Stay informed on the latest innovations and technologies in packaging and processing within the food and beverage industry. This category covers the companies, equipment, and materials that are transforming how products are packaged, processed, and delivered to consumers. From sustainable packaging and smart technologies to advanced processing equipment and automation, explore the solutions that are driving efficiency, safety, and sustainability across the entire value chain.
White Castle is introducing the Double Cheese Slider in the freezer aisle.
The Double Cheese Slider, available now in select retailers and expanding to more before year end, features the same restaurant-style taste with double the 100% beef, melty cheese and a middle bun designed to capture and lock in flavor.
“The new Double Cheese Slider delivers big White Castle taste with the convenience of enjoyment in the comfort of your home,” says Jamie Richardson, vice president at White Castle. “When you have a microwave, you have a Castle, and the Double Cheese Slider is the perfect new product that will represent the White Castle brand in freezer aisles across the country.”
White Castle constantly embraces feedback from its fans, affectionately known as Cravers. A consensus from those consumers and insights from market analysis played a role in the decision to expand White Castle’s CPG portfolio with the Double Cheese Slider.
“We are never one to shy away from leading the industry into new ways to keep consumers fed with exciting and flavor-packed concepts,” Richardson says. “For current and future cravers, our new Double Cheese Slider provides even more of the flavor you crave, and all for a tasty price so you can enjoy restaurant quality deliciousness in the comfort of your home.”
White Castle first delivered its Sliders to retail stores in 1987, when it launched its retail division, the first fast-food chain to do so. In the 37 years since the Slider’s retail debut, Cravers have warmed up more than 6.5 billion frozen Sliders. Offerings that began with frozen Original Sliders have since expanded to include Classic Cheese Sliders, Chicken Breast Sliders, Chicken & Cheese Sliders and Jalapeno Cheese Sliders.
White Castle owns and operates its own bakery, meat processing and retail manufacturing facilities. The retail manufacturing plant in Vandalia, Ohio, near Dayton, completed an expansion in fall 2022 to increase capacity to deliver the very same taste to frozen food aisles that can be found in White Castle restaurants.
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Recovered paper demand is expected to grow in North America as MRF equipment advances, OCC fetches higher prices and mills continue to make improvements that prioritize recovered fiber, according to Fastmarkets analysts during a webinar on Tuesday.
OCC prices in North America have stabilized in the last year, in part because of new recycled fiber-based mill capacity that has recently come online. A recent analysis from Jefferies showed July OCC prices were up 114% year over year, averaging around $105 a ton. At the same time, overall recovered paper supplies are tight — a trend analysts are expecting to continue even as recyclers become more adept at recovering higher volumes of cleaner material and mills make adjustments to accommodate more recycled materials in their products.
Here are some takeaways from Fastmarkets’ analysis:
MRF improvements yield more OCC, less mixed paper
As MRF operators continue to upgrade their facilities, optical sorters and artificial intelligence-enabled equipment yield cleaner fiber streams that fetch a higher price from mills, speakers said.
MRFs across North America are investing in these updates, including WM, which plans to invest about $1 billion on about 40 new and upgraded recycling facilities through 2026. Since WM is one of the largest suppliers of recovered fiber in North America, its future plans are an important indicator of where recovered paper trends could go, said Fastmarkets Price Reporter Megan Workman.
WM’s future MRF in Portland, Oregon, is expected to handle 140,000 tons of material a year. “More than 70% of those tons are set to be OCC and mixed paper,” Workman said.
These improvements at WM and other MRFs have helped North American recyclers produce more OCC bales, but as a result, they are producing fewer mixed paper tons, Fastmarket analysts said.
This trend comes at a time when more North American paper producers are adapting their technology to use higher volumes of mixed paper. That tightens mixed paper supply even further, said Hannah Zhao, Fastmarkets’ senior economist for recovered paper.
“However, we believe that the OCC and mixed paper balance or equilibrium will not be static, but dynamic,” she said, noting that both paper producers and recovered paper suppliers adjust their operations according to market dynamics.
Demand from producers expected to continue
New capacity and converted paper machine startups in the last year are consuming higher volumes of both mixed paper and OCC, Workman said. In 2023, she said, five paper machines in North America added 2.4 million tons per year of 100% additional recycled containerboard capacity.
Several major companies announced plant closures in the past few years, including WestRock, now part of Smurfit Westrock, and Graphic Packaging International, but Workman pointed out a broader trend of North American producers prioritizing recycled content as they optimize and consolidate operations across facilities.
