United Caps, an international manufacturer of caps and closures, has announced its exclusive partnership with start-up Mimica for a unique, innovative closure in food labels, creating accessible, affordable freshness indicators for all types of perishable products, from food to pharmaceuticals. The goal is to reduce food waste and increase consumer food safety.
Benoit Henckes, CEO said, “we have invested heavily in innovation and R&D, and we view this innovation from Mimica as a game changer, one that has a profound effect on how caps are used, their contribution to the reduction of waste and carbon emissions and their ability to drive purchase.”
Mimica Touchcap, is a freshness indicator that changes from smooth to bumpy if a product is no longer fresh.
The concept begun as a design project for Mimica’s founder, Solveiga Pakštaitė. The aim was to make expiry dates inclusive to visually impaired people, before realising that expiry dates drive large amounts of food waste and to create a label that not only provided real-time information about the condition of food but could also be easily accessible to the visually impaired and cognitively challenged.
With extensive testing and experimentation, Pakštaitė was able to calibrate a gel that never comes into contact with the product yet enables a specialised label to change from smooth to bumpy based on storage conditions and food profile. Working in partnership, the United Caps and Mimica teams were able to develop a fully recyclable cap that does not affect bottle recyclability yet offers a fast, easy way for a consumer to ensure food quality is still good.
The closure consists of a base cap and over cap from United Caps, the activator and gel invented by Mimica, a bumps tray and the top foil label that becomes bumpy as food deteriorates. The Mimica cap arrives at the filling line in two parts: The base cap, which has been tested by key filling line manufacturers and requires only minimal changes to the filling line; and the over cap which is applied after the filling process with a dedicated machine integrated into the production flow like other modules such as labelling or film wrapping. The top cap, where the bumps will appear is dormant until it is activated by the consumer which happens automatically when the cap is twisted open for the first time.
“As always, we look at solutions like this in a holistic fashion. Is it innovative? Is it sustainable? What is the ROI for a brand who adopts it? Are there changes that need to be made on filling lines? What happens to the cap at end of life? The Mimica Touchcap ticked all those boxes.”
“If just two days of shelf life could be added to food products, retail waste could be cut by 50%, and home waste of perishable products could be cut by 63%. Brands who adopt this technology could increase sales by at least 10%, including the willingness of consumers to purchase larger containers of products, such as orange juice, without worrying as much about spoilage prior to full consumption,” added Henckes.
The cap to undergo a pilot project in the UK with an orange juice brand. Through this pilot and other United Caps research, it was determined that the total annual waste of juice in the UK alone amounted to 121 million kilograms, with a Mimica Touchcap waste reduction potential of 44%, equating to 53 million kilograms annually of juice.
“We are looking forward to continuing to work with Mimica to develop caps and closures for other types of products,” Henckes concluded. “Not only is reducing food waste important for the planet, but this alone also reduces greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Estimations based on verified data predict increasing the shelf life of perishable food by even one day could save over 202.8 million tons of GHG from entering the atmosphere. The goals and objectives of United Caps and Mimica are perfectly aligned with respect to sustainability, food safety and more.”