Clear clamshell protects a `Skinny Cow'

Food & Drug Packaging, Feb, 2002

The familiar ice cream sandwich has shed its old-fashioned wrap and now flaunts a more contemporary package. The thermoformed clamshell has caught the attention of ice cream manufacturers and convenience-hungry consumers: it's easy to open, reclosable, clear--so you can see how many sandwiches are left--and provides adequate-to-good physical protection from cookie crumbling and freezer burn.

Among the recent converts is Silhouette Brands Inc. The founders of Silhouette Brands--home of the "Skinny Cow"--developed the Silhouette Diet Ice Cream Sandwich: fat-free ice cream between two low-fat chocolate wafers. Originally sold store-to-store from a van in the mid '90s, the Skinny Cow heat has grown to a nationwide presence distributed by Edy's/Dreyers Ice Cream to 18,000 stores across all 50 states.

Unlike previous ice cream sandwiches, these individual treats are bare of any packaging material. Silhouette nestles the sandwiches in six-count thermoformed polystyrene clamshell trays made by Tray-Pak Corp. Trays protect the delicate wafers but open and snap closed easily for home freezer storage. For added assurance that they will stay closed in transit and to provide tamper evidence, filled trays are also shrink wrapped.

Tray-Pak Corp.
888-926-1777: www.traypak.com