“As [producers] close older machines, these newer machines are able to process and take in that mixed paper that years ago, the older machines were not able to,” she said.
For example, Graphic Packaging is expected to start up its 550,000 tons-per-year coated recycled boxboard machine in Waco, Texas,sometime in 2026. Suppliers are already established for that mill, which shows confidence that such large mills will continue to fuel future demand, she said.
Overall, U.S. mills consumed about 16.4 million tons of recovered fiber from January to June of this year, about 1 million more tons compared with the first half of last year, said Workman, citing data from the American Forest & Paper Association. That’s an overall increase of 6.8% year over year.
Increased domestic demand will impact exports
Looking forward, Zhao predicts North American domestic recovered paper demand, especially OCC and mixed paper, will continue to grow alongside expanded mill capacity for such materials.
“Most of the new containerboard capacity will continue to run on recovered paper in the near term and in the medium term,” she said.
Growing domestic demand will mean there will be limited recovered paper available to be exported, she said. OCC supply is already tight in the U.S. due to a lower volume of imports of consumer goods, which arrive in fiber packaging such as corrugated boxes that eventually are recycled. Those imports dropped “significantly” last year, but for the first half of 2024 have increased about 3% year over year, she said.
Overall U.S. OCC exports dropped 13% in 2023, due in part to Asia’s sluggish paper packaging market and weak overall demand for recycled fiber. In the first half of 2024, such exports fell by another 11%, though demand from Mexico and Canada increased.
The global OCC demand and supply balance will become very tight again in the future, Zhao predicted. “Asia will continue to rely heavily on North American recovered paper, especially when the supply of recovered paper from other major exporters, such as Europe, become limited.”
Del Sol Food Company, Inc., manufacturer of Brianna’s Fine Salad Dressings, John Wm. Macy’s Bakery and Café Mexicano Coffee, has named Sam Sommer as vice president of finance and accounting.
In his new role, Sommer will be responsible for overseeing the company’s financial planning and accounting operations.
“We are excited to welcome Sam to Del Sol Food Company,” says Scott Eckert, president and CEO. “He brings strong financial expertise and a wealth of business insight to our growing portfolio of brands.”
Sommer joins Del Sol Food with more than 16 years of experience in finance and accounting. In his early career, he worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers in various financial and audit roles with international clients, and most recently, he served as chief financial officer and treasurer at Blue Bell Creameries for 11 years.
Sommer received his BBA in accounting and his master’s degree in finance from Texas A&M University. In addition, he received his CPA in 2008.
With the new FT722 filling table, VEMAG Maschinenbau GmbH offers a flexible and simple automation solution for bakeries.
Bakeries are looking for robust, powerful, fast and flexible machines to produce high quality baked goods despite high cost pressures and staff shortages. Furthermore, the machines should be quick and easy to clean. With these aspects in mind, VEMAG engineers developed the FT722 filling table, a new solution for bakeries to produce a variety of baked goods with exact weights. The products are portioned, deposited or loaded precisely and continuously onto trays or into baking tins.
By combining a VEMAG dough portioner with the new filling table, various baked goods can be produced from dough and batter with weight accuracy and automation. This allows bakeries to manage their staff and raw materials more efficiently and optimize their production processes. For example, biscuits and cookies can be automatically placed on trays. In addition, the filling table can be used to fill baking tins or cake rings with sponge cake or muffin batter extremely accurately, quickly, gently and precisely.
Custom shapes such as lettering, logos or trimmings are also possible. The baking trays are positioned and removed manually. The production of cookies, sponge cakes, fruit masses, muffins, brownies, gluten-free products, pound cakes or biscuits, is semi-automated. Creams, desserts and other masses can also be filled into jars, cups and other containers. This makes the FT722 ideal for use in catering companies or commercial kitchens.
The work surface of the FT722 is mounted on a mobile stainless steel frame. This allows the attachment to be moved quickly and easily during production or to be transferred to the cleaning area. The work surface of the filling table serves as a support surface for a carrier (slide) that moves on two axes. This carrier is moved below the work surface via servo-driven kinematics. Power is transmitted by permanent magnets in the carrier and in the counterpart beneath the work surface. Customer-specific trays, forms, glass jars, etc. can be placed loosely on the carrier using an adapter. The tray is manually placed and removed at a predefined position, which can be freely selected and is automatically approached for tray/form change. By controlling the servo motors, the installed kinematics are moved in different angular lines. This allows different X-Y positions to be approached.
