PET jar for hot fill and pasteurisation
Packaging innovations specialist APPE has launched a PET jar capable of hot-fill and/or pasteurisation up to 95oC.
The new ThermaLite jar is the result of the company’s strategic partnership with Nissei ASB (Europe) and offers food manufacturers and retailers a variety of convenience and sustainability benefits over more traditional packaging formats (such as glass).
APPE says the jar is up to 85% lighter than glass equivalents with a smaller footprint, delivering huge savings in transport costs both before and after filling. It also uses less energy during the filling process, as well as reducing noise levels and avoiding the risk of breakages on the line. It is currently available in six sizes, from 370ml to 720ml, in round and octagonal designs – with further shapes and sizes in development.
The lightweight shatterproof construction offers vital safety and convenience benefits throughout the supply chain and in the home. For consumers, it provides easy handling and pouring, and its standard metal twist-off closure ensures easy opening and closing. The jar is also fully recyclable.
In retail markets, the clarity of the PET offers strong on-shelf impact for a wide range of products including cooking sauces, pesto, tomato-based products, pickled vegetables, relishes chutneys, and fruit purées, jams and spreads.
Equally important, thanks to the jar’s smaller footprint compared to glass, is that more units can be incorporated into the same shelf space, while its shatter-resistance offers new opportunities for product placement, for example close to the chill cabinet.
Mike Hanratty, APPE’s business development director, says, “Our new ThermaLite jar is a real breakthrough, providing for the first time in a pasteurisable format, the clarity usually associated with glass with the light weight and consumer convenience benefits of plastic. Equally important, its energy and transport savings also make a valuable contribution to the reduction of companies’ carbon footprints and logistical costs.”
