Merrick Pet Care recently introduced its new Fresh Kisses dental treats for dogs in pouches created by Takigawa Corporation America. According to Steve Coulson, Takigawa’s director of worldwide sales, the challenge was to keep the dental treat’s fragile botanical oils and breath enhancers at optimum freshness. “The packaging structure needed to protect a product that containing all natural ingredients and essential oils with up to 33 treats in the package,” he says. “It’s a very fragrant product that has ambitious shelf life requirements.”

To protect the dental treats, Takigawa engineered a high-barrier, metallized PET structure, combined with an audible and tactile Easy Tight zipper from ELPLAST that is designed to ensure proper closure every time, owing to its multiple tracks. The specialty zipper features a distinct “crackle” sound upon opening that creates a relationship between dog and owner by signaling an upcoming treat.

The resulting package structure aims to give Merrick’s Fresh Kisses top-line shelf appeal along with supreme protection. “We maximized the beauty of Merrick’s colorful Fresh Kisses artwork with Takigawa’s proprietary rotogravure inline print process,” adds Coulson. “The completed package looks fantastic while keeping the product fresh to the last treat.” www.takigawa-corp.com