Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.If you buy one of the ready-to-drink energy or vitamin drinks in the assumption that it will give you the necessary kick, you might be in for a surprise. The kick is not coming and you discover you just drank a very sweet soda, nothing more. Well, sugar of course gives some extra energy, but the expected dose of vitamins might not have worked.

Deterioration of vitamins and nutrients
It is generally known, that most vitamins and other nutrients are very sensitive and lose their power the moment they get mixed with a liquid, particularly water. In other words they start deteriorating the moment the bottle leaves the filling line. The longer they stay mixed, the less efficiently vitamins and nutrients work. Vitamin C, for example, loses 80% of its potency after only 30 days.

It is even worse, as beverage companies add flavouring to make their product more attractive to the consumer. Most added flavours are fruit additives, and if they are natural, the beverage degrades if stored at ambient temperatures for a prolonged period of time.
Shelf-life can be broadly defined as the length of time between initial packaging of a product and the point at which consumers notice a decrease in product quality. Thus, shelf-life of a product is determined by the least stable aspect of that product or its package. For moderate to high acid-containing citrus beverages, in other words most fruit additives, the least stable aspect, as well as the cause of greatest flavour degradation, is the extended contact of the favouring extract with water.

Functional Bottle Caps
Various companies marketing energy and vitamin drinks have developed solutions for this problem. In the past I wrote about several of them, the VIZcap, the Activate, the Cedevita and the Delo cap, that keep the vitamins dry and fresh until consumption of the drink. See my article “Innovative dispensing bottle caps for sensitive vitamins“.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

But ingenious or not these dispensing caps, or functional caps, as they are sometimes called, have all one problem. Except for the Delo cap, all dispensing caps are proprietary of the drinks company, which limits the possibilities of wider implementation in the market for energy and vitamin drinks.
Developing a functional cap is quite an expensive exercise, leaving many an energy drink no other choice than “slowly deteriorating” in its container.

As said, in the end of the day consumers expecting to drink a healthier product don’t get what they actually paid for.

Tap-The-Cap
That all might change in the near future. Tap The Cap Inc., an innovation company in California, developed the (logically) Tap-The-Cap dispensing cap. The patented development solves the problem of many fortified beverage companies as it can be used by any brand. It is not limited to one brand. Furthermore the cap has the special design that it is universal, in other words it can be used as cap filled with vitamins and sold without the bottle with water, as the cap fits almost any still water bottle in the market.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

A huge improvement for all consumers, who like to add “value” to their own preferred water brand!

To use Tap-The-Cap is simple: Remove the (screw) cap of the water bottle, Push the Tap-The-Cap over the neck of the bottle, Tap down on the spout, Shake the bottle, Pull up on the spout and enjoy your drink.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.The technique behind the cap of course is a bit more complicated. Let’s have a look at some details.

In its basics the Tap-The-Cap is like any other dispensing cap as it has to dispense a supplement (vitamins, flavours, nutrients) through a bottle neck opening and into the bottle. However one of the most interesting features of the Tap-The-Cap is its configuration to connect to beverage bottle necks of different sizes.
Bottle necks often have screw threads to accommodate the original threaded cap attached to the bottle. The Tap-The-Cap can be put in place on the bottle neck after the original bottle cap has been removed.
As the exploded view shows the dispensing cap system is designed to seal off the mouth of a beverage bottle.
The cap features a number of fingers, while the distal ends of the fingers have inwardly barbs or tabs, which have sloped surfaces. The fingers are thin and have some flexibility. They are made so long so that the tips of the fingers flex outwardly as the cap is pushed onto the neck of the bottle, and the barbs engage under the extending flange of the bottle neck.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

With this design the structure of the cap also accommodates non-threaded beverage bottles, by engaging with the bottle flange or collar, as the fingers and the barbs do not have to match the threads of the bottle neck, which varies with different beverage or bottle types. The design even include an extra tooth on the inside of the fingers which engages with the threads on the bottle neck by sliding over some or all the threads as the cap is pushed onto a threaded bottle neck, and locks in place without rotationally being screwed on the bottle.

A seal is located inside the housing to provide a liquid seal against the neck opening and as it is made from an elastomeric material, it will deform according to the size and design of the bottle neck, compensating for any size difference, while the flexibility of the fingers for their part compensate at the outside of the neck for bottle sizes from 26 to 32 mm.

The supplement storage is of a cup-like design, with a cylindrical sidewall and a membrane. The storage chamber defines the volume of the quantity of a supplement in granular, powder or liquid form. According to the company the storage can hold 9.5 grams, representing 9.5 cm3 (.58 cu inch, .33 fluid oz).
A valve sits in the centre of the storage chamber and is attached to the cap, configured for movement between a closed and a dispensing position, in which passage of the supplement is permitted from the storage into the bottle.
A drinking spout is positioned on top of the valve to allow the bottle content to be consumed. The sidewall of the spout has several ports, which permit the beverage to pass through from the bottle when the valve is in an open position.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

When you look at this universal dispensing or functional cap, you must agree that the inventors with their more than 25 years experience in the health and wellness industry, succeeded in their goal, (as they formulated it) “to create a safe and effective way for people to take their supplements without having to swallow a pill or capsule or get taken in by those over-hyped vitamin fortified waters where the vitamins have already deteriorated in the liquid”.

Currently, the inventors are looking to licensing out their technology. Interested parties can contact info@tapthecap.com.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.In general it can be said that dispensing caps or functional caps are used to store dry or liquid supplements separately from the water in which when released by the consumer they form an energy or vitamin drink or sometimes a medicinal drink, under the assumption or claim that supplements, particularly vitamins deteriorate in water quickly and as such a ready-to-drink vitamin beverage doesn’t give the consumer the kick he/she was expecting and paid for.

This claim marketed by the companies of energy and vitamin drinks which use a functional cap, is at this moment under attack, as Activate, one of the main players in this market segment, is slapped with a class-action lawsuit in California.
The class-action lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Feb. 24 accuses Rising Beverage Co., the owner of Activate, of dishonest and misleading statements in its advertising about the freshness of Activate’s key innovation, its “in-the-cap” reservoir of dry vitamins versus those pre-mixed in other beverages.
The lawsuit points to a 2006 study in “The Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences” that found certain types of vitamins – including those contained in Activate – to be stable in water.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Activate 4-pack

Whatever the outcome of the lawsuit, the implementation of functional caps will continue, as there are many other arguments to be used in favour of this type of caps. Let me just relate some of the most important. Besides the (still valid) argument of rapid degradation of supplements in water, everything from pharmaceuticals to nutraceuticals, from anti-aging to anti-oxidants, from vitamins to functional supplements, from male potency to stem cell stimulants, from energy to relaxation and so on can be packed and properly dosed by a dispensed cap.
You already see applications in the (semi)medical sector, as it is generally claimed that pills and capsules have a very short window of absorption when traveling through the body.  A consumer would be fortunate to absorb 10-15% of the nutrients.  Liquid absorption is much higher: around 80-90%. Furthermore people would rather prefer to drink their supplements, pharmaceuticals and nutraceuticals than taking a pill or capsule, especially when it comes to children and the elderly.

