Analyzing Packaging Innovation: The Case of Heinz Ketchup Design

This essay provides an in-depth analysis of the packaging innovations implemented by Heinz for its ketchup product, particularly focusing on the Dip & Squeeze pack. It discusses the company's history of innovative packaging and its impact on market share. The essay further explores the functional and sustainable aspects of the new packaging, emphasizing the use of biodegradable plastics and materials like BOPET to ensure product freshness and extend shelf life. It also compares the new packaging to the older squeeze tube design, highlighting the improvements in user accessibility and convenience for all age groups. The analysis considers the material properties that prevent moisture and oxygen ingress, maintaining the quality of the ketchup. The essay concludes by underscoring the importance of shelf life considerations in innovative packaging designs.

Running head - INNOVATION IN PACKAGING
Innovation in Packaging
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author’s note

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Part 1: Innovative design
Innovation in Packaging – Heinz Ketchup
Heinz, which was formally known as The H.J. Heinz Company, is a food processing
company that was based in the United States of America. The company originally was located in
Pittsburg, which is in Pennsylvania (Reuband 2016). The company was initially stared by Henry
John Heinz in the year 1869. The company was started as a food processing company. After, it
started manufacturing its own quality food products. Currently, Heinz manufactures thousands of
its product in food category in their food manufacturing plants that is located in the six
continents and then distributes their manufactured products in more than 200 countries (Heinz
and Feldman 2017). The company first started to pack foods in containers on small scale around
Sharpsburg which is also a city in Pennsylvania. After that, the company moved from packaging
foods from manufacturing then. It could be said that the company have a history in innovative
packaging and making is as their prime plus point in the market as initially the company started
its fortune by packaging food only. The main manufactured product by Heinz that have achieved
fame more than anyone would be their famous tomato ketchup. The ketchup manufactured by
Heinz ranked first in the market of United States of America. The company has 50% and excess
of the market share form the ketchup only (Kumar 2019).
The current package of the ketchup that circulates in the United Kingdom market is the
old squeeze tube/pack with a break-off nozzle. The packaging was easily accessible by anyone
and of any group of age person due to its structure. The structure of the packaging allows the
user to use the ketchup with one hand. The breakoff nozzle also is user friendly as it can be open
with a tap of a finger only (Chaboud 2016).

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Fig – 1 Heinz Break-off Nozzle Ketchup Tube
Source – (Tesco.com, 2019)
However, there have been new packaging innovation by Heinz in their packaging of the
tomato ketchup that the container contains. The new packaging innovation which was jointly led
by Heinz and the Packaging world is the new Heinz Dip & Squeeze pack. The packaging was
done and the product was released in the market of United Sates of America (Ricardo 2018). The
innovation concept that was developed by Heinz in the new packaging of the ketchup could be
included in the incremental innovation category in the market of United States of America. The
innovation made small changes in the packaging by making it enable us use as both a squeeze
bottle and a platform to dip the food in the ketchup. The packaging is innovative than the
previous packets as it only allowed the user to squeeze the ketchup out of it (Reid 2018).

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Fig 2 – Heinz New Innovative Dip & Squeeze Package
Source – (Dip & Squeeze boasts dual functionality | Packaging World. 2019).
Part 1 – 500
Part 2: Function and Sustainability
Currently in the UK there is a drive towards the usage of non-plastic materials for FMCG
packaging (edie.net 2019). The new upgraded version of the packaging was made with the idea
of better customer satisfaction. Heinz and the Packaging World made the new innovation in the
packaging of the Heinz Tomato ketchup (Smith et al. 2018). The functional element of the
packaging is based on the usage efficiency of the product. The material that would be used will
be high grade plastic with strong recycling information attached. It has been seen that most
consumers use ketchup very frequently while having a meal. It is important that dispensing of the

