Online conferences in review - June 2020

EVERY year, Ringier Events travels to Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Philippines to conduct physical conferences for the food and beverage industry. It has gathered about 200 delegates each time. While this year is different, the company continues to organise webinars to keep its audience in the know. It recently hosted one on probiotics and another on shrink sleeve packaging.

Webinar: Probiotics – the Bull Market of Asia’s F&B Sector

Ringier Events hosted its first virtual conference on the topic of probiotics on 2 June 2020. The three-hour webinar titled, Probiotics – the Bull Market of Asia’s F&B Sector, aimed to communicate the developments in this fast-growing health category, and to present food and beverage manufacturers with the different types of probiotic strains currently available to Asia’s F&B industry. The event had presentations from Chr. Hansen, Anlit, FrieslandCampina, and Azelis.  

In general, consumers are familiar with probiotic strains that aid digestive health, these having been popularised by brands like Yakult and Danone for years. Interest in food and beverage products containing probiotics that support immune health is also increasing as consumers seek better food choices. Curiosity about the effects of probiotics also grew recently when it was reported that the best natural defense against COVID-19 is a strong immune system. The coronavirus threat is seen to drive demand even further.  

Lars Bredmose, Senior Director at Chr. Hansen, gave a live presentation on “Probiotics for immune health – making the right choice.” As more clinical trials and research results on the benefits of probiotics are released, many food manufacturers want to take advantage of probiotics, but on the choices of strains to incorporate in their products is another question.  

For children’s nutrition, David Gabbay, VP Sales & Marketing of Anlit, spoke on Probiotics Applied in Chews. Based in Israel, Anlit specialises in dietary supplements that are delivered in pectin-based gummy bears or other chewables, making nutritional ingredients easy for children to consume.  

Ringier also invited Ms. Nguyen Thuy Linh, who is Product Development Specialist at FrieslandCampina for AMEA (Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa). Her presentation, The Invention of Probiotic Bread Beverage, refers to the concept of using bread as a base for a probiotic beverage, a discovery with colleagues at the National University of Singapore. She emphasized that apart from creating a healthy beverage, the process helps bakeries reduce waste since unsold bread can be used to make the probiotic.  

Azelis, the provider of speciality chemicals and food ingredients, also took part in this online conference.  Mr Vikash Raj, the Market Segment Director for Food & Health APAC, presented on the very timely topic, Health, at heart of consumers' food choice – giving manufactures insights on formulation.  

Webinar: Upgrade to automatic, sustainable, shrink sleeve packaging  

On 12 June 2020, Dase-Sing Packaging Technology Co., LTD together with Ringier Events presented on global sleeve packaging trends and the latest machines and equipment for shrink sleeves. Mr Tony Huang, Executive Assistant delivered the presentation for the Taiwanese company.

 In a panel discussion, Mr Huang was joined by veteran packaging industry experts, Mr Henky Wibawa, executive director/CEO at the Indonesian Packaging Federation who spoke on sustainable packaging trends, and Dr. Joseph Ross S. Jocson, Vice President of the Asian Packaging Federation, and former president of the Packaging Institute of the Philippines, who shared his perspective of the industry in the Philippines.  

Dase-sing is a one-stop shop for films (PET, OPS, OPP, PLA, PVC, PE), advanced printing (rotogravure, digital and flexo machine), and machines sleeve applicator, cup unstacker and restacker, OPP labeling machine, sleeve underlaping machine and sleeve orientator). Its products and services are trusted by many leading brands across Asia.  

Some companies asked why they should use shrink sleeves. According to Mr Huang, sleeves offer flexibility. For instance, one container can be updated by simply changing its full body shrink sleeve. Shrink sleeves also help protect the contents from UV light, or even avoid the print from the container from being scratched off. Aside from these, shrink sleeves can be designed with perforations that make them easy to remove and also ready for recycling, he said.  

Mr Huang also stressed on the cost reduction benefits that come with using shrink sleeves, since downgauging is possible. He shared the features of ultrathin30um film, as well as other films that are currently offered by the company. This includes white film especially used for dairy, low temperature shrink film, and high shrinkage film with a shrinkage rate of 78%, among others.

For more information on Ringier Events, go to: http://www.ringierevents.com/