All this said, let’s have a look at the technique of dispensing and various recently developed functional caps.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

ViCap dispensing closure

Over the last 50 to 60 years a wide range of dispensing caps has been developed and patented. A typical dispenser cap includes a space which holds the substance to be dispersed (vitamin, flavour, medicine in powder form, liquid or tablet), which is bounded and sealed on one side by a membrane. A membrane opening device is used, often activated by depression of a flexible diaphragm, which causes the membrane opening device to pierce the membrane, thus enabling mixing of the contents of the dispenser with those of the container to which it is attached.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

United States Patent 7017735

One of the most basic designs I found in a patent filed in 2002 by inventor Stephen Carlson and assigned to The Coca-Cola Company. The image (see picture) shows the principle of any dispensing cap.
All dispensing caps come back to this principle, punching a hole in a membrane to release the vitamin powder or liquid, stored in the separate chamber above the membrane. But in reality a dispensing cap isn’t functioning that simple as showed in the drawing/sketch of the “invention” of the 2002 patent. The risk that powder sticks in the punched hole and is not released in full into the liquid/water of the bottle is one of the reasons further inventions with more complicated designs have seen the light.
In other words the secret of a good-functioning dispensing cap is not just punching a hole, but how to remove the membrane in such a way to ensure that the powder is fully released into the water. Inefficient or incomplete mixing of the two substances is not desired as the concentration of the additive may be critical for some applications, such as in preparing pharmaceutical solutions. Shaking or other means of forcing the contents of the dispenser to mix with the water in the bottle cannot guarantee complete mixing, as some additive may still remain trapped in the dispenser.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

The 3-step-process of ViCap

Just punching a hole is not appropriate for use with supplements in the form of tablets. To dispense a tablet the hole in the membrane must be larger than the dimensions of the tablet so that the tablet can move freely and reliably from the dispenser into the container when the membrane is ruptured.

With all these disadvantages for dispenser caps with just a puncher, the developments concentrate on rupturing the membrane completely, cutting it along the edges and removing it as much as possible. In all modern dispensing caps you see more or less ingenious cutting devices to get rid of the membrane. In addition, the membrane may include a scored line to facilitate rupturing.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Details of the Funktional closure of Optima

I selected some 14 different designs of dispensing or functional caps from all over the world. We will see the VizCap of Viz Enterprises, the Activate cap, the Optima functional cap, the ViCap of Vicap Systems, the BiaGaia Cap of Bericap, the Cedevita cap made by Teamplast, the PowerCap of Liquid Health Labs, the Yoli Blast Cap, the Mojo organics cap, the Karma cap of Karma Wellness Water, the Tap-The-Cap, and the Delo Cap from France.
Furthermore especially developed for the pharmaceutical industry the Aspin Dispensing Bottle Cap, the CapStaticX of NYSW Beverage Brands Inc., and the Berocca Twist ‘N’ Go cap of Bayer Australia.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

CapStaticX-Ray

Some of the above I have described in previous articles, but for the sake of completeness I briefly include them in this overview with a link to the more detailed article. The others I will describe in detail, as far as I have details available.
When I count correctly I mentioned 14 different dispensing caps. That’s a long ride, so I cut the whole story in three more parts.

The next article starts with, probably the most well-known, the Activate dispensing cap. Then the VizCap, Optima, Vicap and BaiGaia. The rest will follow.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Activate dispensing cap

In my previous article we discussed why it is desirable to dispense a predetermined amount of ingredients/additive/supplement into a liquid, mostly water, in a container. In short to dispense an additive in powder or in a tablet form into water it can add flavouring, colouring, vitamins, minerals and the like into the water to create a palatable drink which can be consumed direct from the container. There are other applications, like pharmaceuticals, but the most marketed application is the enhancement of water.

This article starts with, probably the most well-known, the Activate dispensing cap. Then we shall have a look at the VizCap, and the Optima cap. The other caps as mentioned in my first article are described in the next articles.

The Activate dispensing cap
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.In 2009 Rising Beverage Co. in Los Angeles, the owner of Activate, launched a line of functional beverages that features a custom-designed cap to keep vitamins and other healthful ingredients fresh until consumption.

The vitamin drink consists of a 16 oz (474 ml) PET bottle filled with water and capped by a custom-made dispensing closure that stores 3 gr of dry ingredient. When the consumer twists the upper cavity of the cap clockwise, an internal blade within the closure turns and pierces a plastic membrane separating the powdered formula from the water. By cutting the sealed membrane, the ingredients are released into the beverage, which is then ready for consumption.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

As I argued in my previous article the secret of a good-functioning dispensing cap is not just punching a hole, but how to remove the membrane in such a way to ensure that the powder is fully released into the water. Inefficient or incomplete mixing of the two substances is not desired as the concentration of the additive is critical to the result as marketed by the vitamin or energy drinks company.
As you can see in the photo compilation the membrane in the Activate cap is almost fully removed to give full and free access to the water in the bottle.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Portola Fushion Cap

We will see that similar cutting systems are used by several other companies. The Activate bottle is made by MPI Packaging and distributed by Zuckerman Honickman. Although the name of the supplier of the dispensing cap is not unveiled, it is generally assumed that Portola in Napeville,Il, is manufacturing the Activate cap. By the way, Portola markets a similar cap under its own trade name Fushion cap, a 28 mm dispensing cap.

The VizCap
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.In contrast to the Activate cap and many others the VizCap isn’t exclusively linked to a drinks company and not even to a specific bottle. The VIZcap, designed by Formation Design, can be moulded and manufactured to fit any bottle size and can contain both large and small powder quantities. The company states that the cap can seamlessly run at existing bottling lines.

United States Patent 7854104 titled “Multi-chamber container and cap therefor”, published 21 Dec. 2010 and assigned to VIZ Enterprises, LLC (Atlanta, GA, US), uses the arguments I described in my previous article in relation to punching the membrane.

It states: “Many of these devices consist of a piercing tip or cutter that perforates or cuts a foil seal, blister pack or membrane releasing one component into a supplemental component, usually tablets, granules or powders into a liquid. Minor differences, consisting mostly of how the piercing tip is activated, differentiate these devices. Whether piercing tips or cutters are used to remove the seal between compartments, there is always the danger of having fragments of foil or other residue fall into the mixed components”.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

The VizCap is described as an “invention [that] provides a container and cap that overcome many of the disadvantages of the prior art while providing a container that is easy to use and uses a minimum number of parts and that is simple to manufacture and assemble”.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

The VizCap is simple. The VIZcap stores liquid and powder nutrients in an oxygen and moisture-restricted chamber situated in the bottle cap. Around the bottle cap with its transparent dome-shaped chamber, in which the fresh ingredients are stored, sits a tamper-evident tear-strip, which should be removed, after which the plunger (the dome-shaped cap) can be pushed downwards and the ingredients are released into the liquid.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Besides the typical characteristic of a fresher and more powerful drink, the VIZcap features the appealing advantage that the vitamins and nutrients are visible in the clear dome where they are housed.

VIZ Enterprises doesn’t manufacture the bottle cap itself, but licenses its VIZcap technology to third parties to get it on the worldwide beverage market.

The Optima cap

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Optima Functional Cap

In fact the Optima cap is not a cap, but a system. It is not linked to any drinks company or even a manufacturer of closures. The Optima Packaging Group GmbH, with its headquarter in Schwäbisch Hall in Germany is a packaging machine manufacturer, having developed a machine to manufacture and assemble a functional cap, as they call it.

