Arla has unveiled a new programme designed to bring higher animal welfare and sustainability standards to its branded milk. Arla CARE, which stands for Cooperative, Animal Welfare, Renewable Energy and Ecosystem, will be a requirement for all of its farmer owners producing milk for the Cravendale, BOB and Big Milk brands. The programme will see a new on-pack logo introduced across these ranges. Producers will have to meet the standards that constitute Arla UK 360 – a programme introduced in 2018 that is designed to drive sustainable business in the farming sector – as well as an additional requirement regarding grazing. Arla UK 360 is comprised of 12 standards, covering areas including biodiversity, restoring natural ecosystems and reducing energy usage on farms. Paul Savage, director of agriculture at Arla UK, said: “By introducing some of our highest welfare standards onto our branded milk ranges, we can provide shoppers with the knowledge that... been produced with welfare and nature at the heart”. The CARE programme is the most recent development in Arla’s efforts towards reaching its climate targets, which include being carbon net zero by 2050. Arla Foods also recently announced the introduction of a €500 million sustainability incentive scheme that will pay its farmers more for their milk if they reduce emissions on their farms.

Secret Island Salmon has launched a new range of innovative salmon products including salmon hotdogs, salmon bacon and salmon burgers. The rollout contributes to Secret Island Salmon’s mission to elevate traditional seafood offerings and make sustainable seafood available to all. Sourced from cold waters off the coast of Chilean Patagonia, the salmon is flash-frozen within hours of harvest to ensure peak freshness. The brand’s vertically-integrated operations offer 100% traceability on its sourcing practices. The new products are Atlantic Salmon Hotdogs, Smoked Coho Salmon Bacon, Atlantic Salmon Burgers, Blackened Salmon, Whiskey Teriyaki Salmon, Cold Smoked Coho Salmon and Coho Salmon. “These products provide the flavours, varieties and prices that will allow our salmon to become a delicious, healthy mainstay of our customers’ meals,” says Daniel Del Coro, Secret Island Salmon’s head of US business development. “Our fish has been fed, raised and processed to meet today’s highest aquaculture standards.” The products are available for purchase on the brand’s website, either individually or as part of newly created salmon bundles.

Flexicon has launched a new manual dumping system featuring an integral conveyor and separate dust collector. The system will be suitable for dairy powders, pharmaceutical products and contamination sensitive bulk foods. Designed and finished to 3-A sanitary standards, the system is comprised of a manual dumping station with surge hopper, flexible screw conveyor and support boom on a castor-mounted frame, as well as a separate mobile dust collection system that can be configured alongside or remotely. The mobile system can serve multiple functions throughout the plant, and then be rolled to a wash-down station and storage area. The stand-alone dust collector is equipped with an automatic reverse-pulse filter cleaning system with stainless steel air reservoir rated at 99.99% collection efficiency for materials with particle sizes of five microns or greater.

Fonterra has released a new 'sustainable finance framework' that aims to align the company's funding strategy with its environmental ambitions. The framework has been developed with joint sustainability coordinators, HSBC and Westpac NZ, and has been independently verified to confirm its alignment with globally agreed sustainable finance principles. The document outlines how the cooperative intends to issue and manage any sustainable debt, such as green bonds and sustainability linked bonds and loans. Simon Till, director of capital markets at Fonterra, said: “Over the next decade, we intend to significantly increase our investment in sustainability related activities and assets throughout our supply chain to both mitigate environmental risks and continue to differentiate our New Zealand milk”. “By FY30 we intend to invest around NZD 1 billion in reducing carbon emissions and improving water efficiency and treatment at our manufacturing sites. In doing so, we will be taking significant steps towards our aspiration to be net zero by 2050 and we plan to align our funding with this approach.” The cooperative says that it is making solid progress on its sustainability targets. “Fonterra’s greenhouse gas emissions are 11.2% lower than FY18 and well on their way to our goal of 30% by 2030,” said Fonterra COO, Fraser Whineray. “With our supplier owners, we are ahead of target for delivery of farm environment plans (FEPs), with 71% of farmers now having plans, on track for 100% by 2025.” Fonterra is also working with partners and stakeholders to reduce biological emissions, and the company, along with other agribusiness players, recently entered into a joint venture with the New Zealand government to take action on agricultural emissions. As part of the understanding, industry partners have made an indicative commitment of up to NZD 35 million. This could result in NZD 172 million being invested over the next four years to develop practical tools and technologies for farmers. “Over the next four years, we’re looking to scale up investment in methane reduction of around NZD 50 million through this joint venture. We know we can, with the government, achieve more by partnering with others and are looking forward to working together to find solutions that will benefit our farmer owners along with the rest of New Zealand,” added Whineray.

