Panera Bread has announced a suite of new, elevated packaging for its line of grocery products, along with the launch of several new additions to its product portfolio.
Everybody heard the anecdotal stories about the huge increase in demand for packaging equipment during the pandemic, but PMMI recently released a survey that documented how sales grew 40% between 2019 and 2022, noted Jorge Izquierdo, vice president, market development, PMMI, the association for packaging and processing technologies, during the recent Pack Expo held in Chicago.
In the post-COVID world, consumers want their fresh produce in packaging where it hasn’t been touched while on the store shelf, said Crystal Chavez, marketing coordinator of Santa Maria, Calif.-based Gold Coast Packing.
Novacart USA, which manufactures innovative bakeable paper packaging for the bakery, grocery and foodservice industries, has expanded its operations with the addition of a 72,000 square foot distribution center.
Fresh produce grower, marketer and distributor Oppy is set to deliver 6.2 million packages of Brazilian Cotton Candy grapes by the end of 2022, a new record for the company. Oppy plans to continue to increase volume throughout the next few years.
The Northeast Dairy Business Innovation Center announced five dairy processors are set to receive a total of $1.1 million in funding through the Dairy Product Packaging Innovation Grant.