Vital Strategies to Meet Increasing Demand of Aseptic Packaging

Sustainable and environment friendly packaging is what food producers have been looking for their new products. Maintaining their product quality and long shelf life are another important criterion while selecting packaging material. Food producers have been adopting aseptic packaging by considering all necessary criterions for their products. They have been adopting partnership strategy to ensure their products are safe and have a long shelf-life. By partnering with aseptic packaging providers, manufacturers work in collaboration to develop a packaging that is safe and environment-friendly. Elimination of aluminum foil has become one of the necessary criteria for designing packaging material. Owing to increase in demand for aseptic packaging across different food segments, market players need to expand their production capacity. They have been taking necessary steps to improve the capacity to cater to increase in demand. The demand is expected to rise in the next few years as manufacturers opt for packaging to lower down carbon footprint and long product life. According to the report published by Allied Market Research, the global aseptic packaging market is expected to reach $74.47 billion by 2026. Following are some of the activities taking place across the globe.

Partnership with aseptic packaging producers has become one of the major strategies adopted by food manufacturers. With the launch of new products by food manufacturers, they have been looking for appropriate packaging solutions. Daesang, one of the leading Korean health food producers, joined hands with SIG for its Heat&Go microwaveable technology for aseptic packaging for its new product, Nucare Roasted Rice winter edition. This new product is a dairy supplement drink for people who prefer liquid diet or have difficulty in swallowing food. SIG outlined that its microwaveable packaging is expected to open new avenues for hot vending.

Changwoo Choi, the CEO at Daesang, highlighted that partnering with SIG would help in offering convenience for customers who prefer on-the-go drinking and heated beverages. SIG highlighted that its aseptic process has been implemented to make sure 22 vitamins and minerals in Nucare will be maintained along with its deliciousness and aroma. In addition, the packaging is aluminum-free, so the product can be heated in microwave. This heating would not cause any loss in quality. Taking the customer safety into consideration, teams of both companies have worked toward creating the product.

The trend of partnering with aseptic packaging providers continues with the increase in need for packing locally produced milk. Inex, a milk producer from Belgium, joined hands with Sidel for its aseptic PET packaging line. Inex selected Sidel’s packaging for its ultra-high-temperature (UHT) milk products. The company has been planning to expand the production capacity. It exports its UHT milk, cream, dairy drinks, and other milk products to neighboring countries. In order to boost the production and lower the environmental footprint, both companies have been working closely for designing and establishing aseptic packaging line for packing its UHT milk. They designed PET bottles that are safe, user-friendly, and sustainable. Steven Dierickx, the CEO at Inex, outlined that These bottles offer stable light barrier characteristics to ensure long-life and integrity for products and do not contain aluminum foil. They are 20% lighter as compared to other plastic (PE) bottles, contain 25% of recycled PET, and offers 20% lower carbon footprint.

Expansion of capacities of the manufacturing plants is one of the major strategies adopted by market players to meet increase in demand and respond to new contracts. UFlex Limited, one of the major flexible packaging companies, is expected to two-fold its manufacturing plant capacity. According to the new plans, the company would produce seven billion packs per annum in comparison to previous capacity of 3.5 billion packs. The expansion of capacity would take place at Sanand, Gujarat. The expansion has been taking place in response to rise in demand for company’s aseptic packaging laminates and would create new jobs in the region.

Ashwani Kumar Sharma, the CEO and President of aseptic liquid packaging division at UFlex Ltd., outlined that the demand for its innovative technology and services in aseptic packaging led to the expansion of its facilities. The company has been striving to take its product Asepto across the globe and this expansion marks a step toward expanding horizon of the product to different continents. This product has been developed for packaging of milk, juice, dairy products, and others. The company intends to take one step at a time and expand across the globe eventually.