Using a touch panel, the baker can either enter the coordinates manually or use the pre-installed programs and storage patterns. It is also possible for the intelligent control system to calculate the depositing pattern itself by entering the tray dimensions and the desired number of portions per tray. The control system makes it easy to operate the equipment, even for unskilled employees. The FT722 impresses with its flexible, modular, compact, hygienic and mobile design. Full wet cleaning is possible.
The European Commission has acknowledged issues raised by the European Ombudsman about delays in regulating hazardous chemicals under the REACH Regulation. The inquiry focused on the time the Commission takes to adopt measures based on the European Chemicals Agency’s (ECHA) recommendations and the transparency of the decision-making process. The European Commission’scomments were published on August 26, following the initial inquiry on June 8, 2023.
Civil society groups raised issues regarding the slow inclusion of hazardous substances in REACH’s Annex XIV, adoption of restrictions, and authorization decisions. The Ombudsman expressed concern that these delays could impact public health and the environment. Additionally, there were calls for more transparency in the Commission’s decision-making procedures (FPF reported).
In response, the Commission recognizes these concerns but highlights the complexity of REACH, describing it as one of the world’s most comprehensive chemical regulatory frameworks. The Commission explained that internal negotiations, technical challenges, and the need for thorough analysis often lead to delays. It also emphasized that ECHA’s recommendations are not binding, requiring additional assessments by the Commission before adopting measures.
The Commission agreed about the need to improve efficiency and noted ongoing efforts, including increased collaboration with ECHA, to streamline processes. Ursula von der Leyen, the newly re-elected President of the European Commission, has proposed simplifying REACH as part of a broader package of reforms for the chemicals industry, according to reporting from ChemTrust on July 18, 2024.
In the past, stakeholders have expressed concerns over the continued delays in the REACH revision and have called for improvements in the regulatory process (FPF reported and here).
Molson Coors has entered into a strategic partnership with Naked Life, a non-alcoholic RTD cocktail company in Australia, to bring its products to the U.S. market in 2025.
“Consumers want more than just an alternative,” says Kevin Nitz, vice president of non-alcoholic beverages for Molson Coors. “They want a sophisticated, great-tasting option that aligns with their lifestyle. Naked Life provides a high-quality non-alc cocktail, delivering an experience of the best alc-based versions. After you taste Naked Life, I dare you to believe it’s not a full-strength cocktail.”
Crafted with distilled botanicals, Naked Life is designed to deliver the same experience of traditional cocktails, with less than 10 calories per can and natural sweeteners.
Molson Coors will launch Naked Life in the U.S online and in select retail locations starting March 2025. The initial launch will include five of Naked Life’s RTD cocktail varieties:
Mojito: Lightly sparkling, citrusy lime and fresh mint flavors complement the rich brown sugar and rum notes.
Negroni Spritz: A sweet blend of cherry, lemon and orange extracts combined with the bitters of cinchona and bitter orange.
Gin and Tonic: Distilled botanicals and extracts of lemon, bitter orange, and cinchona top noted with juniper berry.
Cosmo: Cranberry paired with zesty lime and top noted with orange liquor notes.
Margarita: A tart, citrusy and salty experience crafted with lime extract, tequila notes and just the right amount of salt, subtly top noted with a pot-distilled botanical blend.
“The consumer market is shifting and is demanding more low- and no-alc options, but the availability of truly great-tasting alternatives has been slow to catch up,” says Naked Life founder David Andrew.
Naked Life will join a portfolio of brands from Molson Coors that welcome all drinkers. From beers to hard seltzers, premium spirits and non-alcoholic options, Naked Life further expands the roster of Molson Coors’ portfolio of beverages that are perfect for any occasion.
“This partnership aligns perfectly with both companies’ goals to innovate and meet the evolving needs of today’s consumers, allowing us to rethink the beverage landscape for the future,” Andrew says.
Linde will demonstrate its cryogenic freezing and chilling applications and displaying equipment systems at PACK EXPO, set for Nov. 3-6 at McCormick Place in Chicago.
Visitors will experience the CRYOLINE CVT cryovantage tunnel to quickly freeze food products. Rapidly removing the heat from products helps to maintain the moisture level and preserve the quality of the food product during production.
Linde works with food processors to optimize their use of liquid nitrogen and/or liquid carbon dioxide in cryogenic freezing and chilling applications. The shared goal is to rapidly freeze or chill products to their desired target temperatures in a highly cost-effective and energy-efficient manner.
