Tetra Pak unveils dairy bottle innovation

Swedish packaging giant Tetra Pak has introduced a new one-litre package – composed of a carton body and a speedily injection moulded plastic neck and top – exclusively for ambient milk. The new Tetra Evero Aseptic is initially being rolled out in a limited fashion, but company executives think its appeal will spread further as it enters the market. “We forecast continued strong growth for dairy consumption globally through 2020,” Linda Bernier, director of corporate public relations notes. Key drivers for the ambient milk market will include growth in countries such as India and China, as well as Brazil and Russia, according to Mats Enhol, director of food industry intelligence.
The company says that the new 30-gram pack combines the easy pouring and handling of a bottle with the printability and cost advantages of carton. Tetra Pak conducted research in Germany, Spain, Italy and France to discover how consumers view the Tetra Evero Aseptic against rival bottles made from PET and HDPE. The results showed the carton pack compared favourably to plastic competitors. With a screw cap that can be opened in one step – developed with the Italian firm Sacmi – the research indicated that Tetra Evero Aseptic compares particularly well on ease of opening.
Tetra Pak is working with two dairy companies in western Europe initially. Spanish dairy Corporaci&oacute,n Alimentaria Pe&ntilde,asanta (CAPSA) is rolling out the pack in Spain and Weihenstephan has begun market test the product in Germany. A full global launch is planned for 2012, and Tetra Pak expects that it will perform well in the markets where ambient milk has a firm grip.
The carton bottle is currently being marketed at non-oxygen sensitive milk but soon Tetra Pak plans to expand its reach to other products such as creams, flavoured milks and milks containing ingredients like omega-3 that make them oxygen sensitive. “We foresee many requests coming forward,” Michael Grosse, executive vice president for product development and engineering, says.
New formats are also envisaged and Tetra Pak continues to work on the technology. Among the introductions planned for 2012 include a separable top and a plant-based HDPE top. Other sizes will also be on the cards.
This is not the first time Tetra Pak has brought out an aseptic carton bottle, having launched Tetra Aptiva Aseptic at Anuga FoodTec back in 2006. Grosse concedes that Aptiva was not as successful as it should have been, largely due to the need for the top of the bottle to be moulded elsewhere, then brought to the carton. However, he quotes Thomas Edison: “I didn’t fail, I learned about 10,000 things that do not work.”
The company has now built the Tetra Pak A6 iLine machine to produce the new Tetra Evero Aseptic. One of the key engineering developments in the machine further on from Aptiva was a high-speed injection molding system that forms the neck of the bottle and connects the carton body to the cap. This process normally takes three to six seconds but Tetra Pak has reduced the time taken to less than 1.5 seconds. The result is a machine with a capacity to produce 10,000 packs an hour. Tetra Pak says the new machine takes up 50% less space and runs with 25% lower operating costs than other aseptic lines. It will first debut in Europe and South America.