The new PET bottle from Sidel is designed to offer an increased competitive advantage for liquid dairy manufacturers.

This mini-size has been designed for products such as drinking and probiotic yogurts with capacities between 65ml to 150ml and is ideally suited for ambient and cold chain processes. The bottle would also suit applications within the juice, nectar, soft drinks, isotonics and tea sector.

“This new format has been launched to support the liquid dairy product industry where the use of PET packaging has increasingly become an attractive alternative,” comments Laurent Naveau, Packaging Innovator Leader at Sidel. “Part of Sidel’s continuous packaging optimization program, this bottle is designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and costs while also offering new marketing opportunities and high production performance for manufacturers.”

Advanced sustainability and cost efficiency 

With Sidel’s new ultra-light bottle, manufacturers can benefit from PET’s heightened sustainability credentials. Not only is it the most affordable plastic on the market, but it is also the only food grade bottle-to-bottle recycled plastic.  

Manufacturers can achieve up to a 40 percent cost reduction when switching from polystyrene to PET and a 20 percent reduction from HDPE (high density polyethylene).

Naveau says: “Our new size has the best-in-class bottle weight with just 3.9g for a 100ml extended shelf-life bottle and 5.4g for 100ml aseptic bottle achieved through a dedicated preform design. This new preform design is qualified for 100% rPET content and also enables a low blowing pressure below 15 bars. Sidel’s new PET mini-bottle guarantees producers total product integrity while also offering compatibility with a range of safe, convenient capping solutions.”

Creative shelf-appeal 

The global yogurt and probiotic market size alone was valued at USD 86.87 billion in 2022 and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 9.3 percent from 2023 to 2030. Manufacturers are increasingly looking for ways to create stand-out shelf appeal in a competitive marketplace. 

The new ultra-small bottle offers a range of creative options including: different formats and shapes; one-shot or multi-serve consumption; the use of white or transparent PET; multiple graphics and textures; plus, a wide range of bottle necks and caps. It is also compatible with roll-fed or sleeve labelling. 

High performance 

Sidel’s new ultra-small bottle is based on a uniquely designed preform, which ensures a wide process window even with reduced heating zones. This offers optimum material distribution guaranteeing a high-bottle performance. 

Naveau comments: “Sidel’s packaging experts have developed a preform that achieves great bottle quality. The accurate material distribution on the bottle ensures that its performance is secured even with lower blowing pressure and a reduced quantity of material. We’re excited to work with producers within the liquid dairy product sector to realize the full scope of our new ultra-small and light design range.”

Complete line solutions 

Sidel offers a complete line solution for liquid dairy and sensitive products, building on over 40 years of experience operating within and supporting manufacturers in this industry. 

The new bottle size is compatible with the company’s Aseptic Combi Predis™ FMa - the market’s simplest and fastest aseptic solution with dry preform decontamination.  It offers a safe, hygienic and cost-effective way of packaging sensitive products to ensure high-end taste and long shelf life with minimal water and chemical usage. 

Similarly, the bottle is also suitable for high production speeds of up to 66,000 bottles per hour.