News on Packaging Equipment from Northern America

Booth sales for The PROCESSING ZONE, a new exhibit area at PACK EXPO International 2010 (Oct. 31–Nov. 3, 2010;McCormick Place, Chicago), have exceeded expectations and the area has been expanded to 70,000 square feet, according to show organizer PMMI...

As 2009 winds down, what’s ahead for 2010? Based on early indicators, business should improve. Interest in sustainable packaging and operations will continue. Concerns about drug counterfeiting and food safety remain high, and food processors and regu...

It happens all the time: You open a snack bag, cereal box, or pill bottle and find a little bit of product and … lots of air. Consumer Reports dings such products with a Black Hole Award, and loyal readers are quick to send us nominees.

At next October’s PACK EXPO International 2010 (October 31-November 3;McCormick Place, Chicago, IL) several new features will make it easy for packagers and processors from around the globe to enhance operational excellence across the production line, ...

U.S. shipments of packaging machinery decreased by 0.4 percent to $5.885 billion in 2008, the first decrease in seven years, according to the Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Institute, Arlington, Va. Export growth of 8.6 percent was tempered by a 2...

Unilever has long been committed to clear, transparent nutritional information for consumers, and therefore welcomes the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) announced plans to develop standardized criteria on which future front-of-package nutriti...

Consumer goods companies expressed confidence in the future of the economy last week by turning out for PACK EXPO Las Vegas in near-record levels, reports leading packaging and processing trade association PMMI, which produces and sponsors the PACK EXP...

Starting next year, the Food Processing Suppliers Assn. (FPSA) will co-locate its Process Expo with the Institute of Food Technologists’ IFT Food Expo. That’s not the most natural of pairings, and the arrangement was born a little out of desperation fr...

TNA will debut intelli-scan®, designed to inspect and confirm date coding on high speed VFFS packs, at Pack Expo, Las Vegas, October 5-7, booth # S 5249.  The tna intelli-scan®, is featured ontna’s robag® 3 fx 180 rotary triple jaw vertical form/fill...

It will be the end of a brief era when Pack Expo Las Vegas and Process Expo stage their last trade show together in Las Vegas Oct. 5-7.Some 21,000 packaging and food processing professionals are expected in the Las Vegas Convention Center for the show,...

PMMI announces the Reusable Packaging Association (RPA) will co-locate its 2009 annual meeting with PACK EXPO 2009 (October 5-7;Las Vegas Convention Center) and sponsor a reusable packaging track for the Conference at PACK EXPO. The collaboration is t...

The Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) and the Food Processing Suppliers Association (FPSA) today announced a new agreement to co-locate the IFT Food Expo and FSPA’s Process Expo at Chicago’s McCormick Place Convention Center beginning in July 18-2010.

Columbia/Okura’s A-Series robotic palletizers provide the ideal solution for the demands of today’s high capacity potato packers. They use an end effector ('robot hand') designed specifically to handle the inconsistency of potato bags,.

Though weight and health are major issues in today’s society, Mintel sees lagging interest in portion-controlled packaging. Only one in seven adults (14%) currently buy pre-measured packs, and the number one reason they do is convenience. Weight mana...

Remember the days of sticking a fork into a potato a couple times, then popping it into the microwave for 10 minutes or so? That’s ancient history … or, at least it’s heading in that direction. Microwaveable packaging is quickly catching on, according...

Frito-Lay North America, Plano, TX, a division of PepsiCo, has announced a new partnership with TerraCycle, Inc. (www.terracycle.net) an upcycling company that will take used packaging from Frito-Lay snack products and turn them into affordable, quali...

SunChips, Frito-Lay’s popular line of multigrain snacks, announced today that in 2010 it will introduce the first fully compostable snack chip bag made from plant-based materials. The change is designed to significantly improve the environmental impact...

Portion-controlled packaging for snacks could play a dual role in fighting raging obesity rates by reducing consumer calorific in-take and heightening awareness to portion size, finds new research from the US. Scientists at the University of Colorado D...