Beverage contract manufacturer Refresco is expanding its global footprint with an agreement to purchase Tru Blu Beverages. The Australian company offers a wide range of beverage solutions for global and national brands as well as retailers’ private labels. With the deal, Refresco obtains a national Australian market position, with a view to further expansion in the region – both organically and through acquisitions. Refresco CEO, Hans Roelofs, commented: “The acquisition of Tru Blu Beverages in Australia creates a new platform for Refresco, in line with our strategic promise to expand into a third continent”. “The three strategically located manufacturing sites are the starting point for our future footprint in the region.” Tru Blu Beverages CEO, Peter Brooks, said: “By joining Refresco, our customers, suppliers and employees will be able to benefit from the company’s broad capabilities, experience and expertise”. He added: “Tru Blu Beverages’ leading capabilities and blue-chip customer base give Refresco a solid entrance into the Australian market. We look forward to building an even stronger platform together.” The transaction is subject to regulatory approval. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Nestlé’s Outshine has released new, blender-free Smoothie Cubes made with B vitamins, fibre and vital proteins collagen peptides. The Outshine Smoothie Cubes currently come in three different flavours, including The Go-getter featuring mango, banana, pineapple, papaya, date paste, beet juice, a touch of chia and B vitamins. The Glow To is a green smoothie made with banana, pineapple, mango, date paste, spinach, kale, kiwi, cucumber, a touch of chia seed. The Gut Supporter is another flavour featured in the collection made with strawberries, banana, coconut cream, carrot juice, date paste, beet juice, a touch of chia seed and fibre. “Our consumers are constantly looking for convenient, nutritious options to support their busy lifestyles,” said Jamie Harbeck, senior Manager of New Business Ventures at Nestlé US. Harbeck continued: “With Outshine Smoothie Cubes, we found a new way to deliver the quality and ease of an out-of-home smoothie without the hassle and mess that comes with conventional, homemade smoothies.” Each serving contains 15 grams of total sugar or less, zero grams of added sugars, no artificial flavours or colours, and no GMO ingredients. The Smoothie Cubes are available at US stores for a suggested retail price of $6.99-$7.49.

Hovis has announced that former Müller UK & Ireland CEO, Jon Jenkins, is joining the company as its new CEO. Jenkins will formally take over the role from interim CEO, Robert Higginson, on 31 October. He is said to bring over 30 years of experience in the FMCG sector, including from his most recent post at Müller and 15 years at Associated British Foods. “Hovis is an iconic British brand with a loyal following and a place in the heart of many homes," said Jenkins. “I am proud and excited to lead the brand and be part of its future.” At the end of 2020, the bakery brand was acquired by private equity firm Endless for an undisclosed sum. Jenkins continued: “Under the ownership of Endless and with a strong foundation already in place, I am excited to work with the team in delivering the next stage of growth for the brand”. Aidan Robson, partner at Endless, said: “We are delighted to have Jon join the Hovis leadership team and believe his experience in the FMCG industry as well as in the bakery industry will be invaluable”. Robson added: “We have a strong brand, and while we face the same inflationary challenges as the wider industry, Hovis is well placed to ensure continued sustainable growth”.

Finnish dairy and food company Valio has created a new milk chocolate bar using artificial intelligence. “The Bar” is designed by humans, and its recipe is based on AI analysis of milk chocolate lovers’ thoughts, cravings, and tastes worldwide. Valio created the futuristic concept together with local chocolate artists of Kultasuklaa company. The Bar is a proof of concept of what the dairy company's milk powder solution can do and what the future of milk chocolate could look like through the use of AI. Valio’s senior vice president, Timo Pajari said: “The needs and preferences of global milk chocolate fans are changing. Growing awareness of health challenges affects the confectionery industry with governments around the world already starting to regulate sugar use and consumption. With our Valio Bettersweet solution, the taste remains the same even though the amount of sugar is reduced.” Last spring the company used AI to analyse over 1.5 million public milk chocolate-related social media discussions around the world and surveyed hundreds of people about their preferences regarding chocolate. The AI analysis was produced by the Finnish company Aiwo Digital in cooperation with Valio’s consumer insight team. The recipe for healthier chocolate was based on AI’s findings which resulted in five different chocolates with less sugar. Each chocolate layer has a different taste and texture designed to fit a different use case: impulse, craving, delight, hunger and relaxation. The topographic design of the bar designed by professional designers allows the layers to be easily separated.

