Custom Kote Makes the Grade with Mrs. Smith

Mrs. Smith's deep dish cherry-berry, french silk chocolate and deep dish apple crumb pie stills tastes as great as ever with its new Custom Kote^® container. When Atlanta-based Mrs. Smith's Bakeries discovered an equally solid, yet cheaper and more environmentally friendly board, it changed over from PE-coated SBS to Coated Natural Kraft^™ (CNK).

“We're always looking for ways to improve our products and packaging and reduce costs,” explains Brian Palmer, director of purchasing at the Atlanta plant, where they formerly used SBS board with polyethylene coating.

“There are some environmental concerns with coated SBS because the coating has to be removed before the board can be recycled, and the pricing on SBS is very volatile relative to CNK,” says Palmer.

CNK is produced from Mead coated board, Custom Kote^® — a high-performance unbleached, coated paperboard. CNK provides a suitable surface for graphics as well as solid strength.

Today all Mrs. Smith's plants package their pies in Mead's Custom Kote line using Smurfit-Stone as its sole supplier. But before changing over, the industrial bakery first put the board to the test.

In a test between .022 PE-coated SBS and Mead's .022 Custom Kote, the pie filled cartons were first frozen at -15° C. The cartons were then thawed for an hour at 40° F with 80% humidity. Cartons were finally tested after undergoing three to five thaw cycles for box compression, Taber stiffness and moisture content. After five freeze-thaw cycles, Custom Kote-made cartons came out ahead with a 20% strength advantage.

Milk Carton Mania

You won't find any milk in these cartons — only cotton.

A new marketing concept by Wooket Creative Studios revolutionizes the use of gable top milk cartons. To promote A Herd of Laughter^® T-shirts in a retail friendly way, this illustration company merchandises its T-shirts in an illustrated gable top carton, the Power-Pack, shelved in a pre-packed drop floor display. Each display is made out of corrugate and consists of 60 milk carton T-shirts folded inside a paperboard carton, inside a four-shelf cow spotted merchandiser with a corrugated head card.

The idea is to pack the product in an easy to handle, familiar container that plays off the animated cow character, while using minimal floor space. Wooket also uses this unique marketing tool for boxer shorts, bbq aprons and udder apparel.

Don't Spoil the Milk

To the relief of milk drinkers everywhere, International Paper (IP) has introduced a milk carton that does not taste like a carton.

Tru-Taste^™ Silver, IP's new milk carton material for premium products such as UHT milk, provides reportedly high taste performance and blocks out odors produced during refrigeration so that milk tastes like milk, not the carton.

Tru-Taste Silver's solid board, says manufacturer, resists distribution and reduces bulge by 10 to 20%.

Another milk fortifying carton released by IP is easy-open packaging for school milk, available in two different models. One package includes perforations that enable kids to create their own straw hole. The other model facilitates easier opening achieved through ovens on the filling line.