Canadian Packaging

Hormel Reduces Product Packaging

By Canadian Packaging Staff   

Sustainability Hormel Foods packaging Reduces

Following its reduction of 5.2 million pounds of product packaging in 2008, Hormel Foods Corporation based in Austin, Minn. has announced the results of several new packaging projects.

“Our new initiatives build on about 40 packaging reduction projects completed in 2008 and reflect the way we continuously look for means to improve the packaging of our products and reduce our environmental footprint,” said Daniel S. Miller, research and development manager of packaging development at Hormel Foods. “In this process, we work with our suppliers to find innovative solutions.”

New packaging reduction highlights and projected savings include:

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  • The elimination of extra room in the Jennie-O Turkey Store burgers carton is expected to have an annual paperboard savings of more than 175,000 pounds;
  • Lloyd’s bbq tubs no longer have an extra paper sleeve. This modification will eliminate enough solid waste to fill 22 garbage trucks and save more than 660,000 pounds of paper fiber annually;
  • Reducing the thickness of the glass used to produce each jar of Hormel bacon bits will produce annual material savings around 411,000 pounds;
  • Reconfiguration of the shipping box for Hormel Compleats microwave meals removed 23 per cent of the material required to make the previous corrugated packaging box and generated an annual materials savings of 1.2 million pounds. In addition, changes to the size of the carton flaps of the product and reallocation of materials resulted in annual savings of more than 980 million pounds of solid waste;
  • The elimination of extra room in the Jennie-O Turkey Store burgers carton is expected to have an annual paperboard savings of more than 175,000 pounds;
  • Hormel party trays packaging was redesigned to eliminate the need for shrink wrap to produce an annual savings of approximately 100,000 pounds. The corrugated case to ship the product will be smaller, resulting in a corrugated material savings of more than 174,000 pounds per year;
  • Redesign of the shipping box for Hormel pork ribs, butts and bone-in offers more strength while creating an annual corrugated materials savings of about 2.4 million pounds;
  • Reducing the height, width and length of each box used to ship Hormel pepperoni, increased the amount of product on each pallet, saving materials and reducing the number of trailers needed each year. The anticipated savings is 188,000 pounds of wood fiber annually and 49,000 pounds of corrugated;
  • Changes to the shipping of canned food products made by Hormel will result in efficiencies that reduce the number of pallets needed annually by 14,573 and require less plastic and bundling film.

For more information on Hormel’s commitments in the areas of people, process, products, performance and philanthropy read its 2008 Hormel Foods Corporate Responsibility Report.

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