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With the new HERMAlucent (grade 140), recyclable paper-based labels can now achieve the look of semi-transparent film. Secure sealing with an elegant, semi-transparent look: With its new self-adhesive material featuring HERMAlucent (grade 140), HERMA demonstrates how paper can replace film even in demanding applications. This once again provides a recyclable solution in line with the forthcoming EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) and Design for Recycling guidelines.

Until now, transparent or semi-transparent films were the preferred choice for seal labels, as they are unobtrusive and lend packaging an elegant finish. The semi-transparent special paper HERMAlucent now offers these same advantages, enabling entirely paper-based seal labels – without compromising on appearance, functionality or product safety. “Film is still frequently used for seal labels, even when the packaging itself is made of paper or cardboard,” explains Hendrik Kehl, Product Manager at HERMA. “HERMAlucent avoids this undesirable combination. Packaging and label can be disposed of together in paper recycling – a clear advantage with the upcoming PPWR. The semi-transparent look also ensures that the labels remain visually discreet.”

Both companies announce a joint demonstration at Labelexpo: a live thermal-label application printed on the Xeikon LX3000 digital label press using HERMAtherm top M (912). The team will produce a charcuterie tray label on the stand and then add variable data, such as the “best before” date, on-site with a standard thermal printer. The demo shows a line-ready workflow. You print brand-forward labels digitally on the LX3000 press and add the date and lot data at the time of packing with a simple thermal overprint. No plates, no prepress loops, no changeovers for codes, just move from artwork to applied label, then print the “best before” where it matters: on the line. HERMAtherm top M (912) brings the right adhesion for plastic trays used in food packaging. It sticks reliably through packing, chill, and transport, yet still runs cleanly through the thermal printer when you add variable data. In short: labels stay put, codes stay sharp. Choosing the release liner 501 with approx. 50% unbleached fiber supports responsible sourcing goals without complicating production.

The user will get a material choice that also reduces virgin content while keeping the converting process and the application straightforward. Digital versions mean less waste. You print only what you need, when you need it, and you overprint only the units that ship. Fewer leftovers, fewer obsoletes, cleaner shelves. "For us, it was important to demonstrate that a sustainable label solution can also be practical and reliable. HERMAtherm top M (912) with the adhesive 62P offers exactly that balance: the material adheres firmly to the packaging while running cleanly through thermal overprinting. This gives customers supply chain security and more freedom to work sustainably.", says Milos Kojic, B2B marketing manager at Herma On the press side, the Xeikon LX3000 digital label press prints the job in a production-style setup at 42 m/min, so visitors see the quality and throughput they can expect on their floor. For media, HERMAtherm top M (912) thermal label material is used. An adhesive tuned for all sorts of food packaging applications, paired with a release liner that includes 15% unbleached fiber.

With solutions from stabilizing expert Hydrosol, manufacturers can implement many different product ideas that address the ongoing snack trend and meet consumer expectations. The company is presenting highlights from its product range at this year’s Gulfood Manufacturing in Dubai. One example is chicken chips with high protein content. For indulgent moments Hydrosol presents solutions for soft-serve ice cream and vegetable fat cream with high whipping volume and stable foam.

Self-indulgence is one of the main reasons for buying snack products. And what’s more self-indulgent than a refreshing ice cream cone? Many consumers the world over agree, if market numbers are any indication. Worldwide sales of ice cream have grown continuously in recent years. Soft-serve ice cream is a popular and trendy category. At the show in Dubai Hydrosol is presenting a stabilizing system for the production of soft-serve ice cream. What makes it special is that the product can be made on site in the desired amount by simply mixing the functional system and a few basic ingredients in a soft-serve ice cream machine. The result is a high-quality treat with creamy texture and authentic vanilla taste. The flexible recipe enables a wide range of soft-serve specialties in many different flavors to meet customer preferences.

Anyone who wants to see Südpack’s new CarbonLite® film family live in action at Fachpack 2025 should head to the SN booth – no. 1-317. Once again, the film specialist and the machine manufacturer are working hand in hand – demonstrating that mono-PE stand-up pouches with an integrated PE zipper can be produced efficiently on a standard horizontal pouch packaging machine, thanks to our many years of expertise. The best part? This practical and sturdy pouch making material requires no aluminum or metallization.

