Milk in a Stick?

IMA Dairy & Food USA has helped Lakeland Dairies develop a creative new option to complement hot beverages: milk in a stick pack.

Currently being produced at Lakeland Dairy’s Ireland facility, the new aseptic product format is ideal for meeting both the efficiency and passenger service needs for a variety of sectors, most notably the commercial airline industry. Here, the stick packs help save crucial inflight weight by weighing up to 45 percent less than the typical mini cups that are traditionally used. And because the sticks are up to 50 percent less bulky than mini cups, they also require less storage space and produce less on-board waste.

Milk in a Stick also is consumer friendly, as the packages are easy-to-open, have contemporary styling, and use strong and flexible packing, making them more robust than mini cups. The longer, broader packaging format also affords upgraded branding opportunities when compared to mini cups.

Presently produced on an IMA Hassia SAS 20/30 Aseptic Pouch Form-Fill-Seal (FFS) machine, the machine can produce up to 24,000 packs per hour, ranging from 60-225mm in length, 26-80mm wide, at volumes of up to 250ml.

Designed and manufactured in accordance with international hygienic standards, the SAS 20/30 FFS machine can operate as many as eight lanes. After manufacturing the aseptic stick packs by sterilizing foil on all sides, the machine then fills and seals these pouches under aseptic conditions in a sterile tunnel.

Source: IMA Dairy & Food.