“Proper freezing and chilling techniques help ensure final product quality meets stringent standards and meets consumer taste preferences,” says Chris Johnson, Linde business development director. “Cryogenic freezing is an extremely efficient way to give food processors a significant point of difference for the frozen products they bring to market while maintaining manufacturing efficiencies.”
In a proposed update Tuesday, the agency outlined additional standards and ecolabels covering reusable, certified recyclable and certified compostable food service ware, including certain ones promulgated by Clean Production Action and the Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute. EPA said it would accept comments on the proposed updates for 30 days.
In a newly published resource, EPA also ranked the best choices when selecting sustainable food service ware. It said the top option is reusables (those “used in a system that enables repeated collection, washing, and return”), followed by those that are certified compostable and then certified recyclable. EPA said recyclable was the last choice because food service ware products like utensils have low recycling rates due to food contamination or small size.
Dive Insight:
The agency had not evaluated additions to the official Recommendations of Specifications, Standards and Ecolabels for Federal Purchasing in nearly 10 years, EPA reported.
EPA initiated the update process in November 2022, when it invited standards development organizations, ecolabel programs and conformity assessment bodies to apply for potential assessment, it said. EPA evaluates standards against a framework that considers the process for developing and managing the standard, along with its environmental effectiveness and other factors.
“With hundreds of ecolabels in the marketplace, EPA’s Recommendations cut through the clutter and give federal purchasers and other sustainability-conscious consumers confidence when making purchasing decisions,” said Jennie Romer, deputy assistant administrator for pollution prevention in EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, in a statement. “The ecolabels and standards that EPA includes in the Recommendations have demonstrated that they can truly help us achieve sustainability at scale.”
EPA’s existing recommendations cover compostable options for food service ware, having added the BPI standard in September 2015. The agency is now proposing the following labels for food service ware categories:
Certified compostable: GreenScreen Certified Standard for Single-Use Food Service Ware & Thermal Paper; Cradle to Cradle Certified Product Standard (Platinum Level in Product Circularity); BPI Commercial Compostability Certification Scheme
Certified recyclable: GreenScreen Certified Standard for Single-Use Food Service Ware & Thermal Paper; Cradle to Cradle Certified Product Standard (Platinum Level in Product Circularity)
The Biden administration also announced this year a goal to phase out federal procurement of single-use plastics —from food service packaging, operations and events by 2027, and from all federal operations by 2035 — and replace those choices with reusable, compostable and “highly recyclable” products. The 2024 action built on a 2021 executive order pushing for net-zero procurement by 2050. EPA noted federal procurement accounted for more than $700 billion in spending in 2023.
The EPA update also comes as the Federal Trade Commission is considering anupdate to the Green Guides, or guidelines for environmental marketing claims for products that sellers may want to deem “recyclable,” “compostable” or the like.
DioniLife is launching in the U.S. and U.K., with additional global rollout announcements to come.
The company will focus exclusively on non-alcoholic adult beverages and aims to build a portfolio of products across beverage categories, both through internal development and acquisition. The first acquisition, Mash Gang, will bring premium non-alcoholic beer with a passionate fanbase to a much broader audience.
“DioniLife introduces a new standard for celebrating and socializing with non-alcoholic beverages, with an uncompromising dedication to taste and consumer experience,” says Damian McKinney, CEO and founder. “Exceptional quality and an attention to the rituals associated with how consumers enjoy these products are paramount to how we develop our diverse portfolio. These are a far cry from some non-alcoholic ‘alternatives.’ They are first-choice selections.”
DioniLife features a team whose members spearheaded leadership, operations, innovation, finance, sales and distribution at top spirits companies including Diageo, Stoli Group, Guinness and Heineken. In addition to McKinney, formerly Stoli Group’s global CEO, the team includes Steve Wilson, global leader of innovation and an industry veteran who was previously Diageo’s head of global innovation.
“We are using the lessons we’ve learned from decades of brand-building experience to contribute to the betterment of the world, both through spreading our company philosophy and improving consumers’ beverage experience,” McKinney says.
Multiple new products and brands by DioniLife are in advanced stages of development.
“Our guiding principle is that we will never compromise on taste or quality,” Wilson says. “We will carefully release drinks as they meet our industry-leading standards. We insist on exceeding expectations in each category we enter.”
