StarKist's uncanny new pouch touts convenience

Food & Drug Packaging, July, 2000

StarKist Seafood is going soft in its packaging.

The company plans to introduce a vacuum-sealed foil pouch for its tuna products this fall, answering the consumer's ongoing need for more convenience.

Unlike canned tuna, the easy-open pouch contains virtually no liquid and thus requires no draining. It also delivers firmer-fresher-tasting tuna because shorter cooking and processing is required when tuna is packed in a pouch and vacuum sealed.

The company will sell 7-ounce pouches of StarKist Chunk Lite Tuna in water, Chunk Lite Tuna in sunflower oil and Premium Albacore in water. Don Binotto, managing director of StarKist Seafood, a unit of the H.J. Heinz Co.'s Star-Kist Foods, says the company will invest more than $20 million in a national advertising and marketing campaign to support the product launch.

Michael Mullen, spokesman for StarKist Seafood, explains that the 7-ounce size is designed for families. Although there are no immediate plans to introduce a smaller size for its tuna "kits," the company may create a 3-ounce trial size in the fall. The package was designed by Interbrand, Gerstman and Meyers of New York.

Officials from StarKist would not reveal who is supplying the film.

Although the consumer-size pouch is a fresh development for the company, StarKist has provided 43-ounce size pouches for the foodservice industry for years.

The new tuna pouches sport a blue graphic design and feature Charlie the Tuna

prominently in the front. On the back of the pouch consumers will find tuna recipes and nutritional information.

Interbrand, Gerstman and Meyers, (800) 586-2535

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