Rapak has been presented with the prestigious World Juice Award for Best Innovation in Processing and Packaging at the Foodnews World Juice Conference in Amsterdam. This award, which went jointly to Rapak and its customer, Toury, recognises outstanding innovation.

The new pack was introduced under the Cidou name, a major soft drinks brand in France. It offers substantial new benefits to consumers, distributors and retailers alike.

For consumers, the new pack offers up to 4 weeks shelf life after opening, a real plus for the family market. Because the bag within the box prevents air from entering during dispense the juice is protected from oxidation to a much greater degree than ever before. Moreover, the pack fits securely and conveniently inside a standard fridge. The dispensing tap is very user-friendly and hygienic. It's so easy that even young children can use the tap to dispense what they need.

For distributors and retailers there are major supply chain and shelf display advantages. For example, there are more sizes available. Whereas other ‘brick style' long life retail packaging formats have an upper limit of 2 litres, the new bag-in-box format comes in 2, 3, 5, 10 and 20 litres. The new pack also has longer unopened shelf life. The juice remains in perfect condition for 9 months after packaging, increasing the storage and distribution options for all concerned.

On shelf, the box format provides opportunities for greater impact as it can be printed with high quality graphics on all four sides. Which means whatever way you look at it, the brand image is enhanced by the packaging, whether on-shelf in the store or in the consumer's home. With 80% of buying decisions made at the point of display, this is a formidable benefit.

Rapak would like to thank Dayla, the UK's largest independent aseptic bag-in-box filler, for running the trials on behalf of Toury, and for producing the first 50,000 bags.