Due to the impact of the trade war, U.S. dairy exports have been hampered, especially to the markets of China, Mexico, and Canada (which account for more than 50% of U.S. dairy exports). In order to reduce the impact of tariffs, countries around the world have taken various measures, such as reducing dependence on imports and exports from a single country, adjusting policies, and some have reduced costs and increased efficiency by adjusting packaging. What packaging challenges does your company face? You must be curious about how to reduce costs by adjusting packaging? Continue reading this article to learn the secrets of packaging.
1. Common milk and dairy product packaging
Roof box (fresh house)
Material: PE coated paperboard
Applicable products: pasteurized fresh milk, yogurt
Features:
Need to be refrigerated (shelf life 7~21 days), slightly higher air permeability
Easy to open, suitable for family packing
Representatives: International Paper (IP), Elopak
Plastic bottle (HDPE/PET)
Material: high-density polyethylene (HDPE) or polyester (PET)
Applicable products: fresh milk, yogurt, milk beverages
Features:
Can be opened and closed repeatedly, suitable for ready-to-drink scenarios
HDPE bottles are opaque, PET bottles are transparent (barrier layer needs to be added)
Low cost, but short shelf life (pasteurized milk is about 7 days)
Glass bottle
Applicable products: high-end fresh milk, yogurt ( Such as Meiji, local milk station)
Features:
Environmentally friendly and recyclable, but heavy and fragile
Need to be recycled and cleaned, high operating costs
Soft plastic bag (PE/PA composite film)
Material: multi-layer co-extruded film (such as PE/PA/EVOH)
Applicable products: economical fresh milk (such as pure milk in plastic bags)
Features:
The lowest cost, but poor barrier properties (shelf life 3~7 days)
Need cold chain transportation, easy to break
2. Optimize packaging structure design
Lightweight packaging
The 1L lightweight PET milk bottle developed by KHS in Germany weighs only 20g, with a bottle mouth diameter of 32mm, 100% recyclable, reducing transportation costs, while obtaining customer satisfaction and ensuring the highest level of product safety, it solves the problem of high production and transportation costs. It can be easily and conveniently processed with shrink film packaging, without the need to invest in secondary packaging costs.
Improve production process and equipment
Use high-speed filling machines to replace semi-automatic manual liquid filling: such as EasternPack high-speed filling machines, the number of filling heads can be customized according to the company’s output, and the packaging speed of 30ml-100ml milk can reach 100 bags/minute, and within 500ml: 60-70 bags/minute.
Automated operation reduces labor costs: A complete filling production line includes empty bottle handling devices (bottle unscrambler, bottle rinser, dryer) + filling equipment + sealing equipment (capping machine/capping machine, aluminum foil sealing machine, heat sealing machine) + labeling and inkjet equipment + conveying and packaging equipment, which can reduce 20-100 labor costs, reduce manual intervention, and make food safer.
Quantitative packaging reduces waste:
Stick strip independent packaging (such as Xi’anzhi milk powder) can accurately control the single dosage and avoid milk powder waste caused by excessive mixing. This packaging method can be easily completed using a small vertical packaging machine with a powder head.
Successful Cases
An EasternPack customer from Australia has long been supplying the market with bagged milk. However, with the increasingly fierce market competition and the increasing requirements of consumers for product quality and convenience, the company realized that packaging reform is imperative.
Considering the increasingly diverse consumption scenarios of milk for consumers, they hope that milk packaging will be more convenient in the process of carrying, storing and drinking. For example, in scenarios such as fitness venues and outdoor travel, bottled milk is more convenient to drink and not easy to damage.
Finally, our customer consulted us for a new solution for milk packaging, and we suggested that the customer change the milk packaging from traditional bags to bottles. In the end, they chose high-quality glass bottles, which not only have a beautiful appearance and can improve the grade of the product, but also have good barrier properties, which can better maintain the freshness and nutrients of milk.
We developed a professional filling line based on its plant size, production capacity and hygiene standards. This line is highly automated, and everything from milk filling, capping to labeling can be done in one go on the line.
The filling line is equipped with high-precision metering equipment to ensure the accurate capacity of each bottle of milk. At the same time, in terms of hygiene standards, the line adopts a closed filling system to effectively prevent the milk from being contaminated during the filling process.
The company’s sales increased by 106% within a year after the packaging reform, of which bottled milk sales accounted for 57% of the total sales, becoming a new profit growth point for the company.
The launch of bottled milk has enhanced the brand image. Consumers believe that bottled milk is more high-end, environmentally friendly and healthy, and the company has established a good image of quality and innovation in the minds of consumers.