The u.s. Dairy industry is gradually shifting to flexible plastics and offering new singleserve packaging for ice cream, part of a potential equipment purchasing spree documented by a new study from the packaging machinery manufacturers institute pmmi. The newly released study of 40 top u.s. Dairy processors, associations, and suppliers showed some interesting trends. In liquid milk and viscous products such as yogurt, dairies are moving toward or at least considering a shift to pouches, according to the pmmi study. The move comes as dairies look to more shelfstable products, some of which will be in aseptic packaging, and consider cost reductions and lightweighting initiatives. The trend toward single serve has also emerged for ice cream containers, with large producers such as ben & jerry&rsquos and its haagendazs brand now offering singleserve, polycoated paper cups with an injection molded plastic spoon. Those containers, selling for less than a dollar, also are part of a trend toward a squareround package shape, called a &ldquoscround.&rdquo those packages typically are rectangular with rounded corners or with a racetrack oval, offering a smaller size for cube efficiency. The dairy industry is an important growth driver for beverages. Sales of dairy products in the united states increased 2 percent in 2008, even though prices went up 9 percent, and is a 50bn annual business, according to the international dairy foods association.