Pernod Ricard is strengthening its agave portfolio by acquiring a majority shareholding in Código 1530 Tequila, a range of ultra-premium tequilas. Produced in Jalisco, Mexico, Código is available in 50 states across the US and is present in more than 30 international markets. Following the deal, Pernod Ricard aims to use its distribution expertise in premium brands to accelerate Código’s global development. Código co-founder, Ron Snyder, said: “We are thrilled to join forces with such a savvy international powerhouse like Pernod Ricard. Our goal for Código has always been to produce and share the best possible tequila.” Alexandre Ricard, chairman and CEO of Pernod Ricard, said: “Código’s range of exquisite tequilas reinforces our offer of ultra premium+ agave products in the US, where the category is enjoying very strong momentum. It is a privilege to partner with Ron Snyder, Federico Vaughan and George Strait with whom we share a common vision for Código 1530 and a common ambition to strongly accelerate and strengthen the success of the brand.” The acquisition sees Pernod Ricard expand and diversify its portfolio of tequila brands, which also includes Olmeca, Altos and Avion. The strengthening of the agave portfolio follows Pernod’s recent investment in the Mexican spirit category through its acquisition of a minority stake in the Nocheluna brand. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Personalised nutrition platform Vitl has launched a range of targeted vitamin and protein bars to keep consumers energised and invigorated. The bars contain a different combination of vitamins, with each one designed to be a supplement to support a person’s well-being, including Glow, a dark chocolate and raspberry bar with collagen, peptides, zinc and selenium; Energy, a salted caramel bar packed with vitamins including B3, B5, iodine and magnesium; and Focus, a chocolate brownie bar vitamin B5, zinc and iodine. Each low-sugar bar contains 14g of protein, is packed with vitamins and nutrients like zinc and magnesium and is only 143 calories. Jonathan Relph, founder and CEO of Vitl, commented: “A first of its kind for Vitl, we spent over two years perfecting the recipe, to create a delicious bar that not only tastes great but has functional benefits too. Designed in a convenient packet, they are perfect for on-the-go snacking, whether that’s before a gym class, as an afternoon pick-me-up, or as a healthier swap for chocolate.” The new bars are available to purchase on the company website as well as online retailer Amazon for an RRP of £9.95 for a box of 6.

