Supermarket Strategy: Private Label Salsa Packaging Moves Into Ketchup Territory

Salsa has found its way from the neighborhood Mexican restaurant, where it was used as chip dip, to the center shelf in supermarkets where sales figures report that it has passed ketchup as the preferred condiment. TricorBraun was instrumental in developing a proprietary tool set used to create a new 48-oz. PPEVOH container for San Antonio Farms that showcases this increasingly popular southwestern specialty made of tomato, onion, cilantro, and chili pepper.

This new 48-oz. PPEVOH container could show up in many places as value packaging for private label producers of all kinds of sauces.

A 63 multi-lead finish has been developed to help curb moisture from occurring between the top of the foil induction seal and the inside of the cap as it passes through the cooling tunnel. Martin Melin, TricorBraun's packaging consultant to San Antonio Farms, adds: "The container's neck has been designed to accept a collar so it can be sold as a combo pack, if needed."

San Antonio Farms conducted business as Van De Walle Farms until 2005. The company began as a family business in the early 1900s and evolved to a producer of Mexican sauces for private-label grocery store brands and into its own branded products. TricorBraun is one of the world's leading suppliers of packaging with 30 distribution centers throughout North America.

The EVOH container provides an anticipated shelf life of one year for salsa and picante sauces. The package may be used by other manufacturers of Mexican sauces, providing they supply information to San Antonio Farms about anticipated sales and distribution channels. "This package is logical for manufacturers of barbecue and other sauces," Melin says.