An Active Role in Freshness: ProAmpac Introduces ProActive Intelligence Shelf Protect

CINCINNATI--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct 19, 2026--

ProAmpac, a global leader in flexible packaging and material science, introduces ProActive Intelligence ™ Shelf Protect (SP) Series, giving food producers a new way to help preserve product quality and reduce costly spoilage. Designed for select meat, seafood, and dairy applications, the technology is FDA- and USDA-compliant for intended uses in fresh beef, fresh pork, cooked sausage, deli meat, fresh salmon, and fresh cheese.

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This direct food-contact biotechnology packaging helps reduce microbial growth associated with food spoilage in intended applications, supporting longer shelf life throughout storage and distribution. Shelf Protect’s patented biotechnology is built directly into food-contact packaging film.

“For meat processors, every product lost represents an investment in production, packaging, and distribution that goes unrealized,” said Sam Kessler, ProAmpac’s senior innovation engineer. “Shelf Protect gives customers a new tool to help preserve that value, bringing active packaging technology to the shrink bags and films they rely on.”

Designed to help customers reduce losses from markdowns, shrink, and disposal, Shelf Protect maintains package clarity without altering the film’s physical and seal properties and requires no on-package labeling for approved applications other than a “use by” or “use or freeze by” date. Studies conducted by food manufacturers and third-party laboratories have demonstrated extended shelf-life for fresh beef, fresh pork, and cooked sausage in tested applications, alongside improvements in quality indicators related to microbial spoilage and odor development during storage. Shelf-life gains vary by product, processing conditions, initial microbial count at packaging, storage practices, and other operational factors, which require case-by-case food trials.

ProAmpac has partnered with Copperprotek to develop its Shelf Protect Technology. “Our collaboration with ProAmpac’s material science team brings Copperprotek’s patented biotechnology into packaging formats that help food producers maintain product quality and extend shelf life,” said Javier Lavin, founder of Copperprotek.

ProAmpac is incorporating Shelf Protect into three packaging offerings: TruTite-SP-1000 boneless shrink bags and tubestock, ClearShield®-SP-1000 bone-in shrink bags and tubestock, and Envio ® -SP-1000 forming and non-forming films.

Shelf Protect expands ProAmpac’s ProActive Intelligence portfolio of active and intelligent packaging technologies, reflecting the company’s continued investment in material science solutions that address customers’ food packaging challenges.

For more information about ProAmpac’s sustainable solutions, please get in touch with Marketing@ProAmpac.com or visit ProAmpac.com.

About ProAmpac

ProAmpac is a leading global flexible packaging company with a comprehensive product offering. We provide creative packaging solutions, industry-leading customer service, and award-winning innovation to a diverse global marketplace. ProAmpac’s approach to sustainability – ProActive Sustainability provides innovative, sustainable, flexible packaging products to help our customers achieve their sustainability goals. We are guided in our work by five core values that are the basis for our success: Integrity, Intensity, Innovation, Involvement, and Impact. Cincinnati-based ProAmpac is owned by PPC, along with management and co-investors. For more information, visit ProAmpac.com.

About PPC

ProAmpac is a member of PPC, a family-oriented investment firm that specializes in partnering with family-, founder-, and management-owned companies in targeted subsectors of the manufactured products and services sectors. The firm's differentiated investor base, which is anchored by family investors, allows for aligned decision-making, flexible transaction structures, and a focus on achieving long-term business objectives. For more information, visit PPCPartners.com

Clearshield®-SP Shrink Bag

The parents of one of three children killed in last week's shooting at an elementary school in Oregon have hired attorneys to investigate the school's protocols and how the teenage gunman got his weapon.

Rhoam Summer, 5, was one of three children killed along with a teacher in the attack Thursday at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, a mountain-ringed city of about 100,000 in central Oregon. The other two children killed were ages 8 and 11, and a fourth student and another teacher were wounded, police have said.

The attorneys announced the investigation Saturday, saying it will probe various issues, such as whether the school had an active shooter protocol in place and how the gunman, 16-year-old Griffin J. John II, acquired the 12-gauge pump-action shotgun police say he used and where it was originally purchased.

Bend-La Pine Schools Superintendent Steven Cook said Friday that the school district has “invested heavily” in security cameras, door locks, fencing and other security measures.

“We practice lockdowns with students and staff twice a year at every school,” Cook said. “Rest assured, we will take a hard look at everything that we have done, and what more needs to be done to ensure that our students, our staff and our families are safe in our schools.”

Rhoam's parents, Kelik and Lillian Summer, initially hired attorneys Friday to handle media interview requests, Tim Williams, a personal injury attorney in Bend and co-lead counsel for the parents, said in a phone interview. The boy's parents released their own statement remembering their son as strong and kind with a love for rainbows and unicorns along with sharks and dinosaurs.

“He was 5 years old,” the statement said. “He wanted to go to the pumpkin patch, learn to ride horses, learn to play an instrument, and be a bunny for Halloween.”

Of interest is how the shooter, a minor, accessed his weapon, Williams said.

A law enforcement official briefed on the shooting last week told The Associated Press the shooter’s gun was bought by his mother. The official spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the investigation.

“We don’t know if the shooter’s mother qualified to own a firearm. We don’t know whether or not the dealer was aware that the firearm was being bought for a minor,” Williams said, adding that there are “various issues there we’re trying to suss out.”

Under Oregon law, a minor may possess a shotgun if provided by a parent or by someone else with the parent’s consent.

The attacker’s mother, Shauntai Nickerson, has not responded to messages from The Associated Press. Nickerson on Friday told some reporters outside her apartment near the school that if she could have done something to prevent the shooting, she would have.

Police said John got into the school by shooting through locked doors. Authorities said he was not currently enrolled in the Bend-La Pine district but had once been a special needs student at the school.

“We’re just trying to determine, one, whether the school district is liable or not, and if it is, work with the school district to come to some sort of conclusion, you know, and resolution, ideally safeguarding this from happening again in the future,” Williams said.

Classes and activities were suspended Monday and Tuesday across the district. No reopening plan has been announced for Silver Rail.

Kelety reported from Phoenix.

Police caution tape surrounds Silver Rail Elementary in Bend, Ore., Friday, Oct. 16, 2026, a day after a deadly shooting. (AP Photo/Joe Kline)