With its modular-designed CFL machine series, Optima offers a solution that integrate all functions for manufacturing functional closures within one continuous process. The CFL1, the start-up machine, achieves an output of up to 50 units/min. In high-output design, a machine from the CFL series produces a maximum of 1,000 units/min. The machines always incorporate multiple assembly functions for the various components. Dosing features for the ingredients in addition to control functions for the tightness of the functional closures, while the assembling accuracy is a particularly important aspect in this context.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

The Optima CFL1 starts the manufacture of beverage closures at the sorting head. Then, the “chambers”, one of a total of four components, are placed into a conveyor plate. An Optima auger filler fills these chambers with the required quantity of ingredients. This step is followed by foil-sealing. Immediately followed by the joining of the filled chamber and the fed-in sleeve, after which it is laser-labelled. A cap – placed in a subsequent step to protect the cap against contamination – completes the system.

Accompanying the 100% tightness control, all processing steps are monitored. Therefore, via an active pick-and-place discharge, only those closures that are properly processed reach the market.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

As said Optima is manufacturing the machine, which assembles the Functional Closure components and then film-seals the closure. Maximum output is said to be 1,500 units/min. The individual components of the functional cap are made by a Swiss plastics company.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

I haven’t the information available whether the supply of the cap components is an exclusivity of the (unnamed) Swiss company. Interested parties have to contact Optima to get a direct answer.

I said last time that I should describe 5 caps in this article. But it is getting too long and I bring the remaining caps to the next article. Still 11 to go.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

At this moment there are three hot topics in the packaging world. The first one is the dispensing cap, which we find mainly on top of a water bottle for inserting a certain dose of vitamins. It is a packaging format which over the last years attracted an increasing number of beverage companies, but now moves to other applications.
The second hot item is the self-heating packaging, up till now concentrated around coffee and tea beverage cans and more recently soup, but without doubt we will see it moving to the solid food segment of the on-the-go market. And that brings us to the third hot item in packaging, which of course is the convenience of the on-the-go packaging, a fast growing market segment which spreads wider and wider from ready-to-eat meals and lunch snacks into convenience packaging for outdoor activities.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.It is interesting to see all these three topics combined in one innovation. And I must say quite revolutionary and unique.

But before we can discuss this new innovation, we have to have a closer look at the convenience to feed our babies and toddlers with a milk powder baby formula when we are on-the-go. Over the last few years we have seen interesting innovations in packaging for this type of product, however all of them maintained the “wrestling” of the parents with a box of powder, a measurement spoon, a baby bottle and a nipple, after which (sometimes painful) wrestling the parents have to look for a heating facility, before finally the baby can enjoy its “meal”.

Well, the answer came in the form of a self-heating packaging, including a milk powder dispenser, the necessary spring water and a baby nipple.
The new innovative packaging is developed by Dutch start-up Aestech in Eindhoven and is a self-heating packaging for semi-liquid food, particularly baby food.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.Contrary to existing self-heating packaging, mainly metal beverage cans with pre-mixed coffee or tea, this self-heater has a separate chamber in which the milk powder is stored, while the heating-element is located at the bottom of the largest chamber, which holds the spring water.
In other words it isn’t a pre-mixed product as the ingredients, as vitamins and milk powder, are stored separately from the spring water, staying dry till the moment of consumption, maintaining the “power” of the supplements.

Although already patented, this self-heating packaging still is in development, or more clearly in its “working prototype” stage. And you can see that when looking at the images. Consequently I couldn’t restrain myself of making some critical comments.

The dispensing chamber
After removing the cover seal, the activating button can be engaged through which the film seal between the powder dispensing chamber and the compartment holding the spring water tears in a straight line.
Instant coffee or tea powder as dry matter drops into the water without any problem. However milk powder in baby formulas, being sticky, is more critical. Although the instruction stipulates that the packaging should be shaken several times to obtain a perfect mixture of water and powder, it is doubtful that all the dry matter from the dispensing chamber will end up in the water.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.In my opinion the straight tearing line should be replaced by a circular one, like we often see with dispensing caps for vitamin beverages, to have the certainty that all dry matter drops into the liquid below. The tearing along a straight line is too critical to guarantee, that all baby formula has mixed with the water. (See my detailed articles “Developments in Dispensing Caps – An Overview” 01, 02, and 03).

The heating element
To be sure that the heating element is fully surrounded by the to-be-heated liquid (the bottom as well), the heating element, made from aluminium, is standing on small columns. This is of utmost importance, not only to guarantee the best possible heat transfer, but also to prevent the heating element with its somewhat brusque thermal reaction to melt through the bottom of the plastic packaging.

This design is a deviation of the common practice with the self-heating beverage cans, where the heating element is an integrated part of the bottom of the packaging and where the activating button, consequently, also is located. In the Aestech design the activating button is at the top of the packaging and the heating element is separated from the bottom by free-flowing liquid.
Of course the baby formula application in this is of importance as much less energy is needed to bring the milk product to the correct temperature of 37°C (100°F), in contrast to the roughly 62°C (143°F) for coffee. (See my detailed articles: “Self-Heating Packaging Containers” 01 and 02).

The construction
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.The packaging consists of four compartments or chambers. The top compartment (or dispensing chamber) with the activation button holds the dry matter (milk powder and vitamins) and is sealed airtight with a foil. The space between the dispensing chamber and the heating element is the compartment which holds the to-be-heated liquid, p.E. spring water. The heating element is fully immersed in the to-be-heated liquid to guarantee an intensive contact between the liquid and the element and to prevent a direct contact with the heating element by the consumer.
The heating element itself is filled with a certain quantity of calcium oxide that thermally reacts with water to calcium hydroxide heating up the element. The water needed for this exothermal reaction is located in the tube, which runs from the heating element to the activating button at the top of the packaging.

Instead of calcium alternative heating resources can be used, such as fine iron powder which supplies oxidation heat, or saturated salt solutions which release crystallisation heat.

How it works
By pushing the activation button at the top of the packaging the foil which seals the dispensing chamber will rupture and the dry matter (milk powder) will drop into the compartment below, which holds the drinking water.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

By pushing the above said activation button a second action will occur simultaneously as the pressure will push the water in the tube into the heating element. Consequently an exothermal reaction with the calcium oxide will take place. The heating element heats up and the heat is transferred to the milk powder/water mix around the heating element.
After approx. 2 minutes and a bit shaking of the packaging the baby formula has reached the appropriate temperature of 37°C (100°F), the nipple can be put in place and the baby or toddler can enjoy his/her meal.

I am well aware that this innovation needs some modifications before it is market ready, but nobody can deny its uniqueness and clever design. I hope to see more of these packaging innovations this year.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Our world is moving towards a quick and convenient way of living. But for this quick and convenient way of living the consumer is setting quite a range of requirements as condition for the products he intends to consume. Consequently packaging design has to follow suite.
Whatever packaging you design it has to convey “contemporary convenience and relevance for an increasing well-informed and health-seeking consumer in the on-the-go, in other words in the snack category”.
Isn’t that a “contradictio in terminis”, as common wisdom has it that snacking is a deleterious activity, eroding healthy eating habits?  And that, calories consumed during snack times are empty at best, crowding out healthier food portions that might be consumed during regular meals?