The DioniLife portfolio launch leads with Mash Gang. Founded in the United Kingdom in 2020, Mash Gang sought from the start to pioneer a new future of conscious drinking. In only a few years, Jordan Childs, co-founder and head brewer, grew from being a self-taught brewer to developing over 200 beers, creating proprietary approaches to non-alcoholic brewing, and winning multiple awards.
“We started the company without any brewing experience and only the sheer determination to create something better than the disappointing non-alcoholic beers we found flooding the market,” Childs says. “From day one, we refused to accept that what we drank had to be in any way inferior.”
Mash Gang’s experimentation led the company to achieve cult status in part due to limited availability and distribution, with standard-bearers like Chug 0.5% IPA complemented by beers brewed with unexpected ingredients such as breakfast cereals and fruit pies. Assuming the unofficial role of the “Johnny Appleseeds of NoLo,” Mash Gang has collaborated with industry leaders such as Northern Monk and Cloudwater to raise the bar for the category worldwide.
“As members of the DioniLife family, we’re excited to play an active role in a new venture that will similarly disrupt the broader non-alcoholic space and provide options people never thought possible,” Childs says.
DioniLife is backed by the Invus Group. Invus, as exclusive investment advisor to Artal, is a global equity investment firm with an evergreen capital structure operating out of offices in the United States, Europe and Asia. Since its founding in 1985, it has focused on empowering entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial teams to transform their industries across both public and private equity investments.
A M King announced the completion of a 70,399-sq.-ft. facility for MÜNZING North America’s U.S. production headquarters in Clover, S.C., to expand its food-grade and non-food-grade additives business.
MÜNZING is a 192-year old, global specialty additives supplier based in Abstatt, Germany. Its North American operations are comprised of administrative and sales headquarters in Bloomfield, N.J., and production headquarters in Clover, S.C. The company’s existing plant in Clover produces defoamers for printing inks, coatings and adhesives; wetting agents; waxes; and products formulated for foam control. The new Clover facility, positioned on 110 acres adjacent to current operations, will produce similar products for a wide range of applications in the food industry. This line will feature both liquid and powder products in a range of materials and concentrations, including options suitable for organic, non-GMO and identity preserved processing.
“A M King’s experience and expertise in food related processing and warehousing ensured a facility built to food standards that would have no problem passing SQF audits,” says Luke Bolding, director of manufacturing for MÜNZING. “This facility provides additional capacity to service the U.S. market and support fast growing regions around the world.”
“We are excited about building a partnership with a world class organization like MÜNZING and assisting in expanding their brand in the U.S. market,” says Andre Harris, A M King business unit leader. “Our manufacturing and food industry expertise, including our proficiency with sustainability initiatives, facility management, and process equipment modifications, makes this an ideal alliance.”
Clover is approximately 10 miles west of Lake Wylie, S.C.; 10 miles east of Kings Mountain State Park; 20 miles north of Rock Hill, S.C.; and 20 miles south of Charlotte. MÜNZING’s new facility in Clover is situated on a swath of land that was formerly a tree farm, offsetting the company’s carbon footprint. The company’s goal is to be carbon free by 2050.
Other measures designed to limit the company’s greenhouse gas emissions include A M King’s implementation of heat recovery practices for the mechanical equipment in the process areas; installation of a Sage Glass glazing system that will adjust tint automatically to provide daylighting and thermal comfort for office occupants, preparation for a full rooftop solar array, and development of electric vehicle charging stations.
MÜNZING’s new Clover facility is GFSI (Global Food Safety Initiative) certified. The company is dedicated to ensuring the safety of their products by paying close attention to regulatory, health, and safety standards in the production of its additives, according to Manufacturing Outlook. “The company is a strong advocate of environmental sustainability, and gives extra attention to reducing the environmental impact of adhesives by developing certified water- and biopolymer-based additives. MÜNZING also provides zero and low-VOC additives, to limit the amount of chemicals released into the air during application or use.”
The scope of work on this project included design and construction of a 32,000-sq.-ft., 32-ft. tall Ford and Daley processing area; a 26,800-sq.-ft., 32-ft. tall warehouse with an automated guidewire system for forklift truck operations; a 10,000-sq.-ft. laboratory; an 8,000-sq.-ft. space for offices and employee welfare; a 4,500-sq.-ft. utility building; a 1,300-sq.-ft. tanker unloading expanse; as well as the entrance drives, truck staging area; nine dock positions and employee parking. Offices are adjacent to the laboratory space, where testing of the additives will be conducted. The office area has a combination of private offices and open office area with interior glass partitions, a communal breakroom and a large training room.
