field. They decided to join their own experiences, skills and resources together to reach a common goal: to promote and advertise the quality of Italian products all around the world.
In the competitive international context made of big multinational food companies, it is more and more difficult for small local firms to maintain a high quality level and to promote it properly, keeping costs under control. Eat Better acts as the only interlocutor in Italy for all those companies that want to go in for business relations with Eat Better’s firms.
Clients can keep costs under control while maintaining high quality in services and high returns on the investment, if you centralize activities such as the development of new exclusive products, order management, invoicing, logistics and promotional advertising (events, public relation, advertising campaigns, co-marketing). In this way these costs don’t affect the total price of products, making Eat Better’s offer highly competitive.
We deal only in genuine products, typical of Mediterranean cooking with no preservatives, coloring or any other unnatural additives and when it’s possible, we choose biological food. Eat Better offers frozen, fresh and shelf stable pizza, as well as gelato/desserts, ready meals and fresh pasta. Visit www.eatbetter.eu for more information.
Parnassia Serves Up Mediterranean
Parnassia Food, Inc. offers a broad range of premium Mediterranean products for retail, foodservice and industry. The Mezzini line, the USA brand of Parnassia Food, offers products that are innovative and distinguishing.
Mezzini slow roasted tomatoes are slowly roasted in the oven to keep the tomatoes juicy and full of flavor. To ensure quality and color of the product, Parnassia Food exclusively uses tomatoes from soil, not from greenhouses. After harvesting, the product is IQF frozen and stored in the factory warehouses. Parnassia Food offers the tomatoes both retail size and bulk size, marinated or not marinated, and with or without free oil.
The Mezzini balanced Mediterranean product line offers a range of related products: anti pasti, bruschetta, pesto, tapenade and spread, and sauces. All the Mezzini product lines offer flexibility: private label, product varieties, different packaging/sizes and more. In Europe Parnassia Food introduced and expanded this product line successfully in Albert Heijn (Ahold) stores year after year. Ahold sells the products with premium private label as well as the mainstream private label.
For the club stores and foodservice Parnassia Food has developed a complete new product range in shelf stable PET jars. The line offers 12 different anti pasti and will be extended with olives, bruschetta, pesto, tapenade, humus and spreads, and sauces.
For more information visit www.parnassia.com.
GoGo Squeez On-the-Go
Parents sifting through healthy snacking options for their children need look no further. GoGo Squeez (GoGo squeeZ) is the first squeezable, re-sealable, no-mess applesauce for kids. An engaging, convenient pouch design and delicious all natural fruit flavors are enough for kids to bypass the fight and go straight to the healthy snacking.
Packaged in a squeezable pouch and equipped with a re-sealable lid, GoGo Squeez is perfect for kids on-the-go. Originally designed for NASA astronauts, each all-natural pouch contains a full serving of fruit – just simple, clean ingredients. GoGo Squeez is the perfect snack for kids of any age.
“Children are interested in flavor and a fun design – but we know parents are looking for a snack of more substance they can be sure their kids will eat when on-the-go,” said David Istier, Materne’s North American vp of marketing. “GoGo Squeez comes in a fun package, is simple for kids to use independently, and actually tastes good. Parents can enjoy the benefits of providing their children with a no-mess, no-fight, healthy snack option.”
Currently available in “appleapple” and “applestrawberry” flavors, GoGo Squeez is re-launching in June with a 100 percent fruit, no added sugar range including new packaging graphics that will focus on key product benefits and flavor differentiation. Three new flavors are being launched this month that are sure to keep kids squeezing. New “applecinnamon,” “applepeach” and “applebanana” flavors combine the health benefits of all-natural fruit with a great taste. All GoGo Squeez products contain no artificial flavors or preservatives and are gluten-free, dairy-free and kosher-certified.
GoGo Squeez might seem too healthy for children to find it appealing; but its French counterpart Pom’Potes has proven otherwise. Since the brand’s inception in 1998, Pom’Potes has grown into the favorite snack brand in France (with more than 50 percent market share of the applesauce pouch category last year), selling more than one billion pouches across Europe and gaining a regular spot in McDonald’s Happy Meals. Since the product’s US launch in June 2008, GoGo Squeez distribution has grown to 1,900 supermarkets and children’s retailers across the US.
For more information, please visit www.materne.us
Feit Electric Debuts New Bulbs
Feit Electric, a leading U.S.-based manufacturer and supplier of energy-efficient lighting products, announces its new and improved silver Performance LED bulbs with white facings. Feit Electric Performance LED bulbs (Light Emitting Diode bulbs) are solid state, high output bulbs that offer true replacement performance compared with conventional alternatives. The bulbs last an amazing 30,000 hours, run on up to 90% less energy than standard bulbs and are durable (no filament to break). They are also safe for artwork, contain no mercury, are environmentally friendly and RoHS compliant (Restriction of Hazardous Substances). For more information on Feit Electric Company contact 800-543-FEIT or visit www.feit.com.