Market research of the NPD Group in Chicago tells us, that just the opposite is true and that, consumers following the healthiest diets snack twice as often as those with less healthy diets. The fastest growing behaviour is the morning snack time, the one most driven by healthy nutrition attitudes. Foods with a better-for-you positioning are particularly popular with this group, states the report.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.With the number of single-person households increasing rapidly and being busier than ever before and always on-the-go, this frantic consumer lifestyle, urge food and beverage manufacturers to set their sights on the single-serve portion market.

With, according to Mintel, the definition of “meal” changing, consumers have become less regimented in their consumption patterns and consume nearly any type of food or drink at any time of day, causing the definition of ‘mealtime’ to become blurry.

This “blurriness” is overly exposed in the supermarkets, where food manufacturers fill the shelves with a range of ever-more creative single-serve food products. In this overwhelming clutter and choice, purchase decisions are driven primarily by what people see or miss to see. Thus, visual equities, including unique new usage occasions, ownable shapes, colours, and icons, are more important than ever to help shoppers navigate the expanding aisles.

Furthermore delivery systems also play an important role in food and drinks and ensure a more efficacious product. Developing more advanced delivery systems enhances the on-the-go experience of the consumer.

And that brings us to the on-the-go market. If you look at the snacking occasions, morning versus afternoon versus evening snacking, those occasions are driven by different motivations and very different choices. The fastest growing behaviour is the morning snack time, the one most driven by healthy nutrition attitudes.
And that’s logic when you look at how many times we have to run without having time to consume an old-fashioned breakfast. Consequently breakfast snacking on-the-go often is a “wet” experience consisting of a fortified, nutritional beverage or as one company defines it: It’s the ultimate morning “pick-me-up” that gets you started.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Driven by the healthy nutrition requirements of the consumer, this “wet” breakfast “pick-me-up” category runs from fortified vitamin, flavoured beverages to teas and cold coffee and any combination (even weight loss) in between, with pro/pre-biotic milk formula in high demand, as well as probiotic juices. Consequently the shelves are overloaded with bottles and cans, with little or no differentiation in shape and design. The creativity sits in the product, but the consumer can’t see that, as they all just look like coloured waters.

And that brings us to a new packaging format, the Single-Serve Cap, setting a packaging category of its own. Let’s have a look at the single-serve cap first, before we outline its uniqueness in the market.

The Single-Serve Cap
On the face of it the Single-Serve Cap™ of the Californian company Tap-The-Cap looks like any other dispensing cap as it has to dispense a supplement (vitamins, flavours, nutrients) through a bottle neck opening and into the bottle. But it is much more than the dispensing caps as we know them.
One of the most intriguing features of the Single-Serve Cap is its configuration to automatically connect to bottle necks with a circumference between 26mm-32mm. That translates into all known water bottles and brands in the market worldwide.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

And as, generally speaking, bottled water is typically sold at lower price points, companies creating a nutraceutical supplement don’t have to design and manufacture a bottle and ship heavy loads of water everywhere. They just sell the Single-Serve Cap™ holding the nutraceutical and profit from the fact that the consumer can consume its own preferred water brand, buying it around the corner. Even the bottle of premium water, positioned as a higher-end product, can be accommodated by the Single-Serve Cap.
And what do you think of a cocktail shot with a tropical flavour. Buy a Single-Serve Cap with the cocktail shot, a bottle of juice and enjoy your freshly made tropical cocktail on-the-go.

A huge improvement for all consumers, who like to add “value” to their own preferred water or juice brand! But there is much more, as I said before, the Single-Serve Cap is a category of its own, it is a unique single-serve solution with a wide range of potential applications.
Let’s have a look at a market segment nobody has thought about before.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.In the medical world, hospitals, nursing homes and similar institutions where time is money and labour saving of utmost importance, it’s well known that nurses spend a lot of time in distributing medicines, as they often come as pill or capsule, needing a glass of water to dissolve and help the elderly to drink. All time consuming. What’s simpler than use a Single-Serve Cap filled with the exact quantity of medicine, a reusable PET or glass bottle, and plug the Single-Serve Cap on top, shake and let the patient quietly drink the solution in time (as if it were a baby bottle).
The nurse can spend her time doing other more important jobs.

There is another advantage
In tablet form, often, medicines pose a concentrated assault upon the stomach when swallowed. Research shows that people would rather prefer to drink their supplements, pharmaceuticals and nutraceuticals than taking a pill or capsule, especially when it comes to children and the elderly. Furthermore medicines rapidly degrade in an aqueous solution. Thus, if one is to gain the maximum benefit, it must remain in a dry form immediately prior to ingestion.

On top of this, it is generally claimed that pills and capsules have a very short window of absorption when traveling through the body.  Just the intake of a glass of water, after the intake of a pill, will, if the patient is fortunate, absorb 10-15% of the medicine. Liquid absorption is much higher: around 80-90%.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.In other words the Single-Serve Cap™ isn’t only a potential time-saver in the hospital world, but the patient also benefits from a better medicine intake.

We have seen that the Single-Serve Cap has a wide range of applications and with a bit of imagination every company can see one of its products in a Single-Serve Cap to conquer the growing on-the-go market.

For more information contact: info@tapthecap.com or visit the website: http://www.tapthecap.com

(This is a sponsored article)

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Enabling a daily dose of probiotics to be effective in shelf-stable or refrigerated beverages. a telescoping LifeTop Probiotic Straw can be used in both refrigerated and shelf-stable milk or juice boxes, pouches and bottles.

Over the years I have written a variety of articles about dispensing caps. Here is a list of them if you are interested to read what is or was in the market:
In 2013 I wrote “Single-Serve Cap – A New Packaging Format”, I come back to this design in a minute. In 2012 I wrote a series of 3 articles as an overview (Developments In Dispensing Caps – An Overview 01, 02 and 03) of the, at that moment actual, dispensing caps available, as a follow-up to my articles: “Innovative Dispensing Bottle Caps For Sensitive Vitamins” and “More Bottle Caps For Sensitive Vitamins”.
In between I described some new developments, among others the Tap-the-Cap and the Lifetop of Biogala.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Why do I sum up the articles I wrote about dispensing caps? Well, the last article I wrote is from 2013 and the overview from 2012. The question is what happened since then with the dispensing caps?

With the explosion of energy drinks and similar power drinks in the marketplace, you should expect an equal explosion in the use of dispensing caps. But that’s not the case. It’s still rare when you see a vitamin enhanced drink with a dispensing cap.
One of the reasons might be (I have no data to proof it) that most or almost all energy drinks are brought to market in alu beverage cans. Obviously the consumer is immune to or not interested in the claim that sensitive vitamins are breaking down in water quickly and as such a ready-to-drink vitamin beverage doesn’t give the consumer the kick he/she was expecting and paid for.
But be careful with this claim. A 2006 study in “The Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences” found that certain types of vitamins are stable in water.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Tao-the-Cap, a universal dispensing cap.

Whatever the case with the quality of vitamins and supplements, there are many more reasons, which justify the use of a dispensing cap to enhance a drink. Therefore I think it’s time for the energy drink industry to consider alu beverage bottles as alternative to the beverage can. The advantages of the alu bottle in comparison with the can are obvious, besides that it can handle a dispensing cap.

