Constar Wins WorldStar Award for Sustainable PET Jar for Francesco Rinaldi Pasta Sauces
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PHILADELPHIA - Constar, Inc., a leading producer of innovative monolayer PET containers, has won the 2010 WorldStar Award for Food Packaging with a lightweight PET jar for LiDestri Foods' Francesco Rinaldi brand pasta sauces. The winning packages were announced in late October. The official presentation of the award will be made at Interpack, May 12-18 in Dusseldorf, Germany.
Constar's WorldStar-winning PET jar features the company's Vertical Compensation Technology(TM) (VCT(TM)), a panel-less design for hot fill food and beverage products that withstands the rigors of high temperature processing while approximating the look, rigid in-hand feel, and filling-line performance of glass. While several beverage products are already packaged in VCT bottles, LiDestri Foods was the first to commercialize Constar's VCT jar technology with its 45-ounce Francesco Rinaldi brand pasta sauce, gaining significant performance and sustainability benefits along with brand-enhancing features.
Sponsored by the World Packaging Organization (WPO), the WorldStar Awards are the preeminent international awards for packaging. The WorldStar Awards illustrate the continual advancement of state-of-the-art packaging design and technology and create a standard of international packaging excellence from which others may learn.
This is the third year in a row Constar has won a WorldStar Award. In 2008, a sustainable PET bottle with DiamondClear® technology produced for ConAgra Foods' Hunts® Ketchup was selected to receive a WorldStar Award. In 2009, a lightweight, PET bottle with Monoxbar® oxygen scavenging technology created for French wine-maker Boisset Family Estates' Beaujolais Nouveau captured the award. Constar's sustainable, monolayer PET jar for Francesco Rinaldi brand pasta sauces continues the three-year streak. All three packages also won Ameristar Awards presented by the Institute of Packaging Professionals.
LiDestri Foods converted its Francesco brand of pasta sauces to Constar's PET jars from another PET container, gaining significant production while improving sustainability. Using CONSTructTM advanced predictive engineering software; Constar designed a jar that is nearly 11 percent-roughly eight grams per jar-lighter in weight than the previous PET jar with side grips that it replaced. The VCT technology provides rigid "ribbed" geometry, which eliminates the need for vacuum panels and improves stability. According to John LiDestri, president and CEO for Lidestri Foods, "The VCT bottles are labeled and filled 25 percent faster than the previous container with less downtime." Despite being lighter in weight, the Francesco Rinaldi brand pasta sauce jars with VCT technology are more robust and demonstrate improved top load performance.
Ringing the shoulder of the jar is a continuous circle of embossed tomatoes, made even more lifelike by the ruby-red tomato sauce inside the clear PET. The design enhances the product's shelf appeal and is a tribute to LiDestri Foods' 50-year history in the food industry.
Constar's WorldStar-winning jar is on trend with consumer and retailer preference for greener packaging. In addition to being lightweight and shatterproof, PET is among the most recyclable of plastics and is BPA free. Containers made from PET are accepted in curbside recycling programs and are recycled into a wide-range of new products.
About Constar
Philadelphia, Penn.-based Constar International Inc. (NASDAQ: CNST) is a leading global producer and supplier of PET (polyethylene terephthalate) plastic containers and preforms for food and beverages. The Company provides full-service packaging solutions, from product design and engineering, to ongoing customer support and material licensing agreements. Its customers include many of the world's leading branded consumer products companies. Visit www.constar.net.
About LiDestri Foods
Headquartered in Fairport, New York, LiDestri Foods, Inc., is a premium manufacturer and contract packager of sauces, dips and salsa, producing more than two million jars of product a day at its four USDA-approved manufacturing facilities. Additionally, the Company produces beverages, spirits, infused oils, vinegars, cooking wines, syrups, and jams using hot fill, cold fill and retort technologies. Visit www.lidestrifoods.com.
For Marketing:
Suzanne Cohen, Senior Manager, Marketing Services, Constar International Inc., 215.552.3727
