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A real “stand-up” solution 

A real “stand-up” solution 

When packaging challenges undermined two successful brands of tomato sauces in Brazil, a cross-functional Cargill team developed an innovative packaging solution, reducing costs and environmental impacts while improving performance.

Cargill’s global edible oil solutions business in South America produces two of the most popular Brazilian brands of tomato sauces—Pomarola and Tarantella. An influx of new brands of sauces came into the market and created a lot of competition which created an opportunity for Cargill to innovate. Stand-up pouches are the packaging norm for sauces in Brazil. Although popular with consumers, these packages present several challenges from a manufacturing perspective, including leakage and creating an impermeable barrier to protect the taste, shelf-life and wholesomeness of the product. Toward that end, Cargill had been incorporating a heavy—and expensive—aluminum foil into its packages. As market prices for sauces declined, the cost of the foil-lined packages became unacceptable.

“We were losing sales because of our prices and our margins were shrinking,” Marcos Guirardello, R&D Director said. Our Marketing team Tatiana Zambon and William Ramos raised then the challenge of developing a new foil-less, stand-up pouch “That’s why we launched a special project.”

Multiple challenges

In addition to making the packages sturdy and providing a “substantial” feel for customers, the foil provided a strong barrier against air and light—both of which can damage the lycopene in the sauce and cause it to turn brown. Along with reducing the cost, any new packaging materials would have to provide an adequate barrier to guarantee a long shelf life (18 months) and uphold customer perceptions about product quality.

The Cargill team in Brazil addressed these and other challenges associated with the new packages by partnering with the Cargill Innovation Center in Campinas, Brazil and collaborating across several Cargill functional groups, including Strategic Sourcing, Marketing, Quality Assurance, Supply Chain and Operations to create a project team. 

The collaborative effort helped identify suppliers to provide new, polymer-based packaging materials that could meet the packaging requirements around sturdiness, impermeability and affordability. And, once a new prototype was developed, they tested it with a consumer focus group to confirm that the new packaging wouldn’t affect perceptions of quality.

Doing the ordinary extraordinarily well

The project team achieved its primary objectives in less than 12 months—reducing packaging costs (by roughly 20 percent) without reducing product quality or creating negative consumer perceptions, and maintaining shelf life. But their wins didn’t stop there. The project also:

  • Adapted the packaging to work with a new, automated production line, optimizing operational efficiency;
  • Reduced the emission of CO2 by 1.3 million kg annually because the new packaging is 11% lighter;
  • Eliminated the release of another 100,000+ kg of CO2 annually by selecting suppliers closer to the production plant; and
  • Reduced the incidence of leaking packages by 87 percent.

“The way these teams came together and quickly overcame the challenges associated with the project was very exciting and inspiring,” said Guirardello. “From improved sustainability and profitability, to lower prices for the end consumers, the project exceeded our expectations. What’s more, in the near future, we expect the new packaging to enable us to reduce the use of preservatives—which will deliver even more value to our customers.”