Südpack has combined and further developed the proven tubular pouch films from its premium Pure-Line under the new CarbonLite® brand. Designed to en-sure a long shelf life and full enjoyment down to the very last crumb, these PE- and PP-based mono-materials can be equipped – just like conventional film structures – with the required oxygen and water vapor barriers, UV protection, and anti-fog features for packaging a wide variety of snacks, from nut mixes, grated cheese, and salami sticks to dog treats. In terms of performance, this mono-material, which is generally more challeng-ing to process, meets all expectations. As demonstrated live at Fachpack, it can be processed smoothly on a standard packaging machine with consistent output and excellent process and packaging reliability. Its high thermal resistance also ensure secure sealing for opening aids and reclose systems. The stand-up pouches are produced on an FME 50 horizontal pouch packaging machine (HFFS) from SN Maschinenbau.

This model is a simple, flexible, and powerful pouch packaging machine from the Economic Series. It is suitable for nearly all dry food applications and also impresses with easy operation and rapid, largely tool-free format changes in under 15 minutes. Another advantage is its compact design and small footprint.

As clean-label demand continues to reshape the food and beverage industry, replacing artificial colors has become a top priority for brands worldwide. Explore how EXBERRY® plant-based color solutions can help you confidently transition away from synthetic dyes like Red 3 and Yellow 5. From bold, stable reds made from fruits and vegetables to sunny, vibrant yellows sourced from algae, carrots, and turmeric—discover how to achieve stunning results naturally, without compromising on performance or visual appeal.

Replace Synthetic Reds with Confidence

Discover how to achieve bold, stable, plant-based reds that meet clean-label demands—without compromising on performance.

Learn practical, on-the-ground tips from our experts to make your transition smooth, vibrant, and consumer-ready.

Discover Our Reds

Find Your Perfect Shade of Yellow

Explore vibrant, plant-based yellow color options—from algal carotene to turmeric—that bring brilliance and stability to your products.

Get expert tips on choosing and formulating clean-label yellows that perform beautifully across beverages, snacks, and more.

Discover Our Yellows

The company will demonstrate the potential of its plant-based Exberry® colors for bakery and snacks with vibrant concha cookie concepts at IBIE 2025 (September 13-17, Las Vegas). Exberry® colors are created from non-GMO fruits, vegetables, and plants. They can be used to achieve a vast array of bold shades, creating opportunities across cakes, breads, cookies, snacks, decorations, fillings, and coatings. At IBIE, GNT (North Hall — 6666) will offer visitors the chance to sample a rainbow of sugar cookies inspired by the classic Mexican pan dulce. Each concha cookie features a ‘shell’ topping in bright, striking shades derived from ingredients such as red potatoes, peppers, carrots, and spirulina. GNT’s experts will be available throughout the event to discuss formulation opportunities with plant-based colors, including synthetic dye replacement. They will also be able to provide insights into the latest color trends in the bakery and snack sector. Jeannette O’Brien, VP of Sales and Marketing at GNT USA, said: “Our innovative cookie concepts show how ExberryY® can deliver the bold, playful colors that consumers expect while keeping labels simple. We partner with manufacturers at every stage of product development to make the switch to plant-based colors straightforward and effective.”

For this reason, the renowned film manufacturerhas consolidated its recyclable Pure-Line pouch films under the CarbonLite® brand – and taken them to the next level. Made from PP and PE mono-materials, these high-performance films offer a more eco-friendly alternative to conventional non-recyclable composites and aluminum-based films. Whether processed into lightweight flowpacks, practical doypacks, or robust block-bottom pouches, they offer an ideal packaging concept for nuts, bakery products, dried fruit, and other snacks – while also conserving resources and reducing environmental impact. And with excellent product protection and a long shelf life – thanks to superior barrier properties and secure sealing – they guarantee maximum flavor and crunch down to the very last bite.

The demanding requirements for snack packaging are fully satisfied by Südpack’s sustainable material structures. To ensure a long shelf life and maximum flavor, the films are equipped with the necessary oxygen and water vapor barriers. Delicate dried fruits are optimally shielded from UV light and discoloration through high-opacity white pigmentation. With their extensive co-extrusion know-how and decades of project experience, Südpack’s experts have created mono-materials that run smoothly on standard packaging machines – producing a wide variety of pouch formats with the same efficiency, process reliability, and packaging security as conventional film structures.

The result is an expansion into innovation across beverage, confectionery, and coatings. Blue Pacific Flavors, a pioneer in natural and organic flavor systems, is entering a new era of global flavor innovation through its acquisition by Capol, a company of the Freudenberg Group, effective September 1, 2025. This strategic acquisition combines leading expertise in beverages, confectionery, and coatings to create a global food ingredient leader with complementary strengths — accelerating innovation in flavors, coatings, and product development across the food and beverage industry. Donald Wilkes will continue as CEO of Blue Pacific Flavors, and the company’s management team and employees remain unchanged, ensuring seamless continuity for customers while adding the scale and resources of a global group. The parties have agreed not to disclose financial details of the transaction. By uniting deep category expertise across beverage, confectionery, and coatings, the transaction positions the Capol group to serve global food manufacturers with an unmatched spectrum of flavor innovation and surface treatments while expanding its high-quality service and supply throughout North America, Europe, and Asia.

