Nut Packaging: The Complete Buying Guide in 2024

1.How Do You Define Nut Packaging?

Nut Packaging- Picture Courtesy: Nuts.com

Opened nuts are spoiled by the air, water vapours, and other chemicals. Hence, for protection, dried nuts are completely wrapped and covered by packaging that offers high resistance against different harsh weather conditions. Packaging is a means of transporting, retailing, handling and delivering nuts to the end consumers.

Nut packaging is a safety barrier that prevents leakage and spillage of nuts during long hauls. Today, nut packaging is essential in promoting businesses and increasing sales. There are wide range of nut packaging that includes single-serving nuts like sachets and sticks and also include multi-serve packaging like pouches, jars, and boxes.

2.Why Nut Packaging is Popular?

Beautiful graphics, element protection, and customer appeal are a lot of reasons, why nut packaging has gained popularity all over the world. Here is a list of some important reasons:

Protection From All Elements

Protection of Nut Packaging- Picture Courtesy: Studio One Eleven

Nut packaging serves an important function and that is protection. Its main purpose is to protect dried fruits and other nut products from harm and damage during transportation. It also offers a barrier against oxygen, light, moisture, high temperature and other environmental factors. With packaging, nuts are delivered intact to end consumers.

Safety

Nut Packaging- Picture Courtesy: nutmad.com

Consumer health safety is the most important concern and due to this, food regulatory authorities mandate information on all types of ingredients, nutrition facts, and expiry dates of the nut packaging. Moreover, on nut packaging allergen warnings are also mentioned to inform users about the health risks from consuming products. Packaging also keeps nuts safe from toxic chemicals and harsh aromas.

Eye Appeal

Eye Appeal of Nut Packaging - Picture Courtesy: Onder Tur

Attractive nut packaging is deployed as a tool for marketing and branding. About two-thirds of the consumers buy products, by seeing just product packaging. Stylish nut packaging enhances nut product visibility on retail shelves, boosts customer interest and tempts them to purchase.

Serviceability

Serviceability of Nut Packaging - Picture Courtesy: World Brand Design Society

Nut packaging is fit for all purposes. It is extremely user-friendly and is easy to open, fold, and reseal. It comes with tear-away notches and easy-to-open lids that take minimal effort to open. Moreover, resealing tapes and other add-ons helps to keep nuts fresh for a longer time.

Sustainability

Nut Packaging- Picture Courtesy: Stilolinea

In recent times, consumer preferences have shifted and they buy nut goods that come in sustainable packaging. Today’s nut packaging has a minimal carbon footprint and is easily recycled and reused. This packaging is not only made with fewer resources but also adds less waste in landfills.

3.What are Common Nut Packaging Types?

A diverse variety of nut packaging is seen on the retail shelves that appeal to customers. These nut packaging types differ in their appearance and size. Some common nut packaging types are:

Multi-serve Nut Packaging

The following are multi-serve nut packaging:

Standup Pouch

Stand-up Nut Pouch- Picture Courtesy: Coroflot

It is also referred to as doypack and has an upright design that offers it better display on retail shelves. It has a bottom gusset consequently, having more packaging space. It is sealed at the sides and has a tear-away notch at the upper part. It is gaining traction due to its cost-saving and expediency features.

Pillow Pouch

Pillow Nut Pouch- Picture Courtesy: Tipa-Corp

Pillow pouch packaging is a popular style for nuts and it resembles a pillow with its two ends. It has three seals present on top, bottom, and back. The back seal goes along the entire length of the pouch, hence, it is also called a T-seal or back pouch. It is manufactured using paper, laminate, and plastics.

Flat Bottom Pouch

Flat Bottom Pouch- Picture Courtesy: OK Packaging

This pouch for nuts has a flat base that gives it a box-like appearance. It has a distinct seal and can fill large quantities of nuts. A flat base is essential in giving this pouch stability and the ability to stand firm on retail shelves. Moreover, it has a large information display area that captivates passersby.

Jars

Nut Jars- Picture Courtesy: Lovelypackage.com

They are cylindrical or round-shaped containers, manufactured using plastics and glass. Jars are mostly clear, allowing customers to see packaged nuts. Nuts jars have a lean or wide-mouth design. These are sealed using screw-on lids to airtightly close them.

Boxes

Nut Box Packaging- Picture Courtesy: IBEX Packaging.com

These are gift or snack boxes typically made using paper fibres or cardboard. They are available in a variety of styles such as standup boxes like a milk carbon or rectangular box having small partitions for different kinds of nuts.

Tins

Tin Nut Packaging- Picture Courtesy: Packaging of the World

Tins for nut packaging are made with metals like aluminium or tinplate. These are cylindrical container that keeps nuts fresh for a long time as metals are a protective barrier against weather conditions and biological agents.

