Daisy Brand wakes up sleepy sour cream category with squeezable packaging

To do this, the privately-held sour cream and cottage cheese manufacturer enlisted the help of AptarGroup to come up with a packaging solution for the dairy product.

What the two companies came up with was an upside down squeezable pouch packaging format using Aptar’s patented technology that has gone on to win three packaging innovation awards and growing consumer acceptance.

The trouble with tubs​

“The idea was to move from tubs of sour cream, which have been around forever, and to drive more use occasions,”​ Aptar sales director of food and beverage, Aaron Heyniger, told DairyReporter at PackExpo in Chicago this week.

“The problem with the tub is, a lot of times, it makes its way to the very back of the refrigerator and people forget that it’s there until they open it up and it’s moldy,”​ Heyniger said.

“And when you’re using it, you tend to have to scoop it on your taco and now all of sudden you’ve got your food into the sour cream.”​

To fix these issues with sour cream packaging, Aptar became involved in the manufacturing of the injection molding components of the new packaging.

The closure features a cap that flips open and the packaging company’s patented EasiSqueeze silicone valve technology has a 'snowflake' pattern.

“The snowflake pattern allows a nice clean thick stream product to be squeezed out, and when you let go, it actually pulls back and snaps the product off so you don’t get actually get a lot of dripping or mess,”​ Heyniger said.

However, Heyniger said that this new squeezable packaging won't likely replace tubs, rather reinvigorate and encourage more usage occasions for sour cream.

Not another ‘me-too’ package​

Aptar has had experience with food products with similar viscosity to sour cream like condiments such as mayonnaise and ketchup, in which they used an upside-down squeezable bottle.

“Daisy was really adamant that they didn’t want to just do a ‘me-too’ product,”​ Heyniger said. “They wanted to do something that caught people’s attention.”​

In order to stand out, Daisy Brand used an inverted flexible pouch format to make consuming sour cream easier, cleaner and more engaging.

“Pouches like this have been around for a while, so these aren’t revolutionary, what’s really unique though is that this one’s upside down,”​ Heyniger said.

“It’s always ready to be dispensed and it adds the convenience of the flexible pouch where you can squeeze it and get every last bit out.”​