by anne marie mohan, senior editor, packaging world enlargenew frontier foods, a san francisco areabased company offering a line of five flavored snack chips made from natural, sustainably harvested, and nutrientrich seaweed, has chosen to use a flexible pouch package for its chips made from innovia films&rsquo natureflex&trade biobased packaging. derived from sustainable wood pulp, natureflex is certified compostable and is said to offer excellent barriers to oxygen and moisture.when looking at packaging options, new frontier felt that the package should reflect their core values while also providing superior protection for their ocean&rsquos halo seaweed chips. in order to maintain the crunch of the chips, it was critical to guard against moisture vapor. a high barrier to oxygen was also necessary to extend shelf life. furthermore, the packaging needed to match the ocean&rsquos halo brand identity.related pack expo east brings toptier suppliers and innovations to philadelphia, feb 16 18 »says robert mock, cofounder of ocean&rsquos halo, &ldquowe were introduced to innovia films&rsquo compostable packaging alternative, natureflex, by genpak, a leading food packaging company with manufacturing locations in both the u.s. and canada. over the past two years, we have built a great partnership with genpak to bring our products to market with not only highquality material, but also with a likeminded approach to the environment.&rdquo&ldquowhen we were faced with packaging choices, we were 100percent committed to choosing compostable bags because it&rsquos the right thing to do,&rdquo adds ocean&rsquos halo cofounder mike shim. &ldquohealth and sustainability is one of our pledges to our customers, and compostable bags are an integral part of that pledge.&rdquosays bill reilly, development manager with genpak, &ldquoour challenge was to develop a structure that provides excellent barrier properties and works well on the packaging equipment.ocean&rsquos halo, innovia, and genpak worked together closely to develop this functional and completely compostable structure.&rdquoocean&rsquos halo seaweed chips are currently available at select whole foods markets in the northeast, midwest, north atlantic, and the bay area heb stores in texas sprouts on the west coast, southwest, and midwest 340 safeway and vons stores across california a variety of independent markets and all nine locations of texas grocery chain central market. ocean&rsquos halo is also available nationwide at amazon.com. the chips are available in five glutenfree flavors chili lime, sea salt, korean bbq, hot & spicy, and texas bbq. 