When I look at the number of emails I receive in relation to plans to implement a dispensing cap for a new drink, you should imagine there is a lively market in new developments. But it’s clear that the peak in developments of dispensing caps had been in the years before 2013 and that since then only a handful of manufacturers modified their design, but almost none new dispensing cap left the initial stage of intention. That statement is underlined by a simple Google search where you only get returns with the old well-known designs. Nothing new appears in Google.

Still there is some movement in the dispensing cap world. I collected some new designs, but not really significantly different in design than the already existing ones.
They all still have the same problem. A seal, often an alu seal, has to be cut to allow the vitamin or supplement powder to drop into the medium (almost always water). And every consumer hopes that the full powder load (powder is light in weight) really drops into the water. The consumer has to shake the bottle vividly to be sure.

Removing the alu seal and ensure that the full powder load drops into the water is the weak point for all and every dispensing cap. And the qualified designer knows this.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

The Tap-the-Cap dispensing cap, also called “Single-Serve Cap” is one of the few which is marketed without the bottle of water. The cap is designed to fit plastic water bottles from Nestlé to Evian worldwide.

We start with some new designs. Apparently traditional, but when you look at them closely you see some technological steps forwards.
Another aspect of the new designs is the (attempt to come to a) “stand-alone” status. In other words the new generation of dispensing caps is independent of the liquid bottle.
Some years ago Tap-the-Cap was the first to bring a universal dispensing cap to the market, which could be sold as a stand-alone single-serve unit. It fits any bottle neck and allows the consumer to enjoy his own preferred water brand or bottle (even a reusable bottle filled with tap water). The advantages are obvious. The consumer just buys the flavour enhancer or vitamins/supplements in a Tap-the-Cap single-serve unit, which is a light weight in his pocket or her purse. Any bottle will do and the system is very flexible for the consumer on-the-go, as he/she doesn’t have to carry around bottles filled with water.

Let’s have a look.

Mix2Drink cap
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

BBB projects, a team (UK/Dutch) of technically skilled packaging developers, designed a new concept for mixing in a bottle powders or liquids with drinking water. The designers claim that the crucial difference from existing systems is that Mix2Drink complies with hygiene requirements, can be aseptically filled and accept inert gas flushing, making it suitable for sensitive products such as baby milk.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.Note: Some years ago I wrote about a previous dispensing cap development of this team, the Cedevita GO bottle. Read about this cap here and take a look at the image at the right.

The designers explaining the result of their invention as follows:
On most drinking systems, the concentrate is filled into the top of the screw cap, where the available volume is low. Before the consumer can start drinking, first the closure has to be pushed down to activate the dosing and mixing operation. Then the cap, which also contains the part, which held the concentrate, must be unscrewed.
The systems for bigger amounts of concentrate need a relatively large pouring aperture from which it can be hard to drink. The designer has to bear in mind the diameter of the neck, to create enough space to contain the volume of concentrate. If a small diameter neck is required then the closure has to be very tall. However, with Mix2Drink the bottle neck diameter is not dependent on the diameter of the reservoir containing the concentrate. The internal dosing system is under the neck.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.For example, for a 250ml bottle with 35ml of concentrate, the customer can choose for a standard teat connection neck finish or select the small 28mm diameter neck/thread diameter with a drinking spout. This gives the client a free hand with pack design.

The result of their way of reasoning is the Mix2Drink cap, which is built around a capsule with a high barrier resistance to oxygen and/or moisture, and filled with a concentrate (powder or fluid). The capsule is sealed with a high barrier film on the top and bottom. If powder is used, any excess externally adherent powder can be blown off so that no bacterial growth can take place on the outside.
Then the capsule is fitted into the closure, which is fixed to the bottle of drinking water. As the consumer unscrews the closure, in the normal way, the opening mechanism is activated, which cuts the barrier film above and below. The rotational movement makes sure that a plastic knife moves down by 8mm and cuts through the top film. At the same time, the capsule is pushed down and the bottom film barrier is cut by a knife at the base.
The powder falls into the water and the consumer has to shake the bottle various times to ensure that the powder mixes properly with the water.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Have a close look at the image series, as for me it isn’t quite clear how the mechanism works. I tried to find the patent, the inventors claim to have, but I couldn’t locate it. There are some vaguenesses there.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.Although the Mix2Drink cap is said to be designed with baby milk powder in mind, the cap also is suitable for medical, health drink and sports products, for example protein shakes for body builders.

Note: It isn’t quite clear whether this cap could be used and marketed as a stand-alone single-serve unit. In theory, yes, as long as the mother with her baby on-the-go has a bottle with standard teat neck finish with her and has bought the right sized cap in the shop. I miss the universality in the design.

Mix2Drink gave an example for protein shakes. Let’s stay with protein and take a look at the ShinsenCap in my next article. As a preview look at the image below. And after that one, there is much more to come.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

We continue our overview of recent developments in dispensing caps for sensitive vitamins and supplements. The next one is the ShinsenCap, in which I also miss the universality. In other words it belongs to a bottle of water and it isn’t available as a single-serve unit. Furthermore the ShinsenCap might be technically superior, according to Chr. Hansen, but it misses, in my opinion, a proper drinking outlet. Apparently the technicians forgot to look at the consumer.

ShinsenCap
Danish company Chr. Hansen, which develops natural ingredients for the food, pharmaceutical, nutritional and agricultural industries, intended to launch long-life probiotic drinks like functional waters and UHT dairy products. For this new market segment the company decided to use dispensing caps supplied by the Irish company Fresh Beverages International (FBI).
The two companies have been working together for about 18 months before coming to market with one year, shelf-stable prototypes utilising a patented, excipient blend of Chr Hansen’s Bifidobacterium BB-12 strain.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

The cap, which was chosen by Chr. Hansen, is developed in Japan and is called ShinsenCap, which quite literally means “fresh” in Japanese.
Chr. Hansen claims that the reason they chose the ShinsenCap, above all others they investigated and tested, is that “This cap doesn’t have these fragile aluminium parts, which characterised all the other caps. Those aluminium parts have been necessary for stability of something like probiotics. This design does that but with only plastic parts”.

The ShinsenCap is an easy-to-use dosing cap suitable for sensitive, value-added ingredients.
The patented “seal and gas flushing technology” of the ShinsenCap provides an air tight, light tight and water tight closure, ensuring the protection of the ingredients.
A simple twist of the cap releases the functional ingredients into the beverage.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Except what I have already said in my introduction to this cap, I have another 2 comments to this design:
Note 1: When you look at the images, you see that the bottom seal (some plastic disc) is dropping into the beverage like the powder. Apparently the consumer ends up with a piece of plastic in his drink. And as the little disc is smaller than the neck finish of the bottle and the consumer has no choice than drinking straight from the bottle without a spout, he might, at some point, enjoy the wolfing down of a plastic disc.
Note 2: I don’t understand Chr. Hansen. The company is a marketer of ingredients, not a sales outlet for water. It’s obvious that the ShinsenCap just is a one-sized cap, in other words you can’t sell it as a stand-alone single-serve ingredients/supplements/power dose. It has to go with a bottle of water. And we know that the consumer anno 2015 doesn’t want to walk around with a heavy bottle of water and if he/she wants water it will be the own brand of choice, not some unknown water with a dispensing cap. While customisation is the secret to seduce the 2015 consumer, universality is the keyword for dispensing caps.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

We are reaching the point where developers are trying to come up with a design that is intended to be a “stand-alone”. Have a look at the B-Cap from an unknown company and the Cap 2.0 from Incap Ltd. First the B-Cap.

