The Packaging Of Ritz Chips

Ritz chips are a newer chip alternative product on the market. The packaging is made of a wide thick-coated bag that is designed to "stand up". On the back of the unopened package is a reseal sticker that is supposed to be used to reseal the package when done snacking. However, the sticker is an inadequate means of resealing the package and does not stay. The unaware consumer may reseal their bag this way and come to the bag next time to find stale chips. The wide bag does make it easy to reach a hand or two in and grab the chips, but is not designed as it says to "stand up" without support, due to the placement of the seams and uneven distribution of chips in the bag. The easy-to-grab function is also self-defeating, as this product is positioned as a "healthier" product not meant for the heavy snacker.

The product's packaging design is enticing to the consumer. Bold fonts, large prominent logos, and bright colors attract the consumer to the brand. Being a healthy-chip alternative in the cracker aisle, steering away from the typical light blues and whites lets consumers know this product's parity point is taste, not simply being low in fat. Ritz made a smart decision to stay away from traditional chip packaging, as a more expensive product. Consumers can be sure their Ritz chips will come, for the most part, shape-intact, rather than in a crumbly mess like most chips.

areas needing improvement in this package. A solution to the resealing problem is to eliminate the sticker and use a Ziploc-style enclosure. This seal would ensure any easy opening, as well as it would still allow the snack to have a wide opening, for easy access. The new seal can protect the chips from additional air, therefore not allowing the chips to get stale. The Ziploc-style seal would also be able to be used, and re-used, many times, unlike the current sticker seal. Eventually, after a few uses, the stickiness of the sticker wore off, defeating the purpose of the sticker. With the new zip-style enclosure, consumers can now rest assured now knowing they don't have to supplement their open chips with a "chip clip". The zip-style seal is used commonly in other types of cracker and snack food products.

The Ritz chips packaging has a wider bottom, which is supposed to provide enough balance to stand-up; however, due to the placement of the seam, the package does not stand up by itself (Figure 2:1). Our solution to this problem is to reinforce the bottom by gusseting the package. By essentially forming the package in a side-seamed , rounded-bottom manner as so, the sturdy side walls stay secure as a means for letting the package stay durable as well as to actually stand up. Commonly used in other snack packaging, gusseted plastic packaging makes snacking easy for the consumer as well as easily-stocked and restocked by retailers.

There are a few important things to consider when choosing the type of laminates and films the new Ritz Chips package should be constructed of. Structure, oxygen and moisture barriers, and decoration are all prime examples of topics to focus on.

After starting this project, we realized that the new package we want for Ritz Chips is going to be a stand-up pouch with a zip lock closure. We researched and decided that our new package would resemble the new Mini Chips Ahoy resealable stand-up pouch in its structure and that structure would involve the following materials: polyethylene terephthalate, low-density polyethylene, metallized biaxially oriented polypropylene, low-density polyethylene, and sealant.

The first of our laminate layers is polyethylene terephthalate, also known as polyester or PET. A common example of a PET package would be carbonated beverage bottles. PET films are known as a good universal barrier and their high tensile strength, which refers to a material's resistance to fracture when exposed to a force operating to extend, stretch, or pull it apart. This is an important aspect of a package because a consumer does not want a package to easily break or tear. Other important qualities that PET films have are low elongation, excellent grease/oil barrier properties, low gas and moisture permeability, good printing characteristics, a high-use-temperature range, high impact strength, high scuff resistance and excellent dimensional stability. Low gas and moisture permeability is an excellent property because the product is one that would get stale or moldy if gas and moisture was not controlled. Some not so great properties of PET film include lack of heat sealability and poor package openability. Poor openability is not extremely significant in this situation because one would not need to tear the actual packaging, merely pull apart the Ziploc seal.

In order to help with the lack of a good heat sealing agent, low-density polyethylene is used as the next layer. LDPE is readily sealed by various heat-sealing techniques. Other characteristics of LDPE include good clarity, high elongation and flexibility, and softness. LDPE helps make the package not as rigid and stiff as it might be with the PET alone. LDPE also has a low cost and