In Ballyneety, County Limerick, the luscious green, rolling landscape of the beautiful Irish countryside is the backdrop to one of the most modern bottling plants of spring water in Europe: Ishka Irish Spring Water. The company, founded in 1978 by Michael Sutton Sr thanks to a brilliant family idea, is today a multimillion-euro company managed by Mike and Denis Sutton, sons of the founder. Every hour the plant, consisting of four fully automated lines built in partnership with SMI, produces over 40,000 bottles of spring water, with the utmost attention paid to the care and preservation of the surrounding environment. Growing together: A long-standing partnership The collaboration between Ishka and SMI began about 15 years ago with the purchase of an SK300F shrinkwrapper, currently installed on production Line 1, dedicated to the packaging of 250ml, 500ml, 750ml, 1.5l and 2l bottles. In 2017, on the occasion of the opening of the SMI UK & Ireland branch based in Manchester, UK, the Sutton brothers turned to SMI for the expansion of their plants. In particular, the new investment of several million euros in 2020, concerned the installation of a new bottling line to increase the production of the 5l format, which is in great market demand. A high-quality project, the implementation of which was entrusted to SMI; the latter provided a ‘turnkey’ solution, which also involved a new bottle design discarding the traditional square shape and launching a new cylindrical bottle. An innovative choice that allowed the Irish company to reduce the amount of PET in each bottle, and to align the appearance of the 5-litre container with that of the other elegant Ishka bottles of smaller capacity. Eco-sustainable solutions that look to the future Plastic bottle caps represent 10% of plastic waste found on beaches and the European directive 2019/904 on single-use plastics, includes a provision to regulate their recycling along with the rest of the bottle; for this reason, the caps of PET bottles must now remain attached to the containers (tethered cap). Driven by the goal of drastically reducing plastic pollution, and anticipating by three years the coming into force of the EU rules, Ishka Irish Spring Water started to successfully introduce this type of cap in September 2021, becoming the first bottled water company in Ireland to implement the directive. SMI solutions for the 5l production line SMI developed the image of the new bottle starting from Ishka specifications and designed an extremely efficient production line for this particular 5-litre container, which has allowed Ishka to increase plant capacity by over 50%. The expansion project of the Irish company, made it necessary to upgrade the existing line, this involved replacing the old linear blow moulder with a modern integrated SMI Ecobloc® system, consisting of a 3-cavity rotary blow moulder, an electronic filler and a capper. Main advantages: This system upgrade permitted the installation of a faster and more efficient stretch-blow moulding and filling system, while at the same time maintaining a compact footprint, thanks to the fact that no conveyor belts are necessary between the blow moulder and the filler. The new project also posed a challenge in secondary packaging, as Ishka required shrink film pack formats in 2×1 and 3×1 and a large (4×5) tray format to make a half pallet pack. SMI was able to satisfy customer requests without any problems thanks to the versatility of the SK502T ERGON shrinkwrapper, a twin lane machine, suitable for secondary packaging in trays with and without film, equipped with an optional system to also produce packs in film only. The SK502T Ergon shrinkwrapper is used to create a format consisting of a half-pallet display tray without shrink film. The packaging system groups 20 bottles in a 4×5 pattern, then forms a tray around the bottles, starting from a flat blank; Subsequently, the package thus created, is palletised and sent to supermarkets, ready for display. This secondary packaging solution offers a great economic advantage to Ishka: instead of the traditional packaging solution, which used two separate machines (one for wrapping in film and one for creating ‘maxi’ trays), SMI proposed a solution consisting of a single automatic packaging machine, capable of performing both processes and, at the same time, occupying less space inside the production line. The 2×1 and 3×1 pack sizes in film only, are made by the same packaging system, which, after the format change which takes about 1 hour, is able to quickly switch from the production of large sizes in tray only, to small formats in shrink film. The packs in film only, can be equipped with an external handle to make them more manageable and easier to carry. The palletising system requested by Ishka also had to have the same flexibility as the rest of the line and for these reasons, SMI designed the end-of-line in such a way as to be able to manage both the small 2×1 and 3×1 multiple packs and the half-pallet tray format, which are automatically placed on a standard UK pallet for warehouse storage. In 2018, Ishka expanded the production of small, format bottles in PET by installing another 16,000bph production line for 250ml and 500ml formats at the Ballyneety plant. Thanks to the validity of the partnership with SMI, the Irish company relied on the ‘made in Italy’ technology for their new plant, focusing on a ‘turnkey’ solution for end-of-line packaging, from the existing labelling machine up to the new palletising system. By combining a CSK42F Ergon twin lane shrink wrapper and an LSK30F Ergon shrinkwrapper to re-pack in film only, SMI provided Ishka with the ideal solution to easily create ‘pack-in-pack’ packages for large distribution. An example is represented by the 3×2, 500ml bottle in film only, which is formed initially in twin lane on the CSK42F Ergon packaging machine and then grouped into 4 packs, on the second packer the LSK30, from which the ‘pack-in-pack’ is ready to be palletised and efficiently distributed to the network of supermarkets, hypermarkets and stores served by the Irish company. The SMI APS 1550 Ergon palletising system offers a flexible quick-change solution to create a wide range of PET bottle packs in both 250ml and 500ml. The machine manages half pallets, euro-pallets and UK pallets and has an optional system that automatically loads the half pallets, on standard pallets for storage in the warehouse. Where it all began… The beginning of the partnership between Ishka and SMI began with Line 1 of the Ballyneety plant, the 16,000bph PET line, currently dedicated to the production of 250ml, 500ml, 750ml, 1.5l and 2l bottles, inside which the SK300F shrinkwrapper has been in operation since 2009. Thanks to the satisfactory results obtained with this machine, in 2017 the Irish company decided to invest in a new SMI SR 8 rotary stretch blow moulder, to increase the production capacity of ISHKA’s first line, which has been in operation for many years. The installation was a huge challenge for the technical teams of SMI and Ishka, because the new blow molding system had to be placed within the existing production line, minimising the downtime of the water bottling and packaging activity. The careful planning of the entire operation, the close collaboration between the two companies and the timely execution of the various steps, made it possible to successfully complete the upgrade of the plant, further consolidating the relationship of trust between Ishka and the local branch of the SMI Group. To find out more, click here. #bottledwater #SMI #PET #Ishka #blowmolding

Sidel, a provider of equipment, services and solutions for packaging, has opened a new hub dedicated to PET recycling in Octeville, France. At its small-scale PET recycling pilot line, Sidel will develop its understanding within the field with the aim of giving comprehensive support to the market as it transitions to greater use of recycled PET (rPET). The line will enable Sidel to develop its knowledge about the recycling of food-contact PET bottles. The company will assess the impact of additives and primary packaging materials on rPET resin and aims for the facility to become a reference for raw material producers, recyclers and recycling regulatory organisations. Sidel global packaging expert, Naima Boutroy, said: "There is a big move towards recycled PET, but demand is outstripping supply". Boutroy continued: “The market still has a lot to learn and we can provide valuable insights. There is variability in recycled PET resin grades, and standardisation is still in development. We need to address this to create the best possible finished bottles. Our line will test the recyclability of post-consumer PET bottles from different feedstocks, including additives and caps as well as labels, inks and glue. "We will be working with traditional Sidel customers such as brand owners, converters and co-packers, as well as other suppliers like raw material producers, recyclers and regulatory organisations, to enable the scaling-up of rPET capacity. We can also check if any innovations comply with bottle-to-bottle recycling." Sidel will give the packaging industry the opportunity to access a fully equipped pilot line. This line covers every step of the recycling process: from washing, drying and pellet extrusion, to solid-state polymerisation.