CA University Students Put Glass Packaging Knowledge to the Test

Glass bottle donations help students turn out ollalieberry jam—and a lot more.

At Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, CA, students in the food science program packaging courses are taking “learn by doing” to a new level.

After GPI’s Rick Bayer, Academic Chairman, lectures on glass packaging fundamentals, students jump right in to formulating (in layman’s terms, creating a recipe) and processing product, filling and labeling glass jars, and boxing them up. “We’re always looking for ways to connect future packaging decision makers with the great packaging material—glass. These efforts are a model for how to do that,” says Bayer.

Their primary product is olallieberry jam. The olallieberry is a cross between the loganberry and the youngberry and is primarily grown in Oregon and California. Students also market the product, which is distributed to on-campus stores and in limited supply to local retailers. “But usually we never have enough to meet campus needs because they are very, very popular,” says Hany Khalil, Professor, Food Science and Nutrition Department, Cal Poly.

Using clear, wide-mouth jam jars supplied by Vitro, students create their own small manufacturing and bottling line on campus. According to Khalil, the Cal Poly food science model is to learn by doing. “This philosophy allows the students to do the work and make the mistakes necessary to really learn. They essentially become the link between the field and the supermarket.”

At San Jose State University, where Bayer also lectures, Verallia has supplied 4-ounce hot sauce bottles and closures to be used in a packaging class demonstrating application and removal torque at the school’s packaging school. And earlier this month SJSU instructor Dianne Heiler arranged with O-I’s Oakland, CA Plant Manager, Lloyd W. Taylor, for packaging students to tour their manufacturing facility. In the food technology school, Verallia has also supplied 12-ounce and 22-ounce long-neck amber beer bottles for use in a beer brewing class led by Packaging Professor Fritz Yambrach.

According to Cal Poly Professor Khalil, the donation of glass jam jars means that students can ramp up production and diversify. “Now that we have this generous donation of glass jars, and have an avenue to defray costs, we can make more products. We’re not currently making BBQ sauce, marmalade, and some holiday products, but we used to, and now we can get back to manufacturing these again,” says Khalil.

“In class we discuss all the packaging materials, but for jams and jellies, glass is number one,” says Khalil. “It represents a quality product. We’re proud of our quality and want consumers to see that.” According to Khalil, glass also helps create the right vacuum inside the jar to create a seal. The wide-mouth jam jars have a lug cap closure. And “glass can be recycled indefinitely and don’t lose quality or performance which ends up saving on energy and is an environmentally friendly approach,” says Khalil.

Cal Poly students are also in the early stages of a soft drink product line, developing a formulation and securing bottles. Previous formulations have included ginger ale and root beer flavors. They’ve been gathering a hodge-podge of glass bottles for their product, but now Verallia has stepped in and donated clear (flint) 12-ounce soda bottles. The closure will be a crown style, or the crimped caps similar to a beer bottle. “We hope that this will be a long term relationship so that we can put the GPI logo on our labels to show the support of the industry,” says Khalil.