The European Patent Office has awarded IDC with a patent for The Answer that covers the UK, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Spain until 2021. It gives IDC the exclusive right to produce, market, and sell the product in these countries.
Designed for bag-in-box style drink containers, The Answer aims to extend the home life of perishable drinks like milk so people can keep drinking from the package even when it has been left out of the fridge.
The idea was the brainchild of IDC founder Greg Abbott who saw the product as a way of making the Tetra Brik Pak not just capable of extending shelf life but also of extending the life of the product after opening.