Single-Serve Nut Packaging

This contains the quantity of nuts for a one-time serving. These are:

Sachet

Nut Sachet Packaging- Picture Courtesy: Broma

This is a type of flexible packaging, mostly manufactured using PET or LPDE film. The sachet has four sides and is rectangular or square. It has seals at either 3 or 4 edges. This is small and lightweight packaging.

Stick Pack

Nut Stick Pack- Picture Courtesy: Kar’s Nuts

It has a long style with a narrower width. It has 3 seals- on top, bottom, and middle. It has a slender tubular shape and is easily carried in pockets or bags as a snack source while travelling.

4.What are Important Nut Packaging Machines and their Working?

There are different types of nut packaging available in the market, processing different kinds of nut packaging. These machines differ in their design and working principle. These machines are detailed below:

Granule Nut Packaging Machine

Granule Nut Packing Machine- Picture Courtesy: Allpack China

This machine has different stations that perform automatic functions of loading, weight checking, pouch manufacturing, batch printing, sealing, and cutting, edges, and many more.  It assists in filling granular products, for example, nuts, pulses, lentils, flour grains, barley, rice, etc. This machine has various parts like a PLC unit, HMI, hopper, film holder, sealing bars, and cutting blades.

Working Principle

This machine uses packaging film to make pouches or sachets for nut packaging. The packaging is formed in the forming station by forming tubes. The nuts are loaded using an auger or net weigh filler. Sealing bars seal the ends of nut-filled packaging in the end.

Horizontal Nut Packaging Machine

Horizontal Nut Packaging Machine- Picture Courtesy: Allpack

This machine is ideal for packaging nut bars and nut biscuits. Horizontal nut packaging machine uses intelligent controls and photoelectric sensors to beautifully wrap singular items. This machine uses a film roll to package the nut products and has sealing devices for hermetically seal the nut packaging.

Working Principle

The objects for packaging are loaded on the conveyors and on reaching the feeding station, these are wrapped using packaging film to form a pouch. After wrapping and pouch making, a sealing bar is employed for airtightly sealing the pouch. After printing bar codes, the packaging is weighed and removed from the system.

Automatic Weighing Nut Packaging Machine

Automatic Weighing Nut Packaging Machine- Picture Courtesy: Allpack

This machine is manufactured to measure the weight of granular solid products typically, having a small size. It has automated sensors and weight-checking components that accurately determine weight while loading the nuts.

Working Principle

The nut packaging whether jar or pouches is placed on the conveyor of the machine. It works initially by determining the exact weight of the nut packaging, pre-saved in its PLC unit and then it weights the products by using load plates located below the conveyor. In this way, it precisely determines the weight of the nut packaging.

Band Sealer

Band Sealer- Picture Courtesy: Allpack

It is the machine used for sealing different kinds of packaging film by using heat. Moreover, this machine has a touch screen that helps in monitoring the temperature while sealing. It has a step-less speed control system that aids in efficient sealing. It seals nut packaging without any defects such as wrinkles, blisters, or tears.

Working Principle

For sealing, the nut-filled pouches are loaded on the conveyor. On reaching the sealing unit, the packaging film of plastic or aluminium foil pouches is melted using heat. Then pressure is applied by the band sealer to fuse the ends of the film completely. After sealing, pouches are discharged from the equipment.

Vertical Form and Seal Machine

Vertical Form, Fill and Seal Machine

It is one of the most popular nut packaging machines because of its versatility and small footprint. It can make customizable nut pouches using high-definition printed films that are quite popular among customers. Moreover, efficient cutting systems in this equipment, save a huge amount of packaging film that in turn saves material purchase expenses.

Working Principle

First, film for making pouches is placed on the film holder. This film is unwinded by the rotation of the unwinder, the film passes rollers and is transported to the forming tube. This part assists in forming a tough pouch. After pouch formations, nuts are loaded using filling devices. In the end, sealing devices seal the top part of nut pouches using heat and pressure.

Premade Pouch Packaging Machine

Premade Pouch Packaging Machine

This machine uses preformed bags instead of packaging film. It has a much larger floor space than the VFFS machine. However, it is a fast-speed machine, quickly processing larger batches. It can make any style of pouches on demand, like doypack, pillow, standup, zipper pouch and many more.

Working Principle

Simply load the bag stack on the bag magazine from where the gripper carries them one by one to the opening and inflating area. Here, the bag is opened using opening bars and inflated via compressed air. After inflating, nuts are loaded and weighed by the feeding stations. In the final step, the top edges of the pouch are glued together by the sealing jaws.

