–Food&Beverage Packaging.com. Written by Randy Hofbauer. February 1, 2009

Being healthy on the inside shows on the outside, as packaging showcases the nutritious benefits of juice.

Juices continue to be a popular drink. Together, shelf-stable bottled juices and refrigerated juices and drinks made more than $8.3 billion in 2008 according to Information Resources Inc. (IRI), for the year ending Nov. 2, 2008.

Consumers are turning to juices and juice drinks because the products are seen as healthy and natural, and they expect the packaging to be “good,” too.

From claim to fame 

Venga’s functional infusions bottle takes a no-nonsense approach at communicating its product benefits with a clear label area coupled with bold print.

“All Natural.” “100% Juice.” “Pure Premium.” Brands from Tropicana to Juicy Juice have been using these phrases on packaging for years to help them stand out on shelves. And with the rise of consumers looking for organic products, juice packaging needs to constantly point to the product’s healthy, natural benefits.

Geared toward the on-the-go consumer who does not have time to search a label for nutritional information, Venga’s Functional Infusions bottle has a shrink-sleeve label that clearly lists, in black and white, the function of the juice, the fruit flavors inside and the other ingredients included.

“We kept the graphic design clean and the text concise to enable the consumer to see it and in a few seconds recognize the functionality, flavors and key ingredients that make Venga unique,” says Dennies Bergmann, creative founder of Venga and chief executive officer of Beverage Innovations, Europe.

But what other issues do consumers want to be addressed?

“The key packaging issues concern sustainability, functionality, and health and wellness,” says David Morris, research director for food and beverage at Mintel. “Because those issues are important to consumers or are going to become more important, packaging has an important role to play.”

And companies are responding, especially on the sustainability side. During the first six months of 2008, environmentally friendly juice packs doubled, according to a report from Mintel.

One example is Noble Juice’s all-natural lemonade and blood orange and tangerine cranberry juices, which are matched with packaging that’s just as much a part of nature as the juice itself. In April, Noble Juice released its juice nationwide in its E-Bottle, made from Natureworks’ 100% all-natural polylactic acid (PLA), an alternative to polyethylene terephthalate (PET), wrapped with shrink sleeve film by NAFM. The bottle is both biodegradable and compostable.

Given the recent criticism of the bottled water industry and its use of PET bottles, as well as that same criticism spilling over into other beverage arenas, Noble Juice is setting an example and encouraging juice companies to stand up and lead juice packaging into the next sustainable wave beyond PET.