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product becomes much easier for the consumer. Hence, the product will be designed in a way to
help the customers get the ketchup out easily even with their left hands as their right hands
would probably be engaged in the meal. Bio degradable plastic would be used to make the
product and the design will incorporate the squeeze functions. Sensory functions will be
enhanced through the usage of special design techniques. This will ensure that the product will
stay true to its functional efficiency (Petit, Velasco and Spence 2019). The fact that the product
will be biodegradable will ensure its sustainable use throughout its lifecycle. In the last 10 years
in the UK the usage of bio-degradable plastics have been greatly reduced. The usage of the
plastic along with the significant design elements will make sure that the customers prefer the
product more than the other available options. The previous bottle used to come in a tube that did
not allow the user to use the packaging as a dip (Došen 2018). Previously, the users were unable
to access the last bits of ketchup left over in the tube. In the new packaging, the user is able to
use the food object to dip in the whole ketchup, allowing the user to use the amount of ketchup
they wants. This was a hard for many users as in the time of hurry, they were not able to use the
ketchup as the work in getting the ketchup out of the tube would make them late for work. The
new packaging does not have such problem with it (Farrell 2015). They packaging of the sachet
is done in such a way that it is easily accessible. Any person could use the sachet as a squeeze
tube when they are in a hurry. The easy tearing material made of polyester material allows the
user to tear the sachet in no time. The tube has a narrow break-off nozzle. This nozzle does not
allow a lot of ketchup to come out which in turn is also a good and a bad point in the packaging.
The narrow nozzle prevents the ketchup to split on the food or allows excess amount of ketchup
to fall in the food. However, the thick ketchup sometimes does not comes out of the tube. Thus,
have a narrow nozzle at time does not helps. To get the ketchup out of the tube, the user to needs

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to exert force of the tube. During this action, the tube could easily fall off from the hands of the
user due to the fact that the tube is made of plastic ad it could be slippery and the ketchup could
fall in the ground or on the food, damaging either of them. The new dip and squeeze product
prevents form such events (Bones and Shayne 2018.). The packaging is done in such a way that
the user could easily access the ketchup it every manner possible. This packaging allows the user
to help them use the sachet so that they get utmost satisfaction from its user friendly design
(Mango 2016).
The squeeze packed tube of ketchup also not helpful when it is used by children or
elderly people. The package that is still circulates in the market of United Kingdom is the
squeeze tube. This tube is hard to access the ketchup of children or elderly people as it needs a
minimal amount of strength to get the ketchup out of the bottle. Thus, the package was not very
useful in this matter. The new innovative dip and squeeze packaging is not at all such difficult to
use. All group age people, both the elderly and the children could use the package to enjoy their
favorite snacks and dishes. Thus this factor could also be counted as an advantage of the new
packaging over the old one (Caldwell, Marshall and Rasile 2015).
Other that user friendly packaging, the dip and squeeze packaging is also dine to keep the
ketchup inside it safe and fresh (van den Broek et al. 2015). The sachet in which the ketchup is
contained and distributed in the market to be sold as retailers and wholesale for the restaurants to
buy for using them to serve the packets also with the food served in there, is made of thermo-
formed oxygen barrier polyester material. The polyester material, with a chemical name of the
polymer material known as Polyethylene Terephthalate or also known as BOPET; Biaxially
Oriented Polyethylene Terephthalate. This polymer material is a polyester film that is made from
the orientation of polyethylene terephthalate (Sun et al. 2017). The compound BOPET is known