Jar or Bottle Filling Machine

Jar or Bottle Filling Machine

It is usually employed for packaging bulk quantities of nuts in bottles or jars. It is an adaptable unit that easily processes jars or bottles, differing in design and diameter with a simple change of tooling. This machine has advanced filling units and computerized controls that monitor the quantity of nuts during filling.

Working Principle

It has the same working steps as the machine involved in solid packaging. At the start, jars or bottles are put on the conveyor. When they reach under the filling nozzle, the nuts flow from the hopper to the filling devices begins. These nuts then go to the filling nozzle and are dispensed inside jars or bottles. After filling the required amount, the containers are carried to the capping and sealing area.

Stick Packaging Machine

Stick Packaging Machine

This machine is available in different numbers of lanes usually four, eight, or twelve. The number of lanes determines the processing capacity of such equipment. This machine is renowned for packaging single-serve nuts for camping and travelling. It packages nuts in tubular economic retail packaging thus it uses minimal packaging film.

Working Principle

A large roll of packaging film is put on the unwinder by the operator. After unwinding, it is cut into smaller strips using cutting blades. Then these strips are moved to individual forming stations and are fashioned into tubular sticks. After that nuts are fed into these stick packs and finally, heated bars are employed to seal these packages.

Cartoning Machine

Cartoning Machine

It is employed in the nut packaging lines for packing nuts in customizable gift and snack boxes. It comes with a filling device that loads the nuts in the erected and folded cartons. This machine is a flexible equipment that can process varying shapes, styles, and sizes. A cartoning machine is also used in the tertiary packaging of nuts that involves the secure packing of jars, bottles, or pouches in boxes for transportation.

Working Principle

First, a stack of blank cartons is put inside the magazine. A blank carton is picked up by the gripper and is taken to the forming unit where it is erected, folded, and glued. Then nuts are placed in the open box and at the end, the top flanks of the carton are permanently sealed using glue or tape.

5.What are the Customizable Features of Nut Packaging?

Different features are added to the nut packaging for the accessibility of customers and ease of use. These add-on features persuade consumers to buy nut products. Here are some customizable features of nut packaging:

Zippers

Zipper in Nut Packaging- Picture Courtesy: Prajkta Divekar

Nuts are usually not consumed in one setting and often go bad when the package is opened. Hence, brands add zippers on the top of flexible packaging for easy reseal. There is a wide range of zipper options, such as dual track zippers, slider zippers, press-to-close zippers, pull-tab zippers, flange zippers, etc. They have interlocking sections that re-close nut pouches.

Tear Notch

Tear-away Notch in Nut Packaging- Picture Courtesy: PkgMaker

It is a handy feature that has a perforated seal sat the top of the nut pouch packaging for ease of opening. Users can easily tear the top end to retrieve the nuts. The tear-away notch is formed by the carbide punch which is found in the sealing jaw. It is also a means for tamper-proofing nut packaging.

Window

Windows in Nut Packaging- Picture Courtesy: Packaging bags

It is a shear plastic film present in the middle of flexible or Kraft packaging and allows users to examine inner contents like nuts and nut mixes inside the packaging. It helps in checking the quality of products and identifying different kinds of nuts. It is a special feature that offers uniqueness to nut packaging on retail shelves.

6.What are the Pros and Cons of Transparent vs. Gradient Nut Packaging?

Transparent Nut Packaging- Picture Courtesy: TCL Packaging

Both transparent and gradient packaging are popular for storing nuts. Each of them has its pros and cons which are listed below for your information.

Features	Transparent Nut Packaging	Gradient Nut Packaging
Visibility	As this packaging is clear, customers can check the quality of the nuts themselves.	It is opaque, therefore; users cannot see the conditions of nuts.
Sturdiness	It is thinner and has flimsiness.	It is sturdier as it is typically multi-layered.
Mechanical Damage	It is more prone to mechanical damage like puncture and tear.	It is not damaged easily, hence protecting nuts better.
Recyclability	It is not recycled.	It can be recycled using different methods.
Light	Nuts are subjected to light in this packaging, thus can be degraded more quickly.	It hinders the light and therefore, is best for upholding nut quality.
Cost	It is less expensive.	It is pricier.

7.Why Flexible Packaging is a Popular Choice for Nut Packaging?