B-Cap
The company has a website, which doesn’t inform the visitor about the company name or its address. It only states that the B-Cap is made in Belgium and/or France. No further details, who is behind this design that claims to be an innovative solution that meets the challenges of industrial and professionals in reducing the quantity of plastic, C02 and water. How? Nobody explains!

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.Still it might be an interesting design and is boosting a far more eco-friendly alternative to standard beverage bottling. B-Cap is intended to be used as a refill (stand-alone) cap for concentrated liquids

The website states that the B-CAP is perfectly waterproof and can be used for powder, granules and liquids in different forms and compositions: various concentrates in food (plants, aromas, nutritional supplements, vitamins, probiotics and effervescent concentrates) and non-food (different chemical products, detergents, tension-active agent).

B-CAP claims that it is the only single-dose capsule in the world to offer volumes of more than 20 gr/ml, indispensable for some applications, such as in food (supplements for sportspeople, children or the elderly) and non-food (concentrated detergents and cleaning products).

B-CAP exists in different versions: the B-CAP 6/28/PCO up to 6cc and the B-CAP 20/28/410 up to 20cc.

In principal the capsules are sold separately from the bottles, but can also be pre-mounted on bottles to create new drink concepts.
The B-Cap is easy to use and the click that can be heard when it contacts with the bottle neck is very distinctive.

Note: The general comment, of course, is that nothing is known about the company behind this design and that the claim of being a “stand-alone” is dubious as universality in bottle sizes isn’t available.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

The next one is supposed to be a stand-alone also. Unfortunately also here universality is far from reality.

Dispensing Cap 2.0
The Hong Kong-based company Incap Ltd developed a twist-off cap for bottles that dispenses vitamins or other ingredients (dry or liquid) into still or carbonated water in a PET bottle.

In general by twisting a dispensing cap, that contains dry or liquid additives, the consumer triggers the mixing procedure when the product is about to be consumed.
Incap claims that its patented, lightweight dispensing cap for PET bottles with a 6.9ml storage volume allows for maximum freedom of product design and additive options that can be tailored to individual consumer requirements. The dispensing cap is suitable for liquid additives as well as for granules, hot or carbonised bottled beverages.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

But the most important feature is that the bottom of the cap is hermetically sealed, and consequently the cap can be sold in combination with the beverage bottle or as a “stand-alone” single-serve product.
Axel Hauck, co-owner of Incap Ltd. explains “Athletes can conveniently carry their additives in their gym bags, children can mix in apple or orange flavours while they are travelling on the back seat of a car”.
That’s a nice statement, but even if they supply the cap in the most common 28mm size, there is a whole range of neck finishes and cap sizes beyond.

Horst Hähl Kunststoffspritzguss & Werkzeugbau GmbH in Dusslingen/Germany took on the development of the prototyping mould as well as the optimization, construction and final design of the production mould after experiencing problems with the prototyping mould in China.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Featuring wall-thicknesses of less than one millimetre and an extremely complex geometry, the cap has to withstand high pressure and different temperatures. The sealing properties must be maintained, particularly when carbonised beverages or hot liquids are being bottled.

The Dutch company Teamplast is the production moulder, using Sumitomo (SHI) Demag injecton moulding machines.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

It isn’t the design I was expecting to see. For me, the single-serve Tap-the-Cap still is the number one in universality as stand-alone single-serve unit. Despite all claims of the recent developments they don’t come even close to a useful stand-alone dispensing cap and they still maintain the obligation to the consumer to buy a bottle of water he/she doesn’t want.

And what about dispensing supplements at the consumer’s will in beverage cans and beverage cartons? It seems to me, that we still haven’t learned to look into the past to design for the future?

Before I move to the supplement pods recently in use by some vitamin and energy drinks, I have a series of critical notes in regard to dispensing supplements in beverage cans, beverage cartons and bottles in general. If you are interested in some critical notes regarding the existing dispensing caps read part 03 of this series.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

I ended my part 02 of this series about dispensing caps with the remark that I haven’t yet seen a design I was hoping to see. Despite all claims of the recent developments they don’t come even close to a useful stand-alone dispensing cap and they still maintain the obligation to the consumer to buy a bottle of water he/she doesn’t want. Some of the designs, indeed, can be sold as a stand-alone single-serve cap, but only for PET bottles with the correct neck finish. Nothing universal.

As happens so often when I write an article about a particular packaging format, I receive emails from designers, inventors and companies trying to draw my attention to their developed product. So, also this time. Consequently I had to rewrite this part to ensure the new dispensing cap was included, as it is something special that perfectly fits into a part of my comments. So before I come to that invention, I continue my story with the critical comments I promised my readers.

In general, in my opinion, all dispensing caps actually on the market are the same and useless in terms of universality. No one really is suitable to answer the requirement of the consumer to buy his/her supplements, vitamins or probiotics as a separate single-serve unit to connect it with the water bottle or yoghurt/milk beverage carton of his/her personal choice.

Am I harsh in my judgement? No, not really as it’s time for inventors to look at the consumer requirements before they start designing something new. At this moment when you are carrying out an analysis for your company to make a choice for a dispensing cap, you could choose any of them as they are basically all the same. Maybe with the exception of the Tap-the-Cap, as it offers a little bit more universality, but not enough as we will discuss in a moment.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Woman in supermarket with Tetra Prisma Aseptic carton

What am I aiming at? Till this very moment the marketers of dispensing caps have been concentrating their sales efforts on the (spring) water market. But in the meantime the market is moving forward, particularly in the direction of flavoured and enriched dairy products.
Yoghurt drinks are often flavoured with fruit or fruit juice and can be enriched with vitamins, minerals with pre and probiotics. The success of ambient drinking yoghurt in China has been driven by consumer demand for convenience, taste and nutritional benefit. These trends are reflected in many other countries.

So what about flavoured milk and yoghurt drinks in general and in beverage cartons in particular? Tetra Pak claims in a recent report that the future of the dairy industry is in the fortified yogurt products. The report (Tetra Pak Dairy Index 2015: Innovate And Communicate To Revitalise Milk) states that yoghurt and milk based drinks continue to become more popular, with its possibility of combining healthy and functional properties with flavour and sensory appeal.

After reading this report, the question is: where is Tetra Pak’s dispensing cap particularly for its Evero bottle, or even for the most nominal (EloPak, SIG) beverage carton for that matter.

That question brings me to a newly designed dispensing cap, I received recently. The Flava Cap.
Although the company, which developed the Flava Cap, only speaks about its use as cap for PET bottles with water, when you look at the design and its mechanism it is probably a perfect solution for use on beverage cartons.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Pure-Pak Sense 1000ml, product of EloPak

Ok, I agree, that beverage cartons (Tetra Pak, Elopak and SIG) aren’t as popular in the USA as they are in Europe where almost all dairy products and many a fruit juice is marketed in a beverage carton That’s still some billions a year. I know, nothing compared to the billions of PET bottles, but, in my opinion, a much more interesting market, as the dispensing cap will be new to the beverage carton market and products marketed in cartons in general have a more “enriched” margin than bottles with mineral water.

Let’s have a look at this exceptional design. (Note: In a later stage I might write a more detailed article about this cap).

For the time being the following is sufficient to get a taste of the Flava Cap.

