The present invention relates to printed inserts which are placed in packages containing food products. In the packaging and marketing of a variety of food products, such as bakery goods, cheeses, meats, and cereals, difficulty has been experienced in the insertion of coupons, recipes, collection cards, or other types of printed promotions. Numerous problems are presented when food oils contact the printing ink. The Food & Drug Administration allows only a small number of vegetable-based inks to be used in materials that are in direct contact with food. This limits the amount of applications for promotional programs. The food product must be protected from ink or odor contamination coming from the promotional coupon or card. The promotional piece must be protected from absorbing moisture or grease from the product. An in-pack premium that is soiled has the potential of imparting contamination to the product. Also, an in-pack premium that is stained, particularly a collection card, is counterproductive to the original purpose of the promotion.
At the present time, most in-pack premium promotions are printed on paper or paperboard. Up until now the only way to overcome the ink contamination problem was to over-wrap. This entails placing the insert in a cellophane bag and sealing it. Unfortunately over-wrapping has some major inherent problems that are quite disconcerting:
1. Over-wrapping is costly, in many cases doubling the cost of the promotion.
2. The contract packaging company who does the over-wrapping dictates the schedule.
3. Machines that insert the in-pack premium into the package were not made for over-wrapped pieces, and results of this mismatch are monumental including a 30 percent waste factor due to dispenser malfunction because of the over-wrap, pillowing, hang-ups on the back seal, and static build-up causing mis-feeds.
There has been an attempt at developing another type of insert which is constructed of printed paper with a polypropylene film laminated to it. This achieves the desired savings in cost by eliminating the over-wrap and protecting the food from ink contact, but this structure has very poor product resistance. In most applications, the moisture from oils and food products will seep into the paper causing stains and actually delaminating the insert. The result is a very unattractive promotion that actually exposes inks and adhesive to the food products. This problem is known as wicking and has the potential to occur in most products where in-pack premiums are used.
None of the materials produced to date have been able to solve the problems. The only method used successfully is printed paper, over-wrapped. Examples of some of the prior art arrangements discussed herein are illustrated and described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,849,774, 1,924,903, 2,225,694, 2,255,810, 2,578,150, 2,596,514, 2,911,305, and 3,373,045.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds