According to the company, its latest edition is ‘designed for all your extraterrestrial and earthly travels,’ featuring intergalactic, aluminium packaging, and is filled with the blue and purple candies you know and love from the brand, featuring Pineapple Passionfruit, Raspberry and Berry Punch.

“SKITTLES is always looking for ways to surprise fans, both earthlings and extraterrestrials, with shocking innovation,” said Fernando Rodrigues, Mars Wrigley Senior Brand Manager for Skittles. “We’re thrilled to bring better moments to fans by marking Skittles’ first trip to space with limited edition packs and look forward to pushing the boundaries of confectionery space exploration.”

As the company added, fans can follow Skittles for details on how they might be lucky enough to get their hands on the limited edition Zero-G packs later this summer.

Furthermore, as part of the brand’s expansion into extraterrestrial confections, the brand added that it is proud to make a donation to the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum in support of inspiring the next generation of innovators and explorers.

Through ePacConnect, which was announced in October of 2020, the companies offer secure, serialized QR codes on all of ePac’s packaging and provide access to a suite of Scantrust applications for consumer engagement, brand protection, and track and trace.

With ePacConnect, all packaging can be born digital, each with a unique digital identity, they say. When scanned by a normal smartphone camera, every package becomes a gateway to 2-way communication between brands and consumers. The companies expect billions of pouches to be produced with ePacConnect over the coming years.

Leveraging the innovative digital printing capabilities of ePac and innovative solutions from Scantrust, ePacConnect democratizes access to smart packaging by offering an entry-level no-cost solution for all brands, while also making it easy and flexible to add-on a comprehensive suite of readily available applications, they claim. 

Scantrust powers these underlying capabilities with a secure platform that provides scalable tools to brands who want to actively protect from counterfeits, easily share product provenance, and offer tailored consumer experiences.

According to Carl Joachim, ePac’s CMO, “We’ve been working with Scantrust for some time now to develop and market a connected packaging solution that is scalable from small brands to large CPGs. Scantrust also operates globally, as well as sharing our commitment to helping small and medium sized businesses compete and grow. We already have a number of customers in the USA and Europe using the solution”.  

Nathan Anderson, Scantrust CEO added, “We saw great synergies between our two companies from the start. With this partnership, we’re able to bring Scantrust’s advanced connected goods solutions to brands of all sizes at-scale. This will enable more meaningful connections with their customers, and empower people to be able to trust the source, safety, and integrity of the products in their life, while also increasing supply chain visibility.”

The company describes ecoview as a comprehensive digital platform that provides users with transparency and accessibility to their packaging data at a granular level, while offering brands and retailers a detailed breakdown of their packaging supply chain.

Ecoveritas says that in the past, compliance schemes and EPR data services have only been required to perform one task - complete submissions in an accurate and timely fashion so that data stands up to audit from governing bodies and the correct fees are being paid.

In more recent years, it says that the environmental landscape has shifted considerably for producers of packaged goods, highlighting the problems of a plastic packaging linear economy.

New requirements for businesses have emerged meaning more responsibility, accountability, and activity around packaging metric data. This has presented many companies with the challenge of establishing quality packaging data resources that can be accessed through a central mechanism.

Even if they do have data, the task to maintain, ensure quality, and interrogate the data requires skilled, ongoing resource.

Josh Remi, commercial manager at Ecoveritas, says: “At any point in time, users can view a high-level snapshot of their packaging products, enabling them to interrogate their data, see gaps and opportunities for improvement in their packaging operations, and benchmark progress to meet KPIs.

“Users can really drill down into everything from packaging by polymer type, volume of recycled content by supplier and recyclability of materials, to plastic packaging tonnage by department and information about OPRL certification. It also provides information relating to branded and own-brand products.

“Importantly, as we approach implementation of the UK Plastic Packaging Tax, users of ecoview can see their projected costs from April 2022 and easily identify, at the click of a button, where action can be taken to reduce their bill by both supplier and product.”

Ecoview focuses on the global picture and has been designed with the aim of being flexible and providing in-depth analysis and reporting that seeks to add value to users’ wider sustainability objectives.

“The platform has been developed with users front of mind,” said Josh Remi. “In creating it, we have really focused on making life easier for brands and retailers as they try to navigate the increasingly important area of packaging compliance.

Korea's Suncheon City Agricultural Products Processing Center opened in May 2020, and the business was unable to serve customized orders due to the overall arrival time for labels and flexible packaging.

That necessitated the addition of anytron any-PACK, which allows Suncheon City Agricultural Products Processing Center to tend to the customized packaging of the products and procuring orders. The anytron any-PACK runs with Adobe illustrator and simplifies the process.

Agricultural Products Processing Center is reporting that its production problems have been solved. According to the company, this system doesn’t break the processing assembly as it can take on even the smallest print job for a customized label and pouch printing.

Anytron's any-PACK solution is a package consisting of any-002 and S/W, R2R laminator, and vertical filler for flexible packing on-demand. The digital laser printer is water, temperature, and abrasion-resistant.

Using high-capacity toners and drums, high-resolution pouches can be produced at reasonable prices. Thanks to the LED toner printing technology, any-PACK can print on paper such as Kraft without smudging or ink being displaced poorly compromising the integrity of the final print, creating eco-friendly pouches. The printed pouches maintain their quality for a long time as they have enhanced waterproofing and are less susceptible to the impact of external environments.

"We can print labels and pouches with any-pack and easily insert and edit variable data with dedicated software," says Agricultural Processing Center. "Most of all, we think the biggest advantage is that we have a lot of farmers who need only a few hundred copies, and we can print them immediately."

Since the Agricultural Products Processing Center installed the any-pack system, it has commercialized products in small volumes, and members have been pleased that they can try various designs. In addition, the company was able to solve multiple problems due to outsourcing. 

And Suncheon City Agricultural Products Processing Center is considering purchasing anytron's new machine, any-JET II, which is a combined a digital label printer and laser diecutter for label and pouch printing. any-JET II has laminating, laser scribing, and slitting functions.

Coming off a year in which e-commerce surged exponentially, the fight against counterfeit goods has never been fiercer. Whether that means fake goods or product diversion, the ability to authenticate and track-and-trace has never been more relevant.

Recognizing this trend, HP has launched its HP Indigo Secure portfolio, which touts digital security printing in one pass. The portfolio, which includes the new HP Indigo 6K Secure digital press, includes a host of software and hardware solutions designed to safeguard the supply chain.

According to HP, counterfeit goods account for 3.3% of all global trade. For pharmaceuticals specifically, a recent study illustrated that counterfeits account for 4.03 billion euro. The surge in e-commerce has translated to greater awareness, too, especially as more consumers are using Amazon to purchase products.

In 2018, Alibaba Anticounterfeiting Alliance shut down 524 manufacturing and distribution locations, seizing over $536 million in fake goods. In the future, the estimated impact of counterfeit goods is $4.2 trillion globally.

“We see the potential, but the brands are seeing the need,” notes Amir Raziel, head of strategic marketing, HP Indigo. “If you have advanced technology, you can sidestep this problem, and that’s the beauty of our concept that we’re implementing. You’re already starting to see companies like ePac and Nosco using these technologies to protect their brands from counterfeiters.

“Brand protection is really diverse,” he adds. “Some brands do not feel the need while others have to have it – especially with regulations. Others see problems with divergence. The brands gradually understand the potential of the ability to do such a thing.”

HP has implemented solutions that can help with brand protection and security printing. The global market for security printing and brand protection is expected to reach $36 billion by 2024.

HP has amassed a wide range of partners to help fight this crime epidemic. These teammates include Agfa and Jura and range to EVRYTHING, VerifyMe and Scantrust. “For brand protection, we have a wide selection of features thanks to our partnerships,” explains Gidi Amir, innovations initiatives strategist, HP Indigo. “These companies that we’re working with are providing special security graphical designs that are harder to copy. Our partners provide serialization services and many other anti-counterfeiting needs.”