The Flava Cap, called by the inventor an infusion cap (which is a wrong characterisation of course as we will see when describing vitamin pods in the next article) is a “stand-alone” type, which is designed with a single multi-thread system that works effectively across all 26mm thru 28mm PET water bottle finishes. This is a key differentiating factor as it allows the consumer to use whatever single-serve bottle of water he/she wants. Furthermore the consumer has the option to use his own refillable bottle or refill the water bottle he bought, instead of throwing it into a landfill.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

But I’m more interested in the options the consumer has to use the Flava Cap on a beverage carton. Look at the cross sectional views of the Flava Cap in different activation stages. The initial item that will likely catch the attention is that Flava Cap punch mechanism comes up from the bottom of the cap. This feature is different than 99% of all other infusion caps. This bottom up approach allows the Flava Cap to maintain its standard bottle cap appearance. The Flava Cap punch mechanism is activated automatically when the cap is twisted onto a bottle of water or the threaded neck of a beverage carton. The starter thread engages and then the top of the bottle mouth and the twisting compression ratchets up the Flava Cap mechanism.
As twisting is completed, the Flava Cap releases the drink mix. There are no knobs, buttons, levers, or plungers.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

So, that`s enough food for thought in relation to the beverage carton.

And what are the manufacturers of beverage cans and its bottlers doing in this area of energy and enriched drinks? The technology isn’t new and known as the FreshCan technology. Already in its earliest development in the late 1990s by Ball Packaging Europe (then Schmalbach-Lubeca), the wedge consisted of a device fixed to the bottom of the can. Through many iterations based on prototypes produced by RPC Bramlage GmbH, the wedge evolved into a floating, watertight component that is designed to move away from the opening of the can during beverage consumption.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Meanwhile, in 2000, Degussa (then SKW Trostberg) began developing ingredient formulations to fill the wedge. Degussa also worked with partners to engineer an automated filling system to insert the ingredients into the wedges, as well as a wedge-insertion machine to put filled wedges into beverage cans.
In 2001, Ball licensed the wedge technology exclusively to Degussa FreshTech beverages, but as Degussa ceased to exist as a drinks company, it’s unclear what the actual position is of the proprietary rights of this technology.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

When the can is opened it releases vitamin and mineral supplements into the beverage from its two compartments.

The working principle of the FreshCan system is pressure difference. Opening the can results in an immediate pressure drop inside the can and as, due to its special design and construction, the wedge cannot quickly adjust to this sudden pressure drop, the lid of the wedge pops off immediately. The water sensitive ingredient is automatically released into the beverage, dissolves and is ready for consumption.

But there is more. Market studies claim that the contemporary consumer requires individuality and customised packaging. But the industry doesn’t give him/her a choice. The consumers have to consume what the industry sees fit to bring to market. They have to indulge the flavour they get offered.
Too sweet, too sour, too strong, too weak? Pity for the consumer!
When starts the industry to give the consumer the option to make his own, personal choice of taste. Does this require a new, revolutionary technology? Not really. Already in 2006 Ipifini Inc. presented its Choice-Enabled Packaging technology at PIRA’s “Smart and Intelligent Packaging 2006” international conference in Stockholm, Sweden.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

IpiFini PET bottle

Ipifini Inc is a Massachusetts-based technology development company founded in 2003. Its Programmable Liquid Container technology employs buttons on the container’s surface that release additives (flavours, colorants, fragrances…etc) into the liquid. The additive buttons allow for the consumer to choose variations of the liquid in the container at the point of consumption.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

The working of the push buttons is based on the back pressure from carbonated, or otherwise pressured containers, that makes the buttons difficult to depress, prior to opening.
The company claims that Choice-Enabled Packaging is applicable to any liquid product with multiple varieties.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

As probably nobody in the world has seen an application of Ipifini’s Programmable Liquid Container technology, it’s obvious that the development isn’t catching on in the market. Probably either the (licensing) conditions of the company are seen as too heavy to absorb or the idea prevails that it isn’t developed through and through and is not yet commercially ready.
Nevertheless it’s a promising design and needs extra attention of inventors.

The only similar development I’m aware of is the blister container, designed some years ago by Hyewon Kim and Jieun You of the Kookmin University, in collaboration with Younsung Lee of the Kunkuk University and Gyujung Lee of the Sungshin Women’s University in South Korea.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.Their idea came from the fact that Ramen noodle dishes often include separately packed spices and seasonings. These small packages can be difficult and inconvenient to tear open. This new blister Ramen container solves the problem. The consumer simply presses down on the blister and the seasoning is dispensed into the container on top of the noodles.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.Imagine this design for the popular plastic yoghurt pots/cups with alu-cover. The option to be able to add fresh probiotics, vitamins and/or a flavour at the moment of consumption certainly will attract the consumer.

So, we are at the end of my overview of the traditional dispensing caps for bottles, with some comments thrown in to stimulate a wider, more open view of the reader in regard to “spicing” beverages, whatever the beverage or the packaging format will be.

It seems to me, that we still haven’t learned to look into the past to design for the future?
It’s time for some designers, and particularly the marketing boys and girls of dairy and beverage companies to wake up and serve the consumer with the items he/she wants to see in the market.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

China’s growing hunger for enriched yoghurt hits global supplies (Source: Bloomberg)

And from here we step towards the energy pods. A new phenomenon in the world of beverages.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Finally I’m ready to complete my overview of developments in dispensing supplements in beverages. After my overview of dispensing caps, it’s time to move to a new technology as far as the beverage sector is concerned. With the introduction of energy pods we enter a new era for dispensing sensitive supplements to water to create an energy or personally designed sports drink.
The technology of pods an sich isn’t new and as such some history telling is required.

With the growing consciousness of the consumer for the well-being of Mother Earth and the often loudly expressed concern about wasting valuable resources, some years ago the consumer goods industry had a brainwave and started to promote concentrated household cleaning products under the green-washing sustainability and eco-friendly banner, while at the same time downsizing the packaging.
During this wave of concentrating household cleaners, we also saw a tentative approach towards refilling. However despite the growing wish to go eco-friendly the consumer, worldwide, rebuffed the offered refilling options due to the awkwardness and inconvenience of most refilling systems and the trend as well as the packaging involved never came off the ground.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Replenish pod for household cleaner

While the refilling trend faced an inglorious death, some inventors started to take a look at the problem and came up with some interesting solutions. Based upon the idea of the cartridge (sometimes called capsule) used in many industrial and commercial applications (think of printers and copiers) the pod (as the Americans like to call it) for household cleaners was born.
A pod is a small rigid replaceable container holding the concentrated cleaner. The pod is often connected at the bottom of the main container, which holds in general tap water to dilute the concentrated cleaner. In difference to the dispensing cap, the pod is not a fixed appliance, a one-flavour or vitamin shot, or a one-time liquid in a bottle that’s then discarded. The pod with the concentrate is replaceable and the bottle itself is used again and again.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

I draw extra attention to the household cleaner Replenish pod, as it still is the Mother of the Pod-technology. And although the original design needs adjustments for the beverage sector, it is the perfect brain-wave of how to dispense a variety of ingredients to a beverage

One of the first to put this idea in practice was Replenish. The pod of cleaner concentrate screws into the bottom of the bottle. To make the cleaner, the consumer turns the bottle upside down, squeezes the concentrate pod to fill up a measuring cup built into the inside of the bottle, and adds water. Replenish’ pods hold enough concentrate for four water downed bottles and can stay attached to the spray bottle as long as needed. The idea for the consumer is to reuse the spray bottle over and over again, buy a new pod with cleaner concentrate, screw it into the bottom and refill the spray bottle itself with tap water. It’s obvious that the eco footprint of the system is much smaller than that of the traditional bottles with household cleaner, even in the concentrated form.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

More or less at the same time came an interestingly different design from Canada. In contrast to Replenish, Canadian Planet People’s iQ bottles have the cartridges of concentrate positioned inside the bottle neck. The consumer fills the PET bottle with tap water and inserts a no-mess, self-deploying PP cartridge into the neck of the bottle.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Planet People’s iQ pod line of household cleaner

For some unknown reason the use of pods has, for a long time, been restricted to cleaning products and only with a restricted number of designs. Probably it was the only sector where the craze of concentrating products and the failed introduction of refilling systems took hold, while the exorbitant and overindulgent use of packaging material and primary resources was even for the most ingenuous consumer crystal clear.

