In Finland a liter of yogurt comes in tall house-like packages as on the right.
If you've ever used such a pack you've probably noticed how unpractical they are. The carton may be combustible and cheap to manufacture but not very consumer friendly. Some of the product is always left inside the package, because getting it out is much too troublesome. Waiting for the thick stuff slowly drip out of the pack takes hours; and scissoring the sides open is as messy as heart surgery.
Just a rough guess, but I think close to 0,5 dl of yogurt is wasted in each package. That's just enough a reason to make a call. I contacted Valio, one of the major dairy product suppliers in Finland.
Yes, you might think now, "Lauri is too bored," but believe me this issue has craved me for long. Plus reporting the thing here is a justified excuse to have a break of writing my final thesis, which is what I really should be doing!
Valio explained that ecological issues are their major concern, and a lot of research is spent in developing more nature-friendly packages. However, they had no immediate answer to why is the carton's shape is so unpractical.
Later Valio's R&D department explained that "...The packaging lines are unable to fold other types of packages," and added "As long as the machines remain same the packages won't change, and we don't see any change in near future." At the same time they admitted that getting yogurt out of the package can be troublesome and messy.
There are some alternatives, and one I warmly recommend is in the photo below.
Product itself tastes fabulous: a rich combination of creamy yogurt and berries; but the name "Ahon" caught my eye first, for it sounded like my sure name. Try it out...
...Now back to the thesis.
