Inaugural PIDA award winners

The winners of the 2017 Packaging & Processing Innovation and Design Awards have been announced at a gala dinner held at the Novotel Sydney Olympic Park.

Developed by the Australian Institute of Packaging (AIP), the Australian Packaging & Processing Machinery Association (APPMA) and the Packaging Council of New Zealand, the inaugural PIDA awards for Australia and New Zealand have been designed to recognise companies and individuals who are making a significant difference in their field.

And the winners are…

2017 Design Innovation of the Year Award — Health, Beauty & Wellness

Materials & Packaging Winner

Nestlé Health Science Australia and qDesign Enterprises for Nestlé Health Science Resource ThickenUp Hydration range with Innovative Sipper Lid. The project team engaged Arthritis Australia, speech pathologists and dieticians to assist on concept design to ensure the packaging meets consumers’ poor dexterity needs. In addition, the sipper lid has a specially designed cap to control flow and delivery of fluid, an easy-to-hold ridge and a tilted spout.

Machinery/Equipment Winner

HMPS for the HMPS6000 End Load Cartoner. HMPS designed a highly flexible packaging machine capable of packaging personal care products of different sizes, varying shapes and weights into a variety of case sizes in various configurations, at high speed with maximum productivity output.

2017 Design Innovation of the Year Award — Beverage Category

Materials & Packaging Winner

CHEP Australia for CHEP Retail Display Pallets (RDP) and Beverage Trays (BT). RDP and BT provide an alternative merchandising solution for the beverage category. A fully stocked RDP can hold 240 bottles of 1.25 L soft drink and replaces the 20 cardboard cartons that would normally be required to move them through the supply chain. The RDP can be filled at the manufacturer and then be moved right through to the shop floor and used to display the product. The top of the tray of the CHEP BT grips the base of the soft drink bottle while the underside includes moulding that encompasses the caps of the bottles beneath it. This system provides stability that allows the fully loaded RDP to move throughout the supply chain.

Machinery/Equipment Winner

Intralox for ARB Technology. Intralox’s Activated Roller Belt technology brings the benefits of modular plastic belting to complex package handling processes like sorting, merging and aligning.

2017 Design Innovation of the Year Award — Food Category

Materials & Packaging Winner

Australian Wholefoods for Levodo Grain Thin Crackers. The Levodo clear plastic packaging is an innovative design for the healthy biscuit category, which is traditionally dominated by cardboard boxes or plastic sleeves. The design is beneficial to product shelf life once the tamper-proof seal has been broken, and the tube can be used as a storage container for the remaining crackers. The branding is not destroyed when the pack is opened like traditional flow-wrapped products.

Machinery Equipment Category

Machinery/Equipment Winner

Heat and Control for E-FLO. The E-FLO allows producers to develop a healthier product for their customers by lowering the amount of acrylamide in potato products. The E-FLO uses pulse electric field (PEF) processing, or electroporation, to perforate the cell walls of potatoes, creating micro holes that allow asparagine and reducing sugars to be washed out of the potato in a cold water wash.

2017 Sustainable Packaging & Processing Award

Materials & Packaging — Transport Winner

Woolpack Australia for Woolcool. Woolcool is made of 100% sheep’s wool, a renewable resource that is biodegradable, sustainable, natural and compostable. This is ‘waste’ wool that cannot be used in fashion or in textiles/carpets because it is too coarse, it does not produce a comfortable garment and it won’t absorb dye. This wool has been used for housing insulation products and is now in this innovative packaging solution for transporting temperature-sensitive goods.

Materials & Packaging — Retail Primary Packaging Joint Winners

Plantic Technologies for the PLANTIC R Packaging Material. Plantic Technologies’ ultrahigh-barrier bioplastic material is manufactured using modern technology where thin layers of PET are adhered to a core layer of renewably sourced, ultrahigh-barrier PLANTIC HP sheet. The PLANTIC HP core provides an exceptional gas barrier and the PET provides a moisture/water vapour barrier to the structure. The material is versatile and suitable to most thermoforming and tray-sealing applications.

Pact Group for the rPET Moisturelock Meat Tray. Pact Group’s rPET (Recycled Polyethylene Terephthalate) Moisturelock Tray is a suitable alternative to the hard-to-dispose-of expanded polystyrene (EPS) meat trays. The tray comprises 50% recycled material and is accepted by every kerbside recycling scheme. The ‘dimples’ in the base of the tray hold fluid even when tilted or turned upside down, and the labour efficiencies achieved through removing the soaker pad equate to approximately 70,000 hours for the meat processor.

Pact Group was also awarded the custom EcodEX packaging environmental assessment, valued at $10,000. Empauer will implement its acclaimed EcodEX assessment and provide the winner with a reputable third-party environmental evaluation of the product package or formulation.

Machinery/Equipment Winner

Omni for the Omni Pallet Wrapping Solution. The Omni Stretch and Pallet Wrappers have the ability to reduce the amount of film used to wrap a pallet by up to 70%, resulting in substantial benefits to the environment. Using nanotechnology, the multilayer Omni Stretch Films allow users to wrap more pallets with less film.

2017 Save Food Packaging & Processing Award Winner

Fresh Technologies Ltd and Sealed Air Food Care for Fressure and Cryovac Freshness Plus. The combination of Fresh Technologies’ Cold High Pressure Processing (CHPP) and Cryovac Freshness Plus Active Barrier packaging has enabled Fresh Technologies to achieve a chilled shelf life of 90 days, a 60-day extension over existing passive high-barrier packaging technology. The CHPP recovers 100% of avocado flesh, leaving only the skin and seed.

Other winners announced on the night included the 2017 Industry Packaging & Processing Professional of the Year Award, which was jointly awarded to Paul Haberland FAIP, packaging manager, Nestlé Australia and Lester Nichol, managing director, Matthews Australasia. The 2017 APPMA Scholarship was awarded to Michael Van Dord, technical and design engineer, Caps and Closures. The 2017 Young Packaging & Processing Professional of the Year Award joint winners were Alexandra Brayshaw MAIP, accessible packaging researcher, Arthritis Australia and Nina Cleeve-Edwards MAIP, manager – Oceania Innovation Acceleration Team, Nestlé Australia.

The Packaging & Processing Innovation and Design Awards (PIDA) are the exclusive entry point for Australia and New Zealand for the prestigious WordStar Awards.