Amcor PET Packaging Europe has launched one of the world’s first ever range of monolayer plastic bottles for long life milk.

The bottles are manufactured in Xamos, a brand new PET based material specifically developed by the company. Xamos achieves an extremely high opacity at a low thickness, allowing the bottles to deliver a four-month minimum shelf life for UHT milk.
The Australian-based company says that thanks to its monolayer construction, the Xamos bottles are cost-competitive compared to alternative forms of UHT milk packaging including the traditional carton and other bottle formats in PET and HDPE, which have to be multilayer to achieve the required product protection.
The injected finish with its precise dimensions ensures a tight fitting cap for full reclosability and a leak-free performance without the need for an aluminium seal.
Blown on standard Injection Stretch Blow Moulding (ISBM) machines, Xamos bottles can be sterilised using both wet and dry methods. In particular, the bottles have shown very good thermal resistance during these aseptic processes. Typically lighter than alternative UHT milk bottles, the material offers all the design potential of PET to create distinctive looking bottles for branding purposes.
The bottles also offer an oxygen barrier that is up 20 times more effective than HDPE. According to Amcor this widens the options for the packaging of UHT milk and other products that are growing in popularity such as Soya Milk and Pro-Biotic Drinks.