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for its highly durable tensile strength, its dimensional and the chemical stability, the transparency
it has, its reflectivity, aroma and the gas it produces, its barrier properties and for its electrical
insulation. The compound has lot of function for all of these properties that it has. The polyester
material is an excellent compound and have a lot of use when it comes to act as a barrier to block
water and lock the moisture inside the packaging it is used for. This property makes the material
an excellent compound to use in making bottles and other packaging materials. The compound
PET for additional safety also adds polyvinyl alcohol (PVOH) layer for making the polyester
material more durable so that it can reduce the oxygen permeability form inside out (Li BOE
Technology Group Co Ltd 2018). This material helps in providing a cutting edge in the
innovation of the packaging of the dip and squeeze ketchup sachet pack of Heinz tomato
ketchup. The biaxially- oriented film made of PET could be aluminized by the evaporation of the
thin metal film that is paced over it. This would in turn reduce the permeability of water vapor
and moisture and it is also used to make the reflective and opaque. The properties of the material
could be useful in many applications like packaging and thermal insulation, that lets the heat not
escape form the packaging. This polyester material acts as a barrier that helps in incorporating
the oxygen in the atmosphere absorb so that it could mop up of the oxygen molecule that tries to
ingress in the pack through the edges of the foil that is laminated to seal the package from the
inside out. The oxygen molecule that tries to penetrate through the plastic itself, the PET film
blocks it from reaching the ketchup in the sachet (Alvarado et al. 2018). The PET oriented sheet
that is used in the packaging, also can be used for thermoformed, so that the packaging of the
trays and the blister. The moisture locking ability of the packaging the trays could be used or
containing the ketchup in the freezer for longer period. This material helps in fighting the
moisture that crumbles on above the package when it is refrigerate. The material also helps in

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blocking out other gases like carbon dioxide, nitrogen and also it is better that thermoplastic
materials. The package also uses the material for better need of good moisture vapor barrier that
would enable the packaging for even larger packs of surface area related to the volume of the
product that is the ketchup in the container. This property of the material helps in keeping the
ketchup from drying in the dry seasons and warm storage conditions. In such scenarios, the
moisture in the packs is locked due to the innovative material that is used in the packaging of the
dip and squeeze (Vannini 2015).
Another important factor that have to keep in mind while coming up with innovative
packaging styles and structures, that is, shelf life of the food or the beverage or the food product
that is stored in the container. The shelf life is a major concern when the packaging was done by
Heinz and the Packaging World. It was a concern when it comes in transforming the Dip and
Squeeze package the concept of foodservice into a retail innovation. The minimum shelf life that
is estimated or set by the retailer is a minimum of 9 months. These products are expected to have
a shelf life of 9 months as these products are stored in the selves before getting sold. This
innovative packaging would help in keeping the material in the container fresh and keeping the
color of the ketchup intact as Heinz is famous for their authentic color of ketchup. The PET film
provides a shelf life that last up to 12 months. This helps the ketchup packaging in meeting the
requirements of the retailer. This has been as major improvement in the packaging in comparison
with the other products as most of the other packaging of foodservice companies or dip cup
products provide as shelf life that last only for 5 to 6 months. The lidding material in the
packaging also includes an aluminum foil that helps the packaging in making it air tight. The key
challenge for Heinz was upgrading the multi-layer structure of the original packaging in forming
web while maintaining the form of the package same are also easy to peel it off when needed by

8INNOVATION IN PACKAGING
the customer. This would in turn help the packaging in getting a processing a speed on the line
and also distributing the performance and also keeping the physical appearance attractive. This
innovative packaging have many version for creating multiple layer or barrier and also have
made the combination with the short time frame for development (Arrieta, Sessini and Peponi
2017).
The packaging vale of the products vary and as assessed with the help of arbitrary
framework of data that could not be measured with numbers. The packaging value is measured
with the help of formula –
Packaging Value Formula = Product benefit + packaging benefit + Experience
Cost
The benefit that Heinz provide to their customers is the essence or availability of
enjoying their food along with the rich taste of ketchup. Tomato ketchup is widely accepted
around the world and is eaten with all major food products. The ketchup that Heinz produce is
authentic and rich in taste. It gives their customer the opportunity to enjoy their food with an
essence and taste of fresh tomato (Musioł, et al. 2016).
The packaging of the new innovative products have allowed the customers to help them
in getting the full benefit of the product. The package material, the dip and squeeze package
allows the customers or the buyers to enjoy ketchup with the food in both as a dip and as a
squeeze material. This benefit allows the customer is accessing the ketchup to its every last
ounce left on the package. This innovative packaging have let the customers have their favorite
meal with their beloved ketchup. The easy to use packaging, the user friendly packaging would
allow the user to use the ketchup sachet whenever and wherever they want.

