Packaging Solutions
United Caps has announced an exclusive partnership with start up Mimica, which has resulted in an innovative closure that is a breakthrough in freshness food labels, creating accessible, affordable freshness indicators for all types of perishable products, from food to pharmaceuticals. The goal is to reduce food waste and increase consumer food safety.
‘Throughout our history,’ said CEO Benoit Henckes, ‘we have invested heavily in innovation and research and development, and we view this innovation from Mimica as a game changer, one that has a profound effect on how caps are used, their contribution to the reduction of waste and carbon emissions and their ability to drive purchase.’
The concept for Mimica Touchcap begun as a design project for Mimica’s founder, Solveiga Pakštaitė, to make expiry dates inclusive to visually impaired people, before realising that expiry dates also drive large amounts of food waste. What if, she thought, there were a way to create a label that not only provided real time information about the condition of food but could also be easily accessible to the visually impaired and cognitively challenged. The result: Mimica Touchcap, a freshness indicator that changes from smooth to bumpy if a product is no longer fresh.
With extensive testing and experimentation, Solveiga Pakštaitė was able to calibrate a gel that never comes into contact with the product yet enables a specialised label to change from smooth to bumpy based on storage conditions and food profile. Working in partnership, the United Caps and Mimica teams were able to develop a fully recyclable cap that does not affect bottle recyclability yet offers a fast, easy way for a consumer to ensure food quality is still good.
The result? A sustainable closure that consists of a base cap and over cap from United Caps, the activator and gel invented by Mimica, a bumps tray and the top foil label that becomes bumpy as food deteriorates. The Mimica cap arrives at the filling line in two parts: the base cap, which has been tested by key filling line manufacturers and requires only minimal changes to the filling line; and the over cap which is applied after the filling process with a dedicated machine integrated into the production flow like other modules such as labelling or film wrapping. The top cap, where the bumps will appear is dormant until it is activated by the consumer which happens automatically when the cap is twisted open for the first time.
The cap is currently undergoing a pilot project in the UK with an orange juice brand. Through this pilot and other research, it was determined that the total annual waste of juice in the UK alone amounted to 121 million kilograms, with a Mimica Touchcap waste reduction potential of 44%, equating to 53 million kilograms annually of juice.
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