Ready-to-eat, single-serving soups now benefit from greatly extended shelf life thanks to ITC and Verstraete’s innovative Naturcrem IML packaging, using an in mould label (IML) with oxygen barrier. Traditionally these products can start to go bad once the soup comes into contact with oxygen. The new packaging radically reduces that risk, says the company.
Injection moulder ITC Packaging and Verstraete IML were approached by Spanish food producer Dulcesol to provide an innovative solution to its single-serving soup range. The challenge lies in getting the industrially produced soup to consumers in an optimum condition, so as natural, fresh, and full flavoured as possible, it claimed. Extended storage time and an aesthetically distinctive pack were the criteria.
The labels also had to withstand pasteurization. Verstraete IML utilized a combination of specific inks, a special lacquer, and novel pasteurization-resistant oxygen barrier film.