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The customer have an excellent experience while using the Heinz ketchup. The rich and
fresh ketchup have no added sugar or preservative inside it. Thus, this is the reason why
customer always think of Heinz as the best brand of tomato ketchup.
The cost of Heinz ketchup is also less and reasonable that makes id accessible in most of
the restaurants, form high to low. Its reasonable price have made it available in most of the
household around the globe.
These ultimate values are enjoyed by the customers, the very receiver of the final product
that is made by Heinz. Also the buyers that enjoys these values could be business to business or
other international buyers. Although, customers are the ultimatum buyers that are entitled to get
all these values (Di Maio et al. 2015).
The packaging also help in maintaining the Maillard Browing reaction that occurs inside
the packaging after the ketchup is filled inside the sachet. The reaction occurs when the added
preservative and the sugar in the ketchup and the between the acetic acid from the catalyst of the
vinegar in the ketchup. This is done in the presence of oxygen for effecting the ketchup and
darkening the color of the ketchup (Singh et al. 2018).
The shelf life of the ketchup that is circulated in the market of United Kingdom are up to
8 months, that is less than the shelf life that the sip and squeeze ketchup packaging provides that
is circulated in the market of United States of America. This is an advantage over the nozzle
pack that is circulated in the United Kingdom market. Thus the new packaging have an
innovative side over the old packaging of the Heinz ketchup packaging. Samples have shown
that the shelf life of the dip and squeeze product is greater than the nozzle bottle package.
Part 2 - 2000

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Raw Materials
Manufacturing
Packing and Distribution
Life for useful/ reuse and
maintenance
Recycling Possibilities
Disposal at the end of life
cycle
While collecting the raw materials, there could be
some factors effecting the environment while taking
monomers for creating the PET or polyester material.
The manufacturing of the product would release
harmful gases in the environment which in turn effect
the atmosphere.
The life for the usefulness of the packaging could
affect the environment. After being used, people
throw away the packaging of the foods. This in turn
effect the land.
The recycling of the packaging would be incanted
otherwise the material that are used for making the
packaging of the ketchup would affect the
environment. It would block the lands and pollute the
waters too.
Part 3: Product life
Product Life Cycle
The packaging of
food safe
from
contamination. While protecting the food, the people are affceting the environment around it by

11INNOVATION IN PACKAGING
the packaging. This also brings damage to the resourcs around the people. Developed countries
are being aware of the effects that plastic is putting on the environment due to the packaging of
the foods.
These pollutants are releasing toxic chemical in the environment that would in
turn destroy the resources and the surrounding of the environment. This packaging industry is
effecting the development of the sustainable environment and the environment (Wahyuni 2018).
Strategies are to be adapted by the industries for dismissing the effect of this pollution of
the environment. These strategies would help them in controlling the pollution that is occurred
by the packaging. There should be laws and regulation that would help in monitoring the extent
of the pollution that is occurred by the collection of raw material that is needed for the
manufacturing of the material needed for the packaging. There should laws regarding the use of
the raw material. People should stop using the packaging of their foods and processed beverages.
These laws would help in bounding the laws that is needed for saving the environment. These
official laws and regulation should maintain and set some ground that is necessary for stopping
the use of these packages. As the laws would monitor the manufacturing of the raw material
needed for the packaging, thee laws are also formed in such a ways that should also monitor the
use of the packaging materials in limited ways. In doing so, the laws would help in monitoring
the use of the packages. The less amount of use of the packaging products would help in
controlling the pollution in the environment. There should also be laws that would that would
also punish the individuals or companies that misuse the packaging by throwing it out in the
environment without recycling it. There should be strict laws against person who misuse these
laws. Penalties should be placed on individuals as well as companies for throwing out these