A Short Introduction to Spout Pouches

A spout pouch is a modern beverage and jelly package developed on the basis of the stand-up pouch.

Its structure falls into two main parts: the spout and the stand-up bag. The bag section is the same in construction as an ordinary four-seal stand-up pouch, but composite materials are usually chosen so that it meets the requirements of different food packaging; the spout can be seen as an ordinary bottle mouth with a straw added. The two parts are joined tightly to form a beverage package that supports sucking. Because it is flexible packaging, there is no difficulty in drinking from it, and after sealing the contents do not shift about easily — a very good modern beverage package.

Among common soft drink packages, PET bottles, composite foil packs and cans are the main formats. With homogenised competition becoming ever more pronounced, improving the packaging is undoubtedly one of the effective means of competing on differentiation. A spout pouch brings together the reclosure of a PET bottle and the style of a composite foil pack, and in printing performance it also has advantages that conventional beverage packaging cannot match, since the face of the pouch gives the design more room to work with.

Because it adopts the basic stand-up pouch format, its display area is significantly larger than that of a PET bottle, and better than pillow-type packs that cannot stand upright. At the same time it carries on the portability of flexible packaging: it slips conveniently into a backpack or even a pocket, and shrinks in volume as the contents are used up, which makes it easier to carry, at home or away.

Of course, as a member of the flexible packaging family, the spout pouch is not currently suitable for carbonated drinks; but for juices, dairy products, health drinks and jelly-type foods it has a natural advantage.