Life Cereal

Home / Past Competitions / 2017 / Life Cereal

Life Cereal

School:University of Washington
Team:Kim Sokol

Cereal is a favorite breakfast and snack food for all ages, with the average American eating 160 bowls of cereal a year. However, there are some fundamental issues with how cereal is packaged and sold. Perhaps the biggest issue with traditional cereal boxes is how quickly it can go stale when stored improperly. Not only is it difficult to reseal the plastic bags to be airtight, but the packaging is difficult to open; the box may rip, and the interior plastic bag can be troublesome. Poor packaging and handling can have an adverse effect on product as well, as the bottom of the interior bag is often full of cereal that is crushed into a powder, which will inevitably end up in your bowl of cereal.
The FilterFlipper was designed to address these problems.
The FilterFlipper lid makes dispensing cereal easy and quick! And re-sealing the cereal is as easy as snapping the lid closed. It only takes a second to seal your cereal from air and moisture, keeping your breakfast fresh for days longer.
No one likes dusty cereal crumbs in their breakfast, but it seems inevitable as you reach the end of the cereal box. The FilterFlipper lid can be rotated to the grid opening, and used to filter out all of the crumbs, powder and broken cereal bits. The swivel cap can then be rotated back to the large opening to pour yourself a bowl of cereal. Ergonomic handle makes it easy to pour out just the right amount of cereal, while the spout directs cereal right into your vessel of choice! No mess!
The blow molded jug is made of #2 high density polyethylene. HDPE is more easily recycled than its paperboard box counterpart, and when produced in mass quantities is cheaper as well. Plus, the translucent quality of the material allows consumers to easily see how much cereal is left in the FilterFlipper container.
The volume of the FilterFlipper was carefully designed to hold the volume of a typical box of cereal, while still maintaining a similar advertising. Cereal manufacturers can still incorporate all of the necessary branding and information on the front and sides of the jug, just as they would on a typical box. A larger height and width maximizes the advertising space on the FilterFlipper container, while a slimmer depth allows the container to easily fit in anyone’s pantry.
While it is hard to beat the packing efficiency of traditional cereal boxes, the FilterFlipper was designed to pack and ship. A flat top and sides allows the jugs to pack closely together, and even be stacked, without losing any stability. The durable HDPE protects the cereal from being crushed, and the container itself will not be easily damaged like flimsy paperboard boxes will. This means more units of cereal will make it onto store shelves, with less damage to the product. A win for everyone!