The yogurt market in Latin America continues to grow as companies develop products to appeal to health-conscious consumers. That appeal includes premium-looking packaging that is durable and increasingly sustainable.

For Danone that includes developing attractive packaging for its new all-natural spoonable yogurt which is sold in Argentina. The transparent 200-ml polyethylene terephthalate (PET) jar with a wide-mouth opening and an aluminum-PET-aluminium closure with a 65mm over cap in clear polypropylene (PP) was developed in collaboration with global packaging company Amcor.

“This wide-mouth PET jar is an entirely new format offering for cold-fill dairy products,” said Martin Darmandrail, new business development director for Amcor in Argentina. “In a market historically dominated by thermoformed PP and polystyrene containers, we’ve shaken things up with a yogurt package with the durability, freshness, performance, manufacturing, and sustainability benefits of PET.”

The new PET jar supports the 100% natural positioning of Danone’s La Serenísima’s yogurt with featured engraving, a finely finished base, and a body-wrap label. To protect the contents, the jar includes a 55-mm finish with aluminum-PET-aluminum-foil barrier seal and an ultraviolet blocker.

With consumers increasingly eager to see products before they buy, the transparent packaging allows people to see the fresh yogurt. Danone is the spoonable-yogurt market leader in Argentina.

“We have developed La Serenísima Original, a product inspired by the first yogurt made by La Serenísima 55 years ago, which revolutionized the category in 1963,” said Maximiliano Sassone, R&I Director for Danone Argentina. “We carefully select the ingredients, including milk from Argentine family farms, and pay respect to every step of the original process, creating a 100% natural product without preservatives, so that our consumers can connect to their memories of the original product.”

Amcor optimized the two-step reheat process to produce the wide-mouth jars using a Matrix blow-molding machine ¬- an industry first - for high-volume yogurt containers, according to Darmandrail.

In Argentina, Danone has launched La Serenísima Original-brand yogurt in six flavors (natural, naturally sweetened, strawberry, blackberry, lemon and ginger, and sweet squash) and will extend commercialization of the product to the rest of Latin America. Danone has installed a Stork filling line and plans production rates of 40 to 50 million units per year.