Bottling is more than just a vessel for precious formulations; it can be a thoughtful and creative part of the experience provided to consumers.For example, the maker of Aleve in its 100-caplet bottle features its logo, raised, on both sides. It imparts a sense of reassurance to the consumer who chooses it, and the little extra tactile sensation when gripping the bottle.

Although many do not give bottles much attention, consider the fact that just one container supplier, New Yorkbased SKS Bottles & Packaging, provides more than 6,000 containers and closures— from blue, amber and clear glass bottles, to green, amber and natural plastic bottles and jars. Additionally, each container has an assortment of closure styles and colors. One can then begin to see that the physical enclosure of a product is a significant decision.

Further, there are several prevalent issues, challenges and concerns that enter the mix—one doesn’t just pick the best-looking bottle and closure that magnifies or supports branding.

According to Marny Bielefeldt, director of marketing with Missouri-based Alpha Packaging, container manufacturers must have the ability to meet a company’s need to comply with environmental standards that can be very strict, such as California’s Extended Producer laws.“We are getting a lot of requests to ‘light-weight’ our bottles by 10 percent or more, and there is a fine line that you have to manage when light-weighting rigid packaging for the nutritional supplement industry, since the bottles must be able to be filled and labeled at very high speeds, and be strong enough to withstand stacking during shipping and at retail,” she shared.

Ron Seibold, president of Pines International in Kansas, a veteran manufacturer and brand marketer of greenfoods supplements, sees the “glass versus plastic” argument as having tremendous resonance and importance; he is a staunch believer in using glass bottles always, notably in the natural foods specialty marketplace, he said. “By not using glass, companies can promise bigger profits to stores than the same product packaged by another company in glass. Stores and chains that put profits over quality, push and promoted plastic containers, while products in glass are not promoted because the companies that produce them cannot offer as much profit and as many ‘deals’ to the store.”

If the price of oil remains somewhat stable, he added, petrochemical-based plastic will continue to cost less per container than glass, as well as costing less to ship with less breakage and less need for additional packaging to prevent breakage.

To validate his preference for glass over plastic, Seibold and his staff performed an experiment, based on seeing electron microscopic photos showing the porosity of plastic compared to glass. Seibold measured the moisture content of a powder and then put some of it in glass containers and some into various plastic containers, fastening each tightly with the caps that came with the bottles. He placed both in a steam room for an hour, after which he said he found no increase in moisture for glass with metal caps and tight fitting seals, “but powders in other packaging showed significant increases in moisture content. That means humidity was getting into the container, “he said.” If humidity gets into the container, then outside air with oxygen gets into it as well. Flushing such a container with nitrogen is an exercise in futility, but it sounds impressive. Only glass bottles with tight-fitting metal caps can be sealed with an oxygen-free environment that will be undisturbed until the bottle is opened by the consumer.”

Plastic Hurdles 

One challenge in plastic bottles is called paneling. According to bottling specialist New Jersey-based O. Berk, “Paneling Occurs when the pressure inside a plastic bottle becomes less than the ambient air pressure outside, causing the walls of the bottle to partially collapse inward. The result is an aesthetically unappealing product package with a distorted shape and badly puckered or wrinkled labels.

Research has shown that a consumer’s first reaction to a bottle affected by paneling is often, ‘There must be something wrong with it,’ potentially leading to a loss of business and damage to the brand. Fortunately, the causes of paneling are easy to identify and just as easy to avoid.” 

There are five common causes to paneling: temperature/pressure change, oxygen absorption and reaction, gas permeation through bottle walls, fill processing and environmental conditions. O. Berk assures it can assess the situation and fix the problem.

Another challenge, explained Seibold, is keeping contents fresh through potentially lengthy shelf lives; the consumer purchases the product but doesn’t use it immediately, or uses it occasionally, and the product may have been on the store shelf for awhile. “If a company wants to keep a product fresh, the only way to do that is to vacuum out all of the air and replace it with an oxygen-free atmosphere. The only way to seal in such an atmosphere is with glass bottles and special metal caps with tight-fitting seals,” he said, adding that the most common oxygen-free atmosphere to use is nitrogen. “Nitrogen flushing is not nearly as effective as vacuuming out the air and replacing it with a oxygen-free atmosphere. It does very little to keep a product fresh, especially if the product is not packaged in glass.” 