Recently the pod-system moved to the beverage sector and particularly to the vitamin enhanced sports and energy drinks, as there are three discerned characteristics in the pod-system ideal for use in the fortified beverage packaging.

First it is the secure separation of the sensitive to water vitamins and supplements, secondly dispensing caps only can handle a very limited volume of supplement, and thirdly the system is based upon the unrestricted reusability of the main container (the bottle holding the water or main liquid), so that the consumer only has to buy the pod with its supplements to create a new serving of an energy drink.

It’s amazing to see it took the beverage industry so long to accept the concept of the cartridge, i.E the pod or capsule, as an alternative to the existing dispensing caps with all its complexity and well-known shortcomings. But here we are, so let’s take a look at what’s in the pod-technology for beverages.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Although the markets signal a growing hunger of the (female) consumer for yoghurt and particularly flavoured and fortified versions, we don’t see any company with the creativity to implement a supplement dispensing cap or pod in conjunction with a yoghurt product

My first example is a bit special and out of line, as it isn’t exactly responding to the basic characteristics of the pod for beverages, which is the storage of a vitamin supplement with the ability to mix it with the refillable water bottle. But the U-Boot represents for me the most beautiful solution in pod-land and has numerous possibilities.

U-Boot
A U-Boot is a beer cocktail (popular in Germany, Poland, Serbia and Flanders) that is made with a glass of beer and a shot glass of vodka. In Germany, the liquor korn is used instead, while in Flanders and the Netherlands, jonge jenever is preferred.
It is called a U-Boot (German abbreviation of Unterseeboot, “submarine”) because the shot glass of spirits sinks to the bottom of the glass of beer. The shot glass then “surfaces” when the cocktail is drunk.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

The German company U-Boot Getränke introduced its classic drink to the retail market. The U-Boot drink was available for decades only in selected restaurants and pubs.
In this case the classic “U-Boot” is a schnapps glass filled with high-proof spirits that is dropped into a glass with soda. Greiner Packaging developed the “bottle-in-the-bottle” concept and mastered the challenge of functionality and product safety. Both bottles are sealed with the same cap which, when unscrewed, detaches the smaller inner bottle, the “U-Boot”, from the seal. The U-Boot then sinks in the bigger outer bottle

The 30ml spirit inner bottle as well as the 140ml soda outer bottle is made from PET by injection stretch blow moulding, while the HDPE seal is injected. The outer bottle is printed with screen print with UV drying colours and the seal is printed with pad printing. There is one seal for both bottles, the small bottle has a snap-on neck and the large bottle a screw-top neck.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

According to Zenith International speaking at the Global Soft Drinks Congress in Dubai in March last year, beverage technology both inside and outside the home has to allow consumers to make their own drinks when and where they choose.
And the perfect answer to personalization of a beverage is the pod-system. But apparently we are very early in the development cycle of pods for beverages as I could only find one more example, namely the Drinkfinity of PepsiCo, a design later also used for the Gatorade Hydration Tracking Bottle. The Drinkfinity is a completely different design compared to the U-Boot, and in no way similar to the pod systems for household cleaner.
In November 2013 PepsiCo launched Drinkfinity in Brazil, describing it as a “personal beverage hydration system”.

Drinkfinity
Drinkfinity, developed by PepsiCo’s Global Packaging R&D in collaboration with the Selig Group, consists of a PET pod holding liquid flavour concentrate, a specially engineered PP closure for the pod that holds powdered nutrients, and a hinged-top plastic bottle to be filled with either mineral or tap water into which the liquid and dry ingredients stored in the pod are mixed.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

To enjoy the beverage, the consumer has to remove the pressure-sensitive label from the pod’s closure, inverts the pod and positions it into the top chamber of the reuseable plastic drinking bottle (called by PepsiCo “vessel”). By closing the hinged chamber, the closure breaks and pierces the sealing membrane, releasing the powders and liquid supplement concentrate into the bottle into which the consumer has added (mineral or tap) water.

The 24-oz vessel is a reusable portable bottle with a sleek and stylish design. The Pods are capsules utilizing DuoSeal induction seal technology to separate active liquid and powder ingredients until they are mixed together with the water just prior to consumption.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Each pod has a liquid and powder compartment, which allows specific beverage ingredients to be delivered in the most optimized and natural format. When the seal of the pod is pierced, the liquid and powder components are mixed with the water in the bottle to create a unique and fresh beverage.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.The pods are convenient, portable, and offer a wide range of functional benefits and supplement options. They are also recyclable, and because water is not being unnecessarily shipped in traditional plastic water bottles, the net environmental impact is reduced.

Gatorade Hydration Tracking Bottle
After the introduction of the Drinkfinity, PepsiCo decided to use the pod system for the Gatorade Hydration Tracking Bottle. The Gatorade Hydration Tracking Bottle is part of the Hydration Tracking System developed to better meet the needs of professional and competitive athletes during training and match sessions. The objective was to develop an enhanced side line bottle that fuelled customization and tracked hydration. The new bottle combines the functional aspects of the existing iconic green/orange side line squeeze bottle, a new customizable Gatorade pod concentrate system and a new wireless metering cap.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

The bottle is original Gatorade, the pod system is borrowed from Drinkfinity, but what makes this beverage bottle special is the metering system. The new Gatorade squeeze bottle integrates a proprietary hydration tracking technology that measures and records real-time athlete fluid consumption during training and matches. To record in-training or in-match athlete dehydration, the platform also utilizes weigh-in scales to measure sweat loss. All tracking data is transmitted from each athlete’s cap and the shared weigh-in scales to the system via wireless Bluetooth communication.
Each athlete’s individual hydration recommendation and tracking data are accessible on iPads running the Gatorade Hydration Application. The coaching staff can monitor athletes’ fluid loss/intake and better guide appropriate fluid, fuel and electrolyte replacement recommendations on an individual basis, to help ensure peak performances during training and matches. The system also allows the coaching staff to analyse and act on longer term hydration patterns at an individual and team level.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Well, that’s the story about pods for beverages so far. It’s not much but hopeful. Let’s see that it sparks some creativity in the beverage industry and that no idiotic company in the future is introducing a new energy or vitamin drink in a simple alu beverage can. That’s so 20th century, you sincerely hope that there are not any longer design companies sticking to that.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.