Plascon Group
Making Life Easier Through Flexible Packaging Solutions
April showers, bring May flowers. And what do May flowers bring? No, not pilgrims.😅 May flowers bring bright and edible ways to kick up your menus and meals. With summer soirees and the wedding season upon us, now is the perfect time to perk up your palette with a bounty of bouquets blooming all around us.
Happy Earth Day! Here at Plascon we pride ourselves in our sustainability initiatives. We have several products that we offer in a biodegradable option such as our biodegradable films and liners. Earthday.org has made their mission this Earth Day to “Restore Our Earth”. While we know biodegradable options are sought after we wanted to highlight some of the benefits of this packaging option.
Did you know…
This innovative and environmentally safe product line shares the same strength as traditional plastic to ensure durability while supporting your company’s sustainable efforts.
This product line is also advantageous in that there are no toxic by-products and does not contain heavy metals.
These products do not degrade from exposure to heat, light, or external factors in crucial storage, shipping, or handling procedures.
While we support making everyday Earth Day, some efforts are easier said than done. Supplementing traditional packaging for a biodegradable option when suitable is a great step towards minimizing your company’s environmental impact.
So, you may ask, how does switching to sustainable packaging benefit my business? With global trends and initiatives switching to environmentally friendly products such as Plascon’s biodegradable options, your company has the potential to gain a competitive advantage on the market.
Plascon also knows that product freshness and food safety are at the upmost importance in your daily operation which is why our biodegradable options are food grade and FDA approved making them ideal for farming and agricultural applications. However, the possibilities do not stop here.
Please reach out to Plascon today to request more information on our biodegradable products so that we can work together to build sustainable packaging awareness and aid in the efforts to “Restore Our Earth” one box liner at a time!
Bringing customers back to indoor dining at restaurants has resulted in increased efforts to provide a safe, sanitary place to enjoy a meal. Restaurant owners and managers are implementing improved operation protocols for both their staff and patrons to ensure maximum sanitation and safety measures are followed.
Saftea® Liner is a disposable liner specifically manufactured to fit in standard stainless steel urns commonly used by restaurants to dispense iced teas, iced coffees, lemonades, and fruit drinks. The liner is inserted along with an integrated tube that feeds through the spigot opening, resulting in the beverage never making direct contact with the urn. The benefit to your staff is less time spent scrubbing the urns clean from bacterial buildup that teas are prone to create. Your customers benefit with a safer, and more sanitary beverage without the aftertaste of cleaning chemicals, or tea mold. Superior sanitation that actually tastes better!
Eurofins is an international group of laboratories headquartered in Luxembourg, Germany. They provide testing and support services to the pharmaceutical, food, environmental, agriscience and consumer products industries and to governments. Our Saftea® Liner has been third-party tested by Eurofins and the results clearly show the increased safety measures gained by using the liner daily.
The overall purpose of the study was to test the relative shelf life of fresh brewed iced tea held at room temperature when stored inside brewed beverage urns using Saftea® Liners. This was then compared to other urn lining products and also when no liner is used.
At predefined intervals, samples of the product were analyzed for typical spoilage organisms. The brewed beverage was also assessed for any changes in the organoleptic properties. The relative shelf life of the product when stored using each liner system was compared.
Eurofins Concluded:
“Plascon Saftea® Zip Top Liner was better able to resist the outgrowth of bacteria, yeasts, and molds, especially over extended storage periods. The effect against fungal organisms (yeasts and molds) was most significant, with levels of these organisms recovered at 10-100 times less over the course of the study in the Saftea® Zip Top-lined urn than the competitor-lined urn or the urn with no liner.”
Read the full Eurofins summary report here.
Iced Tea season is here! The Saftea® Liner will keep your iced tea tasting its best all day, every day! Not sure? Request your 7-day free trial kit today and see for yourself!
Millions and millions of vaccines have been administered, and very soon they will be available to anyone who wants one. So, we need to ask, will trade shows return back to the normal way of networking for your business?
