Late last year, Hostess Twinkies repackaged itself into 100-calorie snack packs, introducing Twinkie Bites. It also introduced a snack pack featuring strawberry cupcakes as part of its 100-calorie pack line. Total industry sales of 100-calorie sweet snacks reportedly topped more than $400 million a year, whereas five years ago the category was almost nonexistent.

Clearly despite the battles it faces from economic challenges, many consumers are attracted to the single-serve, individual portion category.

Keebler takes packaging innovation prize

While the single serve packaging trend might face new challenges, don't expect individually or portion-controlled packaged foods to disappear. At Pack Expo® 2008, among the winners for packaging innovation was Keebler Take-Alongs™, cookies packaged in a six-cell white polypropylene perforated cookie tray designed for portion control and take-along convenience. The tray is perforated so consumers can separate out an individual serving, consisting of four cookies each, while the lid offers space for the manufacturer to advertise the contents. The Keebler Take-Alongs are available in Chips Deluxe® Original cookies or Sandies® Pecan Shortbread.

Alcan Packaging produces the peelable 3.7-mil barrier lidding at its facility in Batavia, Ill., using polyethylene terephthalate (PET)/polyvinylidene chloride (PVdC)/print/low-density polyethylene (LDPE)/white PE/peelable ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA). This results in a portable snack with at least a six- to nine-month shelf life.