Yesterday we discussed dry food packaging using folding cartons and corrugated cartons. Both offer little or no barrier protection for our product, in this case flour and need an inner liner in order to attempt to keep the flour fresh. Today we turn to two more types of dry food packaging...
Heavy duty plastic bags, here we are talking the large ziplock style flat pouch made from either single layer or co-extruded types of plastic. Contrary to what others may think, single layer film or even co-extruded film isn't barrier film, so the contents are not necessarily protected from moisture, vapor, or even outside odors. While dry food packaging such as this is cheap, rarely will you see just a flat bag on a store shelf holding flour. Most likely if someone was serious about selling their flour they'll put this heavy duty ziplock bag into an outer carton, so we have a bag inside a box concept once again. Estimated price is $.25 cents total for both bag + carton.
Paper Sacks or paper pouches look nice an inviting as they have the natural-ness of the paper, but once again, paper does not offer barrier protection for the flour example (or any other dry food for that matter). Paper sacks like those you would see at bakeries or even coffee style bags need either another layer laminated to it to provide barrier protection or just like the other dry food packaging discussed earlier, will require an inner liner, like a bag to contain the flour and provide some level of barrier protection. Estimated cost $.20 cents + $.02 cents for a tin tie if desired...$.22 cents.
Tomorrow, we'll discuss dry food packaging that really works for flour or any other type of dry food. Stand Up Pouches!