Dave Sebastain from The Wall Street Journal reported on March 13th , “the $11 billion U.S. trade-show and exhibition industry is slowly coming back to life after a largely lost year due to coronavirus. A full recovery isn’t expected for about two years, industry executives say, and many questions now face organizers and the businesses that rely on lanyard-clad masses. Trade shows require months of planning, and are the attendees ready to crowd into the expo hall, and after a year of remote networking, do they feel they need to?”
The sales and customer service team here at Plascon all agree that the trade show industry will need to setup differently than they did pre-Covid. No more wall to wall carpet covering every inch of the large expo floor. Hand sanitizer stations everywhere. Larger and more spacious booths, temperature checks upon entry, and a mask mandate for everyone on the show floor.
Until we return to the showroom floor, we are here to assist and answer your questions for our line of food grade flexible packaging. Whether you are shopping for box liners (including biodegradable options) to protect your product during transit or storage, are interested in learning the Cook Chill method of cooking for your restaurant (starter sets available!), or you want to learn how Saftea® Liner tea urn liners can help save time, and maximize sanitation for your beverage program, contact us to learn how we can help you find the best packaging solution for your products.
Eventually, trade shows will come back, but it will take some time to regain the confidence of the attendees and the exhibitors too. So tell us, when do you plan on attending the next trade show?
I don’t need to remind anybody what is happening out there. We see it daily, all day long, on all news sources. The battle against the Coronavirus, or Covid-19.
About a year ago, I was sitting in an airport, flying to Florida for a short vacation where my family was waiting for me. I can remember sitting waiting for my flight and watching the news playing inside the airport. They were talking about this new virus that so little was known about, and how it was beginning to ravage China and Italy, and cities were beginning to be shut down. While I was on vacation, Wuhan was shut down, and our first cases started popping up in the US. By the time we got home back to Northern Michigan, the virus was starting to spread in New York and Washington State.
I remember the day we were at the office and the announcement came for the stay at home order (the first one). So those of us who could work from home packed up as much as we thought we might need (remember nobody knew how long we would be working remotely) and darted out of the door to the safety of our homes.
Restaurants were shuttered across the country, while a few lucky ones with drive thru’ s or those who had outdoor seating were still able to generate a good amount of business,. The industry pivoted and started relying almost solely on off premise dining as all dining rooms in most states were completely shut down. Millions lost jobs overnight in all sorts of industries. Companies like Plascon, who supply food packaging for the restaurant industry had to figure out a way to survive. Orders came in much slower. Everyone was doing whatever they could do just to survive, as nobody knew how long this would last.
Then came the new normal. Wear a mask. Wash your hands for at least 20 seconds with soap and warm water. Stay 6 feet apart from other humans. Fight for toilet paper in the stores, and for a few weeks there you couldn’t find chicken anywhere. The country had come to a grinding halt. Weddings cancelled. Vacations scrapped. Sporting events cancelled or played without fans. Life as we knew it was gone. Replaced by fear and uncertainty.
A crazy year indeed. But, with a vaccine (three of them now) and states opening up the vaccine to those of us who are younger (I got my first shot last week) there is hope! There is a reason to be optimistic, and we are seeing that happen. As restaurants are allowed to re-open, food safety is more heightened than ever, with elevated safety and cleaning procedures above and beyond what was once the norm. We have seen an uptick in customers who see the Saftea(R) Liner as exactly that – a food safety product that shows their customers that they mean business when it comes to protecting their food and beverages. Saftea(R) Liner provides superior sanitation, and protects both your restaurant staff as well as the patrons you welcome back into your dining areas. Visit us at www.saftealiner.com to learn more!
National Sauce Month is an annual designation observed in March. This month, sauce it up! Throw a little extra sauce on some of your favorite meals and don’t guilt yourself for it. Whether you like it hot, mild, or somewhere in between, this is the perfect time to celebrate all things saucy and have some fun with it. Since sauce is so diverse, one kind of it or another can go on literally anything.
