IFT First 2024: Tetra Pak highlights tethered closures, single-serve and pet food pack innovations

18 Jul 2024 --- Tetra Pak highlights the latest carton packaging innovations at the world’s biggest food technology trade show IFT First 2024 in Chicago, US, which ended yesterday.

On the show floor, Packaging Insights speaks with Blaine Johnson, business development manager at Tetra Pak in Denton, US, about balancing sustainability and product protection. We also discuss growing consumer demands for single-serve packages, tethered closures and pet food packaging innovations. 

Regarding Tetra Pak’s sustainability, Johnson says the company sees challenges as it is currently including a plastic liner in its food packages for product protection.

The carton packaging giant is innovating to get plant-based plastic replacements on the inside of the packaging, enabling recyclability in existing infrastructure. “You should see some of it out on the marketplace in the near future,” says Johnson.

“We do have a field test in Europe right now. The replacement material for the liner will be a plant-based solution such as sugarcane.”

Blaine Johnson at the Tetra Pak booth at IFT First 2024 in Chicago.Furthermore, Tetra Pak is also launching bio-based caps to replace traditional plastic applications. “These caps are made from sugarcane,” explains Johnson. 

Johnson says that over the past ten years, Tetra Pak has opened up its network and partnered with other fiber-based carton producers.

“Curbside access is very large today and so is the infrastructure for recycling our cartons. We just added some more capacity on the West Coast as of last week.” 

On-the-go consumption 
A significant portion of Tetra Pak’s US portfolio is on-the-go consumption — designed for single-serve products.

“We’re trying to make single-serve a safe food packaging solution for people on-the-go, and so something that can be handled similarly to a bottle, is easy to open, reclosable and has good pouring functionality,” explains Johnson.

“We’re also moving into larger size openings. This would be more for creamers or dairy types or products. There’s a big push in that area. Furthermore, tethered caps are a big part of our portfolio as well.”

As of this month, the EU is undergoing its biggest packaging transformation in recent history as tethered closures hit the shelves across EU member states.

Johnson says when it comes to meeting regulatory requirements for tethered caps in the US, Tetra Pak is “ahead of the curve.”

“For single-serve, we have our school milk, which has a tethered cap or tethered opening to it as well — moving away from straws. We are not waiting for it to be pushed down on us.” 

Pet food innovation Johnson highlights Tetra Recart as an example for latest innovation in carton packaging.
Johnson highlights Tetra Recart as one of the company’s most prominent examples of innovation in carton packaging.

“One of our biggest growth platforms is Tetra Recart, a retortable carton that allows us to put a lot of different products into our packaging, which we couldn’t do before,” he asserts.

Retorting is an in-container sterilization process where the package and its food contents are exposed to high pressure and high temperature in a humid environment for a longer period of time. 

The time and temperature exposure is dependent on which food product is being sterilized, and varies between different producers with the same type of food product.

“It’s always been liquid, juice, nectar and soft drinks — now we can do vegetables, fruits, soup, stews, pet food — that’s a whole new world for us. The Tetra Recart platform is a great growth avenue for us, not only here in the US but globally.”

Furthermore, Johnson sees pet food packaging as a growing market segment in the us.

“In the US, we have a dedicated contract manufacturer just for pet food alone. People treat their pets like their kids and are willing to spend their money on their pets.”

“Pet food is certainly a big growth for us here as well.”

By Natalie Schwertheim, with live reporting from Joshua Poole at IFT First 2024 in Chicago, US