More than four corners wrapped in paper

Chocolate is probably the world’s most popular sweet snack. It is now very much part of our daily lives – whether it’s a bar of chocolate, a chocolate snack, a cup of hot chocolate or a chocolate biscuit. Our current trend towards greater awareness about food has also affected the production of chocolate, so that it is gradually moving away from a mass product and is sometimes even an exclusive piece of craftsmanship. What many manufacturers are now investing in their products again is special care and attention to detail. This is reflected not only in the exquisite taste of the chocolate, but quite often also in the packaging design, so that its superior quality becomes immediately obvious. Fine cardboard boxes, embossing, holograms and foil print are features which can turn each individual package into an exclusive luxury product. Unique colour combinations with abstract patterns and shapes, drawings, photographs and unusual lettering are more reminiscent of paintings than ordinary food packaging.

But as well as being beautiful, the wrapper that adorns a bar of chocolate must also be functional. Chocolate is a sensitive product which needs to be protected against frost, heat, damage and loss of flavour. Traditional chocolate wrapping comprises a protective inner layer to preserve the flavour – e.g. with aluminium foil or coated paper – and an outer layer which is usually cardboard or paper. In addition, the industry and research institutions have been spending time and effort on developing packages which protect against heat – e.g. metal-lined cardboard with a similar effect to insulating bags for frozen food.

And who says that chocolate always needs to be clothed in rectangular or square packages? One particularly unusual product is a fictitious chocolate package called Meteor, designed by the AR Packaging Group together with the special paper manufacturers Sappi and presented to the professional public as a prototype. The result is a polygon which can undergo the same automatic processing as a square package – without needing any expensive manual stages and without compromising on special enhancements. Yet despite its unusual shape, the package can be put in an upright position, just like a standard box, and can then be filled and sold in all kinds of quantities and at all levels of speed. It’s a great example, showing that packaging is a good attention getter – and that it can even be an award winner, considering that the manufacturers won the Paperlinx Deutschland Award as packaging printers of the year.