Once a glass container contains oxygen- free atmosphere, Seibold noted, metal caps with tight-fitting seals will keep outside air and humidity from leaking into the bottle. Paper, plastic and/or foil seals, he asserted, will not prevent outside air and humidity from seeping into a container. This may be especially important in regions of the country that experience very high humidity.

Innovations 

There is always something interesting going on in the world of bottling and packaging, and often supplement trends themselves drive novel containers and packaging.

Alpha’s executives have seen a dramatic increase in the number of dietary supplements that are in gummy form instead of traditional tablet or capsule form, said Bielefeldt. What began as primarily a children’s vitamin supplement format is now, undeniably, equally popular with adults. Today every type of supplement from multivitamins to immunesupport to fiber can be found in an easyto- chew—and often quite tasty—format.

“Therefore, the gummy trend has created a need for wider-mouth, straightsided packaging, since gummies are both larger than most traditional supplements and also well, gummier as they tend to adhere to one another,” Beilefeldt explained. “The wider mouth allows the consumer to get his or her fingers into the container to pick out individual vitamins, and the straighter sides also make it easier to pour gummies out of the container.

“Most of the gummy packaging that we make at Alpha Packaging is clear PET (polyethylene terephthalate), because the gummy vitamins are usually brightly colored, and the brand owners want people to see the product inside the package,” she added. “Some brands shrink-wrap the entire bottle, but leave a clear window in the package so you can still see the product inside.” 

California-based Nordic Naturals’ Omega-3 Jellies for children are fishshaped jelly supplements. Instead of going the bottling route, and aiming for more totable convenience, the company decided to package each in corresponding fishie-molded coverings, nine per blister sheet; four sheets per box.

Ecologic Brands Inc. in California innovated in 2011 with its eco.canister, a hybrid fiber-plastic product that uses up to 70 percent less plastic than traditional plastic containers, with a molded fiber shell that is 100 percent recyclable and compostable. It is suitable for powdered supplements, especially those such as protein powders where the dose is a large scoop or two up to twice daily. The brand marketer, Winnipeg, Canadabased The Winning Combination, a sports and fitness nutrition company, relaunched its Bodylogix protein powders encased in the two-pound eco.canister, from a previous rigid, high-density polyethylene canister. Its look, according to the company, showcases a natural, sustainable appeal.

According to PrivateLabelNutra.com, kits are trending, necessitating bottling bundling; it is a convenient way to corral typical supplements a consumer may purchase at once to address a health concern. According to the website, “providing a comprehensive package provides the opportunity to market multiple products and increase profits. Product value can be further increased by providing supplemental marketing collateral detailing the products and dosing plan. For example, a kit marketed for weight loss may contain a meal replacement shake powder, a supplement to help boost the metabolic system and a multivitamin, as well as an educational pamphlet. Kits can be targeted toward specific age groups, genders or psychographic/ demographic qualities, such as sports performance products or sexual enhancement and stamina kits.” 

Talking it Through 

When one is formulating their next launch or line extension, the bottling and packaging factor can be addressed at nearly any stage with the contract packager. Bielefeldt noted that Alpha Packaging’s team asks a wide variety of pointed questions, and the answers guide the design and engineering process. “Is it a powder, a tablet or a liquid? How will it be dispensed, and has a specific closure been selected? Does the bottle need to be squeezable, or should it be rigid? All of these affect the selection of the material, and that is why most of our stock lines for the supplement industry are available in both HDPE and PET,” she said. “If the contents of the bottle are unattractive, you may want an opaque PET or HDPE bottle, but if you want the contents to show, then you would want a clear or transparent PET. Also, if you have a powdered supplement that settles a lot after it is filled, you want something opaque or fully labeled to disguise the fact that the bottle looks partially filled by the time it reaches the consumer.” 

Brand marketers are encouraged to think creatively, such as the Nordic Naturals example, and also think sustainably, such as Seibold’s ecologically advantageous selection of glass. No matter the choice, the vessel in which a formula is contained is almost as important as the formula itself.

FORMOREINFORMATION:

■ Alpha Packaging, (800) 421-4772
■ Ecologic Brands Inc., (510) 451-1197
■ O. Berk, (908) 851-9500
■ Pines International, (785) 841-6016
■ SKS Bottles & Packaging, (518) 880-6980