Unilever's Breyers brand created a new ice cream product based on new processing technology that swirls extra silky, smooth ice cream together with a range of indulgent toppings. Marketed under the Swirls subbrand, packaging sells the ice cream's distinctive design pattern to consumers.

Smith Design created the identity and label design for the line of quarts in six flavors. The Swirls brand name, printed in whimsical typography on the label, highlights the product's swirl effect, evident through the clear plastic container.

Mouth-watering illustrations of fruit and toppings call attention to the ice cream's "freshly made" ingredients and accentuate the product's eye appeal at the point of sale.

Unilever's Breyers brand created a new ice cream product based on new processing technology that swirls extra silky, smooth ice cream together with a range of indulgent toppings. Marketed under the Swirls subbrand, packaging sells the ice cream's distinctive design pattern to consumers.

The emphasis on convenience drives so many food packaging decisions today, and it may have a greater influence on the packages we see in the future than anything else out there. The following are new examples in the battle for shelf supremacy in convenience packaging:

Foodservice company Raw Seafoods has plunged into retail markets with its Cape Cod Cuisine frozen foods, and Kane Kendall, Director of Marketing, says, “It’s been a totally different ballgame.”

With the laminated paperboard tray the company has chosen, the New Bedford, MA, fish packer is making an innovative splash in the dual-ovenable market. Eight products in the line use trays laminated with a polyester film of thin patterned aluminum, which harnesses and controls microwave energy by channeling it deeper into the frozen food for faster, more even heating. The tray technology comes from Graphic Packaging International.

The 8”x5 1/2”x1 5/8” tray is made from SBS board laminated with polyester/aluminum film. During microwave heating, the aluminum areas reflect the microwave energy into other areas while unshielded areas heat normally.

The complex honeycomb pattern of aluminum keeps edges from crisping while driving energy into the center of the entrée or other food product.

Grupo Ayecue, a manufacturer and marketer of mushrooms in Spain, exports its mushrooms in new flat and stand-up retort pouches.

The company says the pouches enhance the visual “real estate” and maintain product freshness through a longer distribution cycle. A layer of polyester provides thermal resistance and the right surface for the razor-sharp photography and illustrations. Printing is done in gravure in seven colors to reinforce the freshness message.

The seven-layer pouch resists breaking and puncturing and “guarantees that our products reach the market in optimal condition,” explains Yolanda Parra, Marketing Manager.