Having eggs and sausage for breakfast but want something extra? Sauce. Hot sauce, syrup, salsa, you name it. It works. Enjoying a big salad for lunch? Of course, you can’t eat a salad without the best part – dressing! Aka… sauce. Ranch, thousand island, vinaigrette. The list goes on. Indulging in a big juicy steak with some potatoes and pasta on the side? You don’t need us to tell you to sauce it up. Last but not least, sweet sauce drizzled over any kind of dessert is one of the closest things to heaven we will ever experience on this earth.
If you are looking for a proven cost effective way to store large batches of popular sauces, Plascon offers the perfect solution for packaging and storing sauces, Cook Chill Bags! Whether you are looking to package Barbecue Sauce, Dressings, Cheese Sauce, Salsa, Remoulade, Hollandaise Sauce, Alfredo, or Marinara Sauce Plascon has a variety of bag sizes to meet your storage needs, and are available in clear or colored film. We make bags ranging from Pints, Quarts, Gallons and larger, and you can even shop for some of our most popular sizes and order online! Don’t see what you are looking for? Contact us direct to discuss your size requirements. Our Cook Chill bags are available in clipped, angle heat seal, straight heat seal, and handle bags. Ring stands, clippers, and impulse sealers also available!
To find out more about Cook Chill Bags and available products, contact us today!
Every month has its fair share of awareness days and weeks. On top of focused days, every month has at least one awareness theme through the entire month. From serious topics like diseases and equality to silly topics like National Talk Like a Pirate Day (September 19th). Best yet, a lot of these themes are food related and a great excuse to indulge in some tasty treats. March is no exception. In addition to National Peanut Butter Lover’s Day (March 1st) and Pie Day (March 14th), March is National Frozen Food Month. It also happens to be National Irish American Month and combining those two themes seems like a great time to whip up a bulk batch of potato soup to store in the freezer for quick and easy meals when you just do not feel like cooking.
While here in Northern Michigan harvesting anything right now seems a little wild there is part of the US that is harvesting delicious, sweet fruits, like citrus! February just so happens to be National Grapefruit Month! According to the CDC maintaining a healthy diet that is rich in fruits and veggies will aid in reducing the risk of disease later in life. This fruit is packed with vitamins and minerals that are essential to maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Also, one of the main attractions to a citrus fruit like this is their Vitamin C content. During cold months, this immune system booster is a welcome addition to anyone’s diet.
Did you know the world’s largest grapefruit was recorded in 2006 in Brazil weighing in at 7lb 1oz with a circumference of 2ft 3in?
While you may not be harvesting 7lb grapefruits, here at Plascon we know that February is an important month for harvesting citrus! Plascon offers specialized liners to fit in your box, bins, and totes to aid in keeping your harvest fresh and secure during transportation and storage. Biodegradable options are also available!
Please feel free to reach out today to discuss packaging solutions for your operation!
In 2021, when evaluating new food safety products for your business, there are dozens of factors a buyer must take into consideration. When measuring the impact of implementing Saftea® Liners, consider the following questions:
Vertical farming is just what it sounds like: growing upward, in stacked layers (shelves) to maximize crop output in a limited space. It is a new take on what we think of as a greenhouse, only with artificial lighting and temperature in a controlled environment. Vertical farming is typically done without the use of soil, using hydroponics, aeroponics, or aquaponics instead. This allows growing year round, in any location.
Long before 2020 happened and ushered in new safety guidelines, restrictions and lockdowns, Plascon has been focused on manufacturing safe, hygienic food grade packaging. Our FDA approved flexible packaging solutions are used worldwide in food processing and distribution, restaurant and food & beverage service, agriculture, and retail. From Cook Chill bags to Saftea® Tea Urn Liners, to Box Liners, our versatile products are used in array of applications. If your product requires a bag or liner, chances are we have what you are looking for.
That’s right. I’m writing to say, simply, your local restaurants need you now more than ever.
