Global PET packaging company, Sidel has launched the world’s first-ever pasteurisable lightweight PET bottle for beer.
The bottle supports a crown cap and features a non-petaloid base giving the bottle the appearance of glass, but with all the advantages of PET.
The bottles come in at only 28grams – which according to Sidel is up to 86 percent lighter than an average glass bottle. A critical component of beer packaging is the prevention of both oxygen entering, and carbon dioxide escaping the package. Sidel says that its innovative bottle achieves this through single-layer material blends togethr with its proprietary ‘Actis’ gas-barrier technology which maintains the products integrity for a shelf life of up to six months.
"We want to help beer producers take advantage of the flexibility, lighter weight, sustainability and lower costs offered by PET, by producing a bottle that was more attractive to the next generation of beer consumers who want their drinks packaging to be more sustainable, convenient and user-friendly," says Georgios Diakakis, regional commercial manager at Sidel.
"We have noticed that consumers are becoming more aware of the benefits of PET, because they experience it as the preferred packaging material of choice in other food and beverage areas in their life."
The Swiss based company are also aiming to overcome misconceptions relating to PET beverage packaging including the view that PET gets warmer faster than glass. Sidel says that internal studies have found that the PET beer bottles kept beer cold for the same time duration as an equivalent sized glass bottles.
The company say that taste is another misperception, with some consumers falsely believing beer tastes better, for example, in cans instead of PET bottles.