Tetra Pak is based on ‘aseptic packaging technology’ that allows perishable products to be kept cold and fresh throughout the distribution and storage chain.
The Institute of Food Technologists considers its development to be the most important food packaging innovation of the 20th Century.
The process allows the product and the package to be sterilized separately, then combined and sealed in a sterile atmosphere (whereas in canning processes, the product and the package are combined and then sterilized). UHT – ultra-heat treated foodstuffs such as milk, juice, and processed foods such as vegetables and fruit, when sealed in aseptic packaging can be stored at room temperature for up to a year.
The Swedish Company that created Tetra Pak is now the largest food packaging company in the world by sales. How did it begin? At the end of the 1920s, Ruben Rausing was the owner of a food carton company in Malmo. He had seen self-service grocery stores in America and recognized that pre-packaged foods (a better and more hygienic way of handling foods) were part of retail’s future.
Rausing wanted to pre-package liquids too, and invested heavily in research and development work to do so. In 1944, the company’s lab came up with the idea of making a tetrahedron shaped package out of a tube of paper. Rausing filed for a patent on 27th March 1944, but work continued for the rest of the decade, solving the problems of how to fill, store and distribute liquids in this way. It was Rausing’s wife, Elisabeth, who suggested continuously sealing the package, as if stuffing sausages, to prevent oxygen getting in. Working with Swedish paper mills and foreign chemical companies, a paper coated with polythene was produced. This made the paper waterproof and it could also be heatsealed.
AB Tetra Pak was set up in Lund, Sweden in 1951 and the new packaging system was presented to the press. In 1952, the first filling machine, which was able to package 100ml cream tetrahedrons, was delivered to a local dairy.
Contribution to Retail History
Tetra Pak, the world’s largest packaging company, has expanded its product line to include new types of foods including ice cream, wine, vegetables, soups, pet foods, and various chilled products. It’s aseptic packaging technology offers consumers, brand owners and retailers greater convenience, wider product selection, easy opening, and optimal shelf life as well as more efficient distribution, warehouse storage, and shelf stock display. Almost 200 billion packages are sold annually worldwide.