The company Cargill Food brings brightness to every bite. Consumers eat with their eyes first. That’s why color, alongside taste and texture, is crucial in product development.  

But achieving and maintaining those vibrant colors and shininess through intense production, while using label-friendly starches, is a real challenge – especially in light-colored applications like bakery fillings. You also don’t want to sacrifice that perfect texture. Enter SimPure® Bright*: a label-friendly solution that brings brightness to every bite of your bakery products. A

vailable in both cook-up and instant versions, SimPure® Bright solutions will enable you to achieve the balance between label-friendliness and visual and textural appeal. Like other SimPure® starches, you can label this corn-based product simply as “starch” or “corn starch.” Cargill experts have tested the performance of SimPure® Bright in bakery fillings for vanilla, instant bakery creams, and fruit fillings.

Extensive application tests have shown consistently whiter results versus our existing SimPure® products and on par color results versus our modified starches.

Digital, faster and even closer to the customer - Gerhard Schubert GmbH, Crailsheim, to expand its service portfolio.  

In view of rising prices for energy and raw materials, a sustained shortage of skilled workers and increasing production pressures, machine availability is becoming essential for manufacturing companies. Gerhard Schubert GmbH is tackling these challenges with a comprehensive expansion of its ‘4YOU Service’ portfolio, offering its customers measurable benefits in terms of efficiency, availability and sustainability – both in analogue and digital form.

“Our customers are facing enormous pressures – financially and in terms of personnel and organisation. As a machine manufacturer, we not only have to respond to this, we also need to proactively offer solutions that promote transparent, networked and efficient processes,” explains Uwe Galm, Director of Customer Services at Schubert. The result is a greatly expanded service portfolio that combines classic maintenance and repair services with digital services under the ‘4YOU Service’ umbrella brand at Schubert.

“Today, our customers dictate a tight maintenance window, but they also expect perfect preparation – and rightly so,” explains Galm. Any deviations are practically unthinkable. Machine manufacturers are required to ensure maximum precision in planning and implementation. Even brief interruptions in production can result in significant financial losses. When perishable products are concerned, unexpected downtime can even result in entire batches being discarded – a serious loss, also in terms of sustainability.

Schubert is successfully addressing these requirements with a rigorous, finely tuned concept: ready-to-go spare part kits, plug & play modules, precisely scheduled deployment planning and clearly defined processes all come together to make sure that maintenance work is carried out as efficiently as possible. The main prerequisite for this is full transparency of the lines themselves.

4YOUconnect now gives line operators and service personnel digital access to all relevant machine documentation, such as operating instructions, circuit diagrams, parts lists and 3D views of available spare parts. This makes them even easier to identify and order via the integrated web shop – for a service process that is entirely digital. Efficient processes also rely on networked systems: Schubert provides the required digital infrastructure with cutting-edge monitoring and analysis tools such as CARE 2.0.

The greatly expanded ‘Connection for Analytics, Reporting and Efficiency’ platform, to be introduced later this year, enables standard-compliant calculation of key OEE metrics for packaging machines. The company will be presenting this important building block for increased production reliability and business efficiency at Fachpack in Nuremberg. Maintenance that is smarter, more reliable and more sustainable To deliver even more customer benefits, Schubert plans to expand its digital service portfolio with additional offerings in the future. By interpack 2026, 4YOUconnect will include a shared maintenance calendar that will enable customers and Schubert to plan maintenance measures in a way that is precisely tailored to production processes.

“Our goal is a digital logbook that documents all work seamlessly and ensures a transparent service history in the long term – providing real added value, also with regard to audits and traceability,” explains Galm. Guided maintenance routines will complement the concept. This measure, which is designed to guide operators and maintenance personnel digitally through all necessary steps, enables Schubert to counteract the already noticeable impact of the shortage of skilled workers.

Additional specialist knowledge is provided by the company’s in-house learning platform, ‘Schubert Learning Space’, where machine operators can complete training courses on the main operating steps at any time and from any location and repeat them as often as they like – without incurring any travel costs, making a significant contribution to CO2 neutrality.

In addition to the 24/7 phone support hotline that has been available for two years, Schubert is also working hard on a digital ticket system for the 4YOUconnect customer portal. In the future, customers will be able to submit service requests directly online around the clock – regardless of hotline hours, waiting times or language barriers. “Another advantage is that customers can view the current processing status of their enquiry at any time, which is also helpful for further planning and implementation,” concludes Galm.