For example, a brand may require an invisible taggant ink that features chemical markers, which are utilized in HP’s ElectroInk. Brands that take advantage of these capabilities might have a product that has an inherent liability such as pharmaceuticals. Brands can prove that someone was harmed from a counterfeit product and not their product.

HP has realized a 300% increase in its invisible ink usage, but that’s just one part of the overall brand protection platform. Brands are increasingly utilizing any number of overt, covert and forensic features to protect their businesses. Holograms, tactile features and color shifting inks are also frequently utilized.

“Any HP Indigo customer can take a crack at this with the technology that we have and the presses that they already have in place,” says Raziel. “And it can range from very simple to very complex. This is part of the inherent advantages of variable data, to solving divergence problems, multiple SKUs, and so many more.”

The interest level in these capabilities is ramping up, too. “We’re seeing strong interest in what we can do, and we’re taking a very humble approach because this market is so closed,” comments Raziel. “It’s a long-term play for us. We’re learning from customers and our partners every day. This isn’t a one-year effort. This is a long-term vision and another step in the analog to digital revolution.”
 

“We’re exposing ourselves in the high security world and gaining trust,” adds Amir. “Participating in exclusive events to let them know we are there, and we see tremendous acceptance. We’re no longer bridging out, now companies are coming to us to learn more and understand the advantage of our technology. Indigo is not just another digital platform, we’re much more than that.”

This new design, based on the ARTIC side seal machine, ensure airtight packaging and a more visually pleasing end result, without any seals on the cutting side, easy to open and with more space for labelling. A newly developed product by ULMA, with lots of benefits for food safety and its appearance.

Exceptional appearance, with no seals on either side

ULMA has been working for the food industry for decades, a sector that is especially demanding when it comes to safety and where sustainability-related aspects are becoming increasingly important. Therefore, we have developed solutions that are fully customised for each product, allowing us to optimise the use of materials, save time and reduce labour costs.

Our latest product, based on ARTIC SS packaging machines, is designed to package portions of cheese in modified atmosphere packaging (MAP), thus eliminating the usual lengthwise and crosswise seals of flow pack machines, replacing them with seals in the same place as the cheese rind, giving the end product a more appealing appearance and ensuring greater safety because, as the product no longer has any lengthwise and crosswise seals, the risk of any leaks in that area is avoided.

Packaging that is more airtight, visually appealing, sustainable and easier to open

In addition to an improved appearance, environmental benefits are also obtained, as the entire packaging process is designed to optimise the packaging's wrapping material, using an extremely lightweight plastic material, a shrink wrap film that is only 21 microns thick.

Eliminating lengthwise and crosswise seals also provides benefits for labelling, as the two upper and lower sides of the product have no seals, freeing up space for as many labels as necessary. In this seal-free space, you can include labels that cover perforations, easy open labels and/or promotional labels.

Regarding easy open labels, this new packaging format allows them to be placed in such a way that the packaging is torn open, as far as the lengthwise seal. To open them, simply pull on them and the packaging easily comes apart from the product with a single movement, as can be seen at this video, which shows how these machines work and their benefits. The whole packaging process is performed reliably, hygienically and with outstanding aesthetic results.

A fully automatic process that ensures outstanding presentation

As can be seen at the video ULMA's new wrapping machines collect the portions of cheese from the cutting line in a way that is fully automatic and then smoothly transfer them to inside the film's tube. To ensure that the packaging looks as good as possible, the machines come with a forming mould, which adapts to the size of each portion. It also has a side seal system that removes any excess film, creating a thin seal.

Thanks to the cross-sealing system with a long dwell sealing head, the machine achieves highly reliable airtight packaging, with a high level of performance and safety guaranteed. When the portions are wrapped in film and the packaging has been sealed, they are passed through a hot air shrink tunnel, which gives the packaged product an exceptional final appearance.