Choosing the Most Convenient Closure for Your Pet Food Packaging

Pets big and small come with a variety of unique needs, especially when it comes to their diet. With an abundance of innovative products coming into the pet food market—from frozen and refrigerated raw foods, to freeze dried meal toppers and semi-moist treats—different product types often demand unique storage requirements. Fortunately, finding the correct packaging for your product doesn’t have to be an added challenge when you work with the right partner. Fresh-Lock has multiple closure solutions and can help your brand find the right application for your product and consumers’ needs.

Hassle-Free Access for Bulk Pet Food

Let’s start with the basics. A lot of pet owners are likely to have a traditional package of dry kibble on-hand for their furry friends. Bulk bags of kibble may be especially preferred for households with multiple or larger pets. Purchasing dry kibble in bulk also comes with the added benefit of having a relatively long shelf life, containing anywhere from 10 to 45 pounds of food, bulk kibble can last pet owners up to several weeks.

Concerns with Bulk Pouches of Pet Food

As a staple in many pets’ diets, it’s important for pet owners to feel good about the kibble they purchase. One challenge with many bulk food pouches is the packaging. The large pouches often feature sewn tops that can be difficult and messy to open, adding unnecessary frustration to the pet owner’s experience. Since the proper method of opening a sewn-top package involves ripping the thread and pouch, there is an added risk of loose packaging particles falling into the pet food with no way for a consumer to reasonably filter it out. Furthermore, sewn-top pouches generally aren’t hermetically sealed, increasing the risk of infestation, moisture, and other contaminants entering the package.

A New Solution for Bulk Pet Food Packaging

Despite the fuss of sewn-top packaging, bulk bags are advantageous for consumers because of their convenience and affordability. To add to the convenience of a bulk bag of pet food and lessen consumer frustration, the Fresh-Lock team developed Grip And Rip. This technology helps make a hermetically sealed package possible, helping to protect the package’s contents from possible contamination. The tear bead feature of this top enables a hassle-free opening for consumers and creates efficiencies for manufacturers as well.

Grip and Rip is also convenient for one-time use packaging that doesn’t need to be reclosed and kept fresh for extended periods of time. In the case of bird seed or feed for large animals, consumers can easily open and dump the contents, knowing it helped protect the product up to its point of use.

Helping Keep Pet Food Fresh with Reclosable Packaging

In some cases, pet food may require specific barriers to keep the food fresh for extended periods of time. If consumers don’t feel secure in the ability of the packaging to keep the product fresh, they may attempt to repackage the contents at home. This can result in the loss of important information about the brand, serving recommendations, ingredients, labeling, and other vital details about when and where the product was produced. Consumers need to have access to this information for the health and safety of their pet, especially in the event of a recall. To prevent attempts to repackage pet food, brands can add quality closures.

To accommodate large volumes of pet food, closures need to be able to withstand significant holding force when the package is filled. While there are several closures well suited to accept the charge of filling, Fresh-Lock® High Strength Zipper is designed specifically to deliver an extra-high product side holding force while still being accessible for consumers to open and close with ease.

In addition to its tight seal, the High Strength Zipper features:

• Versatility for either vertical or horizontal form/fill/seal equipment or preformed pouches
• Enhanced sealability and compatibility with a wide variety of films
• Optimized to enable lower sealing temperatures, faster line speeds, and reduced film distortion

If a brand wants to create a stronger appeal to consumers, a track and slider closure format paired with an attractive pouch design can reinforce the premium quality of a product while enhancing the consumer experience. Fresh-Lock’s Heavy Duty “S”-Slider features an ergonomic lock to keep large, heavy-duty packages securely closed. Compatible with various material types, such as multi-wall paper and woven polypropylene, this slider works on both top and bottom fill applications, making it an advantageous choice for brands and packagers alike.

Overall, sliders offer the convenience of easy reclose while helping to protect the pets’ food and keep it fresh. Brands that want to stand out on the shelves should aim to deliver in more ways than one. As pet store shelves fill up with more unique food and treat products, consumers have a lot more to consider at the point of purchase. Even though bulk kibble options aren’t going away anytime soon, the trustworthy experience of a slider could help consumers stay loyal to a brand and product because they can expect locked-in freshness and continual ease of use.

Sustainable Options for Smaller Packaging Formats

Because consumers consider their pets members of the family, they often expect pet food packaging will provide the same user experience as their own food product packaging. Choosing a sustainable closure can help brands reach eco-minded pet owners, who want to see sustainable options across all the products they purchase.

For smaller pouches, like treats, that consumers may reach for more regularly, preserving freshness and offering a quick, effortless experience is key. Sensory zippers like Fresh-Lock® Click ‘N Lock Zippers are great in this regard, as they provide pet owners with the audible and tactile feedback to know when the package is securely closed. Available options in Fresh-Lock’s 8000 Series help provide sustainable packaging to the marketplace with minimum reduction in production efficiencies.

The Fresh-Lock® Multiplex Zipper also provides an easy open and close experience that can be heard and felt during use. With five sets of interlocking channels that seal in water and air unlike other “hook and hook” closures, this closure helps deliver a sustainable package that consumers can feel confident won’t jeopardize freshness. Opting for closures like Multiplex that are 100% recyclable as a component in a recyclable package can help brands further their sustainability goals and gain loyalty with consumers.

Identify the Right Closure for Your Pet Food Product Today

As pet owners continue to discover new food and treat options for their furry friends, getting your product to stand out from the competition needs to be a priority. When everything is said and done, convenience and safety are key. Reclosable flexible packaging paired with innovative closures leads to brands gaining a competitive edge and appealing to more pet owners. Win-win.

Want to know more about closures for different packaging and product formats? Explore more closure options for the pet food industry.

Looking to collaborate on a packaging redesign? Contact the Fresh-Lock team today.