Non-traditional packaging excels in beverage, dairy and food
Beloved for their light weight, eco-friendly profile and shelf-safe convenience, aseptic cartons, first developed for shelf-safe dairy products in 1961, have dominated store shelves in much of Europe, Asia and Central and South Americas for nearly half a century. Yet U.S. producers and consumers have been catching on to their many benefits in just the past two decades, in great part because the U.S.’s extensive milk refrigeration system didn’t offer a natural home for aseptic cartons.
But much has changed in the past 15 years, with growing segments of the dairy, beverage and food industries embracing carton technology so enthusiastically that it now dominates certain categories. In particular, producers of natural and premium beverages such as coconut water, value-added dairy products and, in the food category, broths and soup, have gravitated to the packaging for four principal advantages: