Murray's Chicken, New City, NY, is elevating eco-awareness to a higher level in case-ready meat by introducing a film package for fresh poultry that eliminates the use of polystyrene foam trays.

"If you've ever searched a cluttered cabinet for one elusive spice and felt as if you are conducting an archeological dig, then you're ready for 'spice enlightenment,'" say Katie Luber and Sara Engram, self-proclaimed "cardaMoms" and Founders of TSP Spices Inc., Atlanta, GA.

New packages coming on the market demonstrate that the move toward incorporating sustainability goals is accelerating. Kraft Foods is one company working to reduce the environmental impact of its packaging materials.

Home-meal replacement moves a notch higher in Sweden with environmentally friendly trays on ready-made meals from Gunnar Dafgard AB. Billy's Lasagne chilled meals come in molded wood-pulp packaging.

Well-executed packaging graphics can "sell the taste." In the highly competitive chilled-foods aisle, f'REAL! Foods, Orinda, CA, achieved this objective when switching from preprinted cups to shrink sleeves for its 10-oz serving of frozen dairy products sold at convenience stores. The family line uses polyvinyl chloride sleeves, provided by Fort Dearborn, gravure-printed in nine colors to maximize visual impact through the glass doors of cooler cases.

Counterfeiting in all shapes and sizes has spun badly out of control. In response, packaging and brand protection departments at packaged goods manufacturers are seeking ways to keep counterfeiting from doing further damage.

Clarity in communicating what a product does is crucial when product and category are unique. Consider aquaICE, Dublin, OH. The company took a fresh look at its premium ice cubes in the shelf-stable form of purified water filled into sealed trays and boxed for sale. At home, consumers freeze the trays as needed and place the cubes directly in beverages.

In southeast China, packaging for food that can spoil has to work doubly hard. Beyond brand communication, it has to protect the product from the region ’ s heat and humidity.

Experience is the best teacher, they say. And because this adage is as true in packaging as it is anywhere else, Packaging World magazine used it as the basis for an exclusive online survey conducted this spring when Packworld.com asked packaging professionals for their wisdom, insights, and “eureka” moments.