To ensure product consistency, and hence brand integrity, the contents of PET packaged goods must be protected from exposure both to sunlight and to indoor lighting during storage, distribution, retail display and post-purchase storage. Consumers also like to be able to see the contents of what they’re buying. This is where Milliken is making a difference.
Occupying Stand 108, Hall A2 at the Sept. 11-15 show at Messe München, Milliken will use real-life examples and case studies to highlight how these additives create a new UV protection performance standard for PET bottles and containers, including for such products as juices and energy drinks.
Due to the photo-oxidation effect, most vitamins are sensitive to light, heat and oxygen in the presence of light. Vitamin degradation can lead to off-flavor and color shift in the beverage formulation.
PET bottles made with ClearShield UV absorbers offer impressive results when it comes to extending ingredient shelf life (defined as 80% of initial concentration). Studies have shown that vitamin A’s shelf life, for example, is 30 times better when protected in a ClearShield-modified bottle than when packaged in standard PET. Vitamin B6 shows a better than 70 times improvement, riboflavin seven times, folic acid 3.5 times and vitamin B12 double the shelf life.
Approved for food-contact applications by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), ClearShield overcomes the deficiencies of traditional technologies, including unwanted color, migration and bloom. These additives are easy to handle and meter and, since they are incorporated into the PET itself, do not extract into beverages. PET preform producers and bottle converters, meanwhile, will especially appreciate that the use of ClearShield-modified PET simplifies processing by resisting plate-out onto injection molded preform and bottle molding surfaces.
But the advantages of using ClearShield do not end there. There also are clear sustainability benefits. “For starters”, says Milliken technical manager Simon Bousquet, “formulators can use more natural ingredients with confidence, while also eliminating concerns about toxicity or wastewater contamination by some of the chemicals traditionally used in other UV stabilizers.”
Additionally, Bousquet noted, “Better contents protection and extended shelf life help to reduce product waste. And by enabling greater use of more natural and uncolored PET, ClearShield helps to reduce or eliminate the need to use dark or colored containers to protect the contents,” he explained. “Such opaque and colored PET materials tend to make the recycle stream dark, which can make recycling more difficult and lessen the value of the reclaimed product.”
Hear more from Bousquet directly when he gives a presentation at the Sept. 11-12 “PETnology 2017” conference that is running concurrently with Drinktec, in the Congress Center Munich on the trade fair’s grounds.
Visit Milliken at Stand 108, Hall A2 at Drinktec 2017, and learn first-hand how ClearShield-modified PET can help you to lower cost, reduce waste and protect your brand image.
Hall A2.108
www.milliken.com
