Companies with the Noluma logo on their packaging are certifying that packaging achieves the best scientifically possible protection from light damage./Photo courtesy of Noluma International
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Dairy milk just got tastier while preserving those good-for-you nutrients thanks to a Wilmington company’s light-protected packaging.
Noluma International, a leader in light protection technology, announced a new partnership with Lancaster Local on Thursday, July 18. Lancaster Local is a Lancaster, Pennsylvania community of farmers who produce high-quality, farm-fresh Grade A milk. The two companies teamed up to design light-protected, Noluma-certified packaging that preserves the nutrients, flavor and overall quality of Lancaster Local’s new, organic milk with A2A2 protein, according to a news release.
Delawareans looking to try the product can head to Jannsen’s Market in Wilmington, located at 3801 Kennett Pike.
Through Noluma’s research, the company saw that in as little as an hour, retail and other indoor lights, such as fluorescents and LEDs, can degrade vitamins and nutrients in milk, as well as its freshness, overall quality and taste.
“We are an authority in light protection,” said Divya Chopra, Noluma president.
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Photo courtesy of Noluma International - Partner Content -
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Noluma met with Philip Lehman, Managing Director of Swiss Villa LLC, Lancaster Local’s packaging provider and distribution partner, a few months ago to work on a packaging product to protect Lancaster Local’s high quality milk, Chopra said.
“This was a match made in heaven,” Chopra said.
Lancaster Local’s partnership with Noluma introducing the new packaging allows the company to maximize its milk’s quality throughout the product’s full shelf life while setting a new benchmark for Pennsylvania dairies and retailers alike, according to a news release.
Chopra said it’s time for the consumer to know what fluorescent and LED lights can do to their diary and various other food products while they are displayed in the supermarket. As milk products sit on the shelves in grocery stores, the product degrades rapidly, stripping nutrients, Chopra said.
The packaging also helps with taste and sustainability, he said. Many consumers have given up on dairy milk and one of the reasons is for the taste of the product. Noluma is hoping to bring that fresh taste back with the light-protected packaging.
The Wilmington company debuted its state-of-the-art, patented technology in 2018.
The technology measures and assesses packaging’s ability to protect the contents within the packaging from light degradation with more accuracy and efficiency than existing methods. This testing allows manufacturers to better understand the vulnerabilities of their packaging and work with Noluma to design, and ultimately certify, packaging that offers total light block, protecting the content’s nutrients, taste and efficacy, often while extending the shelf life, according to a news release.
Noluma scientists use a known marker ingredient in the contents of a test package, exposing it to intense light that replicates two weeks of exposure in just two hours. The extent of damage to the marker correlates with the change in that product’s freshness, nutrients effectiveness, and overall quality.
The result is a light protection factor determined using an algorithm and assigned to each packaging based on the contents it protects. Noluma then uses these learnings to guide the customers in their design of packaging for optimal light protection.
Companies with the Noluma logo on their packaging are certifying that packaging achieves the best scientifically possible protection from light damage and ensuring that what’s inside has the quality, freshness, nutritional elements, potency and sensory qualities promised to consumers, according to a news release.
Along with Wilmington, Lancaster Local’s milk in Noluma packaging is available at various stores in Pennsylvania, Maryland, New York and Washington, D.C.
Noluma and Lancaster Local are looking at expanding where the milk product is available for purchase. Chopra said Noluma is also looking at what other food products they can create light-protected packaging for as the damaging effects of store lights don’t stop at dairy products as they’re already getting great response from the Lancaster Local milk product.
“We’re getting great results,” he said.
