Convenience pack is no turkey (sidebar)

An innovative carrier bag from Curwood has provided big improvements for customers of Jennie-O Turkey Store, Willmar, MN, for whole frozen turkeys. The carrier bag features a reinforced two-hole handle, which makes picking up and carrying the turkey easy.

An innovative carrier bag from Curwood has provided big improvements for customers of Jennie-O Turkey Store, Willmar, MN, for whole frozen turkeys. The carrier bag features a reinforced two-hole handle, which makes picking up and carrying the turkey easy. Side gussets in the bag help the packaging graphics stand up and stand out in the freezer case. Unlike a shrink bag that is typical for frozen turkeys, the carrier bag is a flat bag that allows Jennie-O to differentiate its product graphically, while permitting the consumer to more easily read cooking instructions, nutrition information, and recipes. The carrier bag was a collaborative development between Jennie-O Turkey Stores and Curwood, says Chuck Meath, vice president of whole bird sales at Jennie-O. The bag is a reverse-printed polyester that’s extrusion-laminated to a rigid white sealant layer of polyethylene. Curwood prints the polyester flexo in eight colors, including even in the gussets. The two-hole handle is reinforced when Curwood applies a clear patch around it on the back of the bag. The bag incorporates Curwood’s IntegraScore opening feature along its entire length. Along with a tear notch near the top of the bag, the consumer can tear open the bag without using a knife or cutting tool that could damage the cook-in bag. IntegraScore can be used without a tear notch, but in this pack, the tear notch brings the easy-opening device to the consumer’s attention. Inside, Jennie-O packs the turkey in an inner cook-in bag, not supplied by Curwood, that permits the frozen turkey to go direct from the freezer into the oven without a thawing step. “The inner bag, which we call our ‘Foolproof bag,’ is fully sealed and oven-proof,” Meath says. “Our slogan for this product is ‘no thawing, no cleaning, no hassles.’” However, Meath declined to provide any details about the cook-in bag. The pre-basted whole bird (with giblets removed) comes in either home style or a butter, herb, and garlic version. The new packaging was shipped to its retail grocery customers beginning last fall. “The packaging created a lot of excitement throughout the retail industry. So we enter 2005 with high optimism,” Meath says. —Arnie Orloski.