Flexible Nut Packaging- Picture Courtesy: World Brand Design Society

Nowadays, brands are switching over to flexible packaging for a lot of reasons, one being it is less prone to breakage and mechanical damage during transit. The reasons for the popularity of using flexible packaging for nuts are discussed below:

Heat Sealable	Flexible pouch packaging is sealed using heat that provides a tamper-evident finish that lives up to customer expectations in keeping nuts safe and fresh.
Cost-Cutting	Standup and other pouch styles for nuts are complete packaging having no caps and lids. Consequently, this type of packaging has expenses of 3-6 times less than glass packaging.
Environmentally Friendly	For the production of rigid bottles and jars, 75% more material is required than for forming pouches. This makes flexible packaging a sustainable and eco-friendly option.

8.Does Nitrogen Flushing Enhance the Quality of Nut Packaging?

Nitrogen Flushing in Nut Packaging- Picture Courtesy: vl.eng.br

Nitrogen flushing has a central place in the food industry for maintaining the quality and freshness of food like nuts, snacks, and chips. It is essential to eradicate oxygen from the nut packaging, which is generally involved in damaging the nuts. Due to reactivity with oxygen, the oils in nuts will go bad and then nuts will lose their colour, taste, and smell.

When you buy a pouch of nuts and you feel the packaging, it seems like there is air in the packaging. However, it does not contain air but the air is nitrogen gas. This gas not only makes packaging bigger but also protects the packaged nuts from oxygen exposure as well as from mechanical damage. It provides cushioning nuts during shipment.

This nitrogen is a harmless gas and it does not react with the nut products and impact their taste. It is added to the nut-filled packaging after the removal of oxygen and immediately after nitrogen filling, the nut packaging is hermetically sealed to protect the inner contents. It upholds the nutrition of nuts providing the pouch is sealed.

9.What are Seal Tests for Nut Packaging?

Seal Test of Nut Packaging- Picture Courtesy: Dieline

Seal integrity of nut packaging is essential for acquiring consistent sealed packaging that prevents the spillage of inner content and keeps products till their expiry date. There are six gold standard seal integrity tests for nut packaging, for instance:

Ultra-sonic Method	In this seal test, ultrasonic waves are directed on the packaging and if there is a hole in the nut packaging, it discharges different frequency waves than the rest of the packaging. In this way, the area of leakage is estimated. Furthermore, this method is also employed for checking the existence of dust or other particles in the package sealing.
Bubble Emission Method	In this method, a vacuum is applied to determine the internal pressure bore by the nut packaging. The packaging is placed inside the water and then a vacuum is utilized to remove any air. If bubbles are seen in the water bath, it means that there is leakage in the sealing.
Vacuum Decay Method	In this test, nut packaging is simply put inside the vacuumed area and a drop in the pressure is measured during the barometer. This drop in air pressure is due to the perforation in the packaging.
Gas Leak Method	A gas such as helium, hydrogen or carbon dioxide is injected into the nut packaging, and if there is a hole in the packaging, it is measured using a sensor. The latter measures the amount of gas leaking from the packaging.
Seal Strength Method	Maximum pressure is exerted on the nut packaging to force apart 1 inch of sealed packaging. This force determines whether there is leakage in the packaging.
Dye Penetration Method	A colouring dye is injected on one side of the sealing of the nut packaging. Dye is applied on the nut packaging utilizing an edge dip, an injection, or a dropper. If the dye is seen on the other side of the sealing, it indicates that there is leakage in the packaging.

10.How Long Do Nuts Remain Fresh in Nut Packaging?

Nut Packaging- Picture Courtesy: Dieline

Nuts have different nutritious benefits; they have low amounts of saturated fatty acids and are very good for health. To acquire maximum benefits from the nuts, they should be properly stored. This will help in preventing the fats in nuts from getting rancid.

Opened nut packaging should be consumed in 2-3 weeks beyond that, they will go off and have an unpleasant taste. Shelled nuts in packaging will have a longer life than unshelled nuts.

Nuts in packaging last about a few months at room temperature. If the nut packaging is placed in the fridge (at a temperature of 4°C or lower) nuts will retain their nutritional quality for a year. However, if they are stored in the freezer (at -18°C or lower), they will be good for about 2 years.

Nevertheless, the expiry date of nuts typically depends upon the type of nuts as well as their packaging. Opaque, layered flexible or rigid packaging, such as glass or plastic prevents shelled nuts from absorbing moisture and oxygen and aids in preserving the freshness, taste, aroma, and texture of nuts. Almonds and cashews retain their freshness for a longer time than pecans and walnuts.

Conclusion

Nut packaging is an all-in-one package that promises convenience and nutritional quality. Sturdy packaging is a barrier that protects nuts. With different add-on features in packaging, such as see-through windows, re-closable zippers, and hung holes, nut packaging can acquire prominence on retail shelves. Moreover, it offers absolute freshness to nuts till they are consumed. Intent to buy nut packaging then check our main Allpack website for more listings and offers. Happy Shopping!!