Four-year-old AgroLabs, Inc. (Hillside, NJ), a manufacturer and marketer of healthful, nutritional products, has been a driving force in human nutrition, combining product innovation with clinical science. AgroLabs says it's committed to bringing consumers products and research that are accurate and targeted to provide maximum health benefits. It's also interested in the environment, and ethically harvests its products to ensure the safety of the environment, while promoting use of environmental packaging for its health and nutrition products—a growing product trend on the market.

Introduced in 2006, AgroLabs' Naturally brand of liquid dietary supplements includes Naturally Pomegranate, Naturally Thai Mangosteen, Agrolabs Cranberry and Naturally Noni. Soon after the launch, the company decided to change the decoration from paper pressure-sensitive labels to full-body shrink-film labels made of polylactide acid (PLA), a biodegradable polymer made from corn or plants. A culmination of about six months of research and application, fueled by the desire to curb dependence on finite environmental resources, the breakthrough labels are converted and printed in rollform by Seal-It Inc., a div. of Printpack (www.print pack.com), which says the AgroLabs' application is the first use of its PLA shrink labels for a beverage such as these supplements.

One of the fastest-growing segments in labeling, shrink labels seemed to make sense for AgroLabs. Shrink labels made from annual crops seemed to make even more sense. While the proprietary, long-neck, flint glass bottles remain structurally the same as before, the move to PLA labels coincides with its decision to eliminate the use of a printed, paperboard folding carton containing each bottle.

“The initial thought about packing the bottles in cartons was to protect the glass, and it would continue the product theme with a full-carton graphics design, but we replaced the carton because the bottle breakage is minimal during shipping,” explains Christina Kay, vice president/director of AgroLabs. “We decided, as a company, to be more eco-friendly. We made the switch to PLA labels and wanted to 'come out of the box,' if you will, to start using more environmentally friendly packaging. Since we already use recyclable glass containers, it made sense to label them with these custom sleeves, which aren't harmful to the environment.”

The film in AgroLabs' case is called EarthFirst®, made by biopolymer resin converter Plastic Suppliers, Inc. (www.plasticsuppliers.com), using NatureWorks LLC's (www.natureworksllc.com) Ingeo™ biopolymer resin made from plant sugar. Plastic Suppliers spent considerable research and development time on the project and got input from EarthFirst cobranding partners like Seal-It in engineering a commercially viable, shrinkable material for packaging applications. Seal-It reverse-prints the film for Agro's 50-micron (nearly 2 mils) bottle labels by gravure in eight colors at the Printpack converting plant in Farmingdale, NY.

Seal-It says the film has proven to be competitive with most petroleum-based films in both its characteristics and its cost. Seal-It began offering EarthFirst PLA labels commercially just 18 months ago and says they are heat-shrinkable and suitable for any shrink-sleeve labeling project.

During EarthFirst's year in development for use in shrink film labeling, Plastic Suppliers asked Seal-It to test EarthFirst PLA TDO film on its converting equipment. Demonstrating excellent printability and machinability characteristics, the label film is now available from Seal-It in 2- and 2.4-mil thicknesses. The film is scuff-resistant, compliant with US Food and Drug Administration regulations and offers about a 75-percent shrink in the transverse direction.

Luxurious and vividly colored, the revised label graphics for AgroLabs, designed by Pelham, NY-based Made by the Girl (www.madebythegirl.com), showcase a lush illustration of the primary fruit ingredient in the drink on a graduating background in color-coded tones keyed to the fruit ingredients, such as warm reds, oranges and yellows or deep purples, golds, greens and plums or pomegranate pinks, reds and creams. On some of the bottles, the shoulders feature an eye-catching swirl design in deep colors.

“We just began including the ORAC [oxygen radical absorbance capacity] statements on the products with the conversion to the new PLA labels,” Kay says. ORAC is a method of measuring antioxidant capacities of different foods, according to the bottle label.

With a main goal of “changing the world, one healthy person at a time,” according to a company slogan, Agro recognizes the importance of package sustainability and the environment. Now, its bottle labels also include a statement headed with, “Where's the Box?,” followed by, “In an effort to help protect our environment, reduce trash and conserve, AgroLabs has redesigned our products without the box. Furthermore, the shrink label used is made from corn, so it is environmentally friendly as well.”

While Kay admits that AgroLabs experienced a learning curve with the new label format and some challenges involved in adopting PLA labels, representatives from Seal-It and Plastics Suppliers helped sort through the production issues and sleeve application.

“We found out that some colors don't work very well and there were some production issues to start with,” she notes. “But the graphic distortion is minimal on our packaging. We avoided putting graphics in those areas that cause distortion, such as the neck area. And Seal-It provided us with grid film so that we knew where most of the distortion would take place. We had samples made with our art before we went to press so all in all, the package development took only a few months.”

Seal-It's converting process is similar to those for petroleum-based films. “PETG is the only other shrink film that has a comparable or slightly higher shrink,” says Paul Pritchett, sales and marketing manager for the Seal-It Div. of Printpack. “We also offer PETG [shrink labels] and have significant experience working with that substrate. PLA has excellent printability. Overall, working with it has been smooth.”