The resealable cans are designed to stick around -- replacing, say, Tupperware, which does not remind consumers that they are eating Bush's baked beans, Dei Fratelli pizza sauce or Campbell's Soup. "It extends the brand message," said Jeff DeLiberty, Silgan's marketing manager.
DeLiberty predicts the dot-top lid will reach much of the domestic market in the next year. Because it is resealable, the can is best suited for large servings of products such as spaghetti sauce or macaroni and cheese.
Then there is the shaped can. Already popular in Europe, the concept is slowly making its way into the United States. Trader Joe's markets six of its soups in a can whose sides bulge out to resemble a kettle. The gourmet grocery introduced the concept in 1997, and it has become the chain's top-selling ready-to-serve soup, said Trader Joe's spokeswoman Pat St. John.
"The shape is very distinctive and it grabs attention," she said.
But innovation does not come cheaply. Funky-shaped cans and ring-top lids add costly steps to the manufacturing process, which are typically passed on to consumers, industry executives say. In Campbell's case, the company is eating the cost of the more-expensive soup cans. Today Campbell produces only ring-top cans, but the price on the supermarket shelf is no higher than for traditional containers, said spokesman John Faulkner.
Several companies are developing a can that heats itself, allowing consumers to drink hot tea, hot chocolate and soup when there is no time for, or access to, a microwave oven or stove. The concept is not new, but the product has yet to be sold widely by a major U.S. food company.
The self-heating can looks just like its standard counterpart, but inside there is a chamber containing lime and water. When a button on the can is pressed, the water and lime mix, producing a reaction with enough energy to heat the liquid in the can, said Daniel A. Abramowicz, executive vice president of technology at Crown Holdings.
In 2002, Swiss beverage maker Nestle SA tested a self-heating can holding its Nescafe Hot When You Want coffee in England. But the company ended the trial run after several months, finding the can did not heat the liquid to a consistent temperature, said Nestle spokesman Francois-Xavier Perroud.
"It didn't pan out," he said. Nestle is still interested in the idea, which it believes will be popular with consumers, but it is "not aware of a self-heating can that lives up to our expectations," Perroud said.
Crown Holdings says it is engaged in discussions with what it describes as "major food companies," who may use the technology, but it would not disclose their names.
Crown and Ball are working separately on a microwavable can, which they hope to have on the market in the next year or so. The radio waves a microwave oven generates to heat food are absorbed by plastic, glass and ceramics, but bounce off metal. So to create a microwavable can that adequately heats food, engineers must change the shape of the can, creating less surface for the waves to hit.
"There is a misunderstanding that metal cannot be used in microwaves," Abramowicz said. "It just has to be properly designed."
Not everyone is convinced these new can designs will reach consumers anytime soon. One doubter is Miyares, of the Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Institute. He believes the lime and water chamber inside the self-heating can, for example, reduces the amount of space for liquid while sharply increasing the cost -- two compromises shoppers may not rush to embrace.
"I don't think it's likely to be standard American fare for some time," he said.
But as companies that sell canned products look for ways to compete with plastic packaging and fresh foods, can makers predict they will seek out such innovations. The era of the humdrum can, said Ball Corp.'s Hale, is over.
"The obituaries for the metal container have been written at least 15 times in my career," he said. "The reality is that the metal container is alive and well."
