Having successfully created water-soluble Unit Dose packaging for several laundry detergent marketers and brands, MonoSol has expanded its film technology capability with food-friendly Vivos water-soluble film. Poised to launch new ultra-convenient food and beverage consumer offerings - as well as personal care and cosmetic products - MonoSol demonstrated the product at PACK EXPO.

Vivos combines production-line ingredient delivery with an impressive array of potential product and food manufacturing process savings. This in-plant delivery platform also enables brand marketers to launch, expand and flexibly target product offerings more quickly and with greater precision than ever before. Ingredients delivered in Vivos packets will demonstrate the convenience, just-right dosage, ease and speed of this patent-pending technology all at once.

“This type of in-plant food ingredient delivery offers tremendous payback potential. Vivos is not just another ingredient dosing system, but an opportunity for a new and highly practicable line production strategy,” asserts Sumeet Kumar, MonoSol Senior Manager of Strategic Marketing.

“It’s the easiest type of water-soluble packaging application to implement and track. In addition to direct production-line savings, using Vivos in manufacturing can help retail brand marketers bring new products to market in less time. They can more efficiently deliver seasonal, regional or timely special offerings, create brand extensions, or otherwise respond more effectively to marketplace opportunities.”

Noting that product- and application-specific films are a MonoSol forte, Kumar points out that these Vivos films are specially crafted for use with food. They are odorless, tasteless and simply dissolve and disappear in hot or cold water or other liquids. Payback from Vivos in-plant delivery starts with the simple fact that precisely-dosed ingredients move along the line securely sealed in Vivos film until deposited in the tank. No dusting or spills, no lost product, and no tedious cleanup or waste.

“There’s no better way to transport and combine food ingredients,” Kumar continues. “Colorants, spices, enzymes, sweeteners, flavor ingredients or other actives all arrive ‘according to recipe.’ This ensures that every batch results in a consistent end product that looks, feels and tastes the same, a critical factor in brand integrity.”

It also means that costly colorants or sweeteners aren’t lost while scooping them into gravimetric feeders. Vivos delivers sensitive enzymes at full potency, to properly work with other ingredients in the mix. Kumar notes that users may even be able to reduce the amount of some ingredients with Vivos sealed-pouch delivery - 5 grams of an enzyme, for instance, instead of 10 per dose - because it’s not in contact with other chemicals that could degrade it. Multi-compartment Vivos pouches can retain the purity of two or more ingredients during transport.

“Changeover time and effort can be dramatically reduced, since there’s virtually no cleanup due to ingredients themselves,” says Kumar. “This is a major plus when preparing small-run batches on the same line. It enables faster response to market demands for color, flavor or other product brand options, and timely fulfillment of special requests prompted by marketplace events. It also brings brand extensions to retail outlets sooner.”

Kumar says the vast majority of non-food manufacturers using water-soluble packs are running MonoSol films, and Vivos is designed to essentially drop right into this type of line configuration. While every MonoSol film is crafted for specific product usage, the converting properties are similar; thus, converters can implement Vivos technology with little or no special effort.

Production-line equipment options include familiar Vertical Form-Fill-Seal (VFFS), which is highly suitable for larger packs - 40 or 50, 100 or even 200 grams - turning out 100 to 200 packs per minute. Rotary Drum machines are the best answer for smaller pouches carrying 20-50 grams, and higher-volume production in the range of 1,000 units/min.

“While there are numerous consumer products that could benefit from Vivos technology,” remarks Kumar, “the low-hanging fruit for food marketers – the easiest to put in place, monitor and measure, and with the greatest potential ROI – is ingredient delivery in manufacturing production line applications. Even with current consumer products, regardless of how they’re packaged and presented at retail, brands can realize greater flexibility and respond more effectively to marketplace opportunities, when Vivos is working for them back in the plant.”

For more overall company information, visit www.monosol.com and www.kuraray.co.jp/en. For additional details on Vivos water-soluble film for food manufacturing, visit www.vivosfilm.com.