| Kraft look for melt-free chocolate packaging |
By: Rebecca Hubbard
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Posted: Wednesday, August 18, 2010 2:07 pm
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Kraft, the global foods giant, is searching for a new packaging material for chocolate in order to stop the foodstuff from melting.
The company, which bought Cadbury earlier in the year, has set a brief to a US-based consultancy to find an innovative material that can stop chocolate melting at temperatures of up to 40 degrees celsius.
The Ohio-based agency, Nine Sigma, has published a tender document looking for packaging material developers. A deadline of 10 September has been set for submission potential materials.
The brief is to find a material that shall "minimise or prevent melting of chocolate bar confections in warm or hot climates".
It is also stated that the material should be able to stop chocolate melting at temperatures between 24 and 40 degrees celsius, as well as being able to cope with multiple changes in temperature.
Other features of the potential packaging, as stated by the document, include the fact that it should be "only incrementally larger" than existing packaging, be "compatible with consumer pricing" when used in full production runs and be "single-use, disposable and environmentally friendly". The solution could also utilise "novel" insulating materials, "thin film approaches that can store energy and repurpose it", or technologies that are triggered by light or temperature.
The tender states: "Kraft Foods seeks novel materials or approaches to packaging that can protect single serve chocolate bars from medium term exposure to warm ambient conditions. These products frequently experience multiple cycles of exposure to controlled and uncontrolled climates."Product may be shipped in controlled and uncontrolled conditions, sold by the retailer in an air-conditioned setting and consumed sometime later after having been carried on the person or in a handbag.
"Although current technology can provide a solution to the problem, the resultant packaging is both cost prohibitive and excessively bulky."
A spokesman for Kraft told has said that the company was "complementing our traditional R&D" by looking to external partners for the solution. |
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