Packaging that Works: Lundberg Family Farms Rice

Hi, I'm Jo Anne Forman and I'd like to welcome you to my blog, "Packaging that Works".

"A package that works" for consumers is a package that lasts until the product is finished. 

Today's consumers resent having to repackage a product once they've opened the package. 

In a recent survey conducted by the US Contract Packaging Association, 8 in 10 consumers think re-sealable packaging is important, in a large part because they associate re-sealable with the ability to retain freshness of the product.

Today's consumers measure their satisfaction with a packaged product by both the quality of the product and by the qualities of the package.

Today we are going to experience a rice package from Lundberg Family Farms.

Let's take a look at the package.

They are using a pre-made stand up pouch with a Velcro closure.  You'll notice that the bottom of the package is completely flat. This is not a gusseted bottom stand up pouch, where the gusset goes up inside and seals into the side seals. The center of gravity is lower with the flat bottom. This is important because of the weight of the rice, and it needs to stand upright on the shelf and not tip over. This pouch is made by Peel Plastics.

The package contains 20 servings, based on a household of 2, the package would need to reclose about 10 times.

Let's see how it works...

First, we need to tear away the top of the package for an easy open. This works well, with the final bit needing to be tugged to be removed.

Next we open it up by grasping the two edges and pulling apart. We can see the Velcro on the inside. The Velcro strips are about 3/8" long.

When you reclose it, you can really feel and hear that you have pressed it closed, and that you've actually closed it, unlike a lot of press to close zippers, which you can't tell if you've closed them or not. You can tell the Velcro is closed. By shaking it upside down, we can see no rice coming out and we have proved that it is fully closed.

Let's try pouring it into a cup measure and see how it works. We poured about 2 servings and reclosed the package. Wow. That works!

Todd Kluger, vice president of marketing at Lundberg Family Farms said:

“We respect both our older consumers and our younger consumers, so we had to make sure that they would have something that they could close easily, that had good usability, and that also looked beautiful."

Mission Accomplished Todd!

This is a Package that Works!

Thank you for joining me today. I hope you'll check out my future blogs on "Packaging that Works".