Drinking straws that are not only edible but also taste good – rarely before has a serious environmental problem been eliminated so deliciously. And because simple solutions always prove highly popular, the Bavarian start-up that invented the super straw – Superhalm in German – was recently presented with a massive challenge. When Wisefood won an order for several hundred thousand packs of straws, it was asked to label a batch of 60,000 units within two weeks. But how? “At the time, we had a crew of helpers and labelled our products by hand,” says Wisefood co-founder and Managing director Philipp Silbernagel. “But it was immediately obvious that we needed a different solution for such a large order.” The company responded by turning to the self-adhesive solutions specialist HERMA. Within a period of just one week, the HERMA top & bottom labeller 652C was ordered, delivered and ready to go. “We set up the labelling machine ourselves, spoke to the HERMA support team twice by phone and then got cracking. We are hugely impressed by the machine’s ease of use and HERMA’s speedy response.” In the one week that remained to fulfill the order, the 60,000 packs were labelled and made ready for shipping – the HERMA labelling machine had got through its baptism of fire.
Exports to more than 30 countries
The Wisefood Superhalm is produced primarily from a blend of grain and apple pomace, which is a by-product of juice production. If the straw is not eaten, it biodegrades within two weeks. It remains stable for around an hour in drinks served at room temperature, and for twice as long in chilled and alcoholic beverages. Although it has a pleasant sweet and sour flavour, the straw does not affect the taste of the drink. It’s no surprise, then, that Wisefood has already sold more than 50 million edible drinking straws. Founded as recently as 2017, the company now exports the Superhalm and other single-use tableware to more than 30 nations. A variety of decorative and product labels are applied to the front and back of the drinking straw wrappers, depending on the target country. “The size of the individual batches and orders varies enormously, from one thousand to more than one hundred thousand packs. On top of that, overall demand is growing very fast,” comments Philipp Silbernagel. Alongside rapid availability, the main reasons for selecting the labelling machine were its versatility, simple operation and future-proofing. In addition, Wisefood had to be certain that its labels could be applied with precision to the rather unsteady packaging material.
As intuitive as a mobile phone
Measured against these criteria, the HERMA top & bottom labeller 652C has proven the ideal solution for Wisefood. Thanks to innovative quick-change systems and touchscreens, the two integrated HERMA 500 applicators facilitate rapid job setup. They can also be operated separately. The menu is configured so that users can always navigate to the desired menu item with three clicks at most. Favourite parameter settings can be displayed directly on the start screen. Setting up the HERMA 500 is therefore an intuitive task, just like using a mobile phone. Designed to process as many as 250 products a minute, the labelling machine also offers sufficient reserve capacity, which is a good thing. Novel solutions are in demand following the EU’s ban on disposable plastic straws from July 2021. Compared to disposable paper products and reusable drinking straws made of plastic, metal or glass, the edible Superhalm occupies a formidable position, insists the Wisefood co-founder Philipp Silbernagel, “Several studies and numerous awards have identified the edible Superhalm as the most suitable alternative.”
