AssurSeal®: Behind Every Super Product is a Powerful Origin Story
January 26, 2023
Most origin stories demonstrate the power of smart, transformational problem solving. The backstory of AssurSeal, one of our most innovative and successful cannabis packaging products, is a perfect example. Thanks to the vision and precision standards of AssurPack’s packaging engineers, AssurSeal has become the gold standard for airtightness in the cannabis industry.
We began with a challenge
Like all best-in-class solutions, AssurSeal was created to solve an important call from the industry: how to provide a truly airtight package for edibles, flower, and pre rolls that would surpass every expectation for durability, ease-of-use, and shelf life? The quest began at the height of the COVID pandemic, when the industry had an opportunity to re-examine its standards and practices.
AssurPack asked: How could we do better? Could we take our best opening features and add a seal that would offer the best container closure system on the market? Would an innovative seal design help our customers manage and maximize inventory AND give cannabis products a longer lifespan? Would a new packaging solution reduce the waste of expired products in the field?
We embarked on a next-generation freshness solution.
Design, build, TEST
With input from our customers from initial concept through testing and launch, AssurPack’s packaging engineers set to work. Our initial 3D model went through several revisions before we arrived at an optimal size and shape configuration. From there, we built one-up molds and ran a series of trials. Our rigorous CR and shelf-life criteria included the ability to withstand water leakage. We knew that if water could seep into our submerged samples, air would surely permeate and compromise product quality. We needed a 100% solution.
AssurPack CEO Nancy Gruskin Warner recalls, “After succeeding with our water-tightness testing, we were ready for third-party evaluation. We’d never done container closure testing before, so I contacted ASTM and USP colleagues to see which test methods we should use. Both referred me to the USP671 Performance Testing, which I was very familiar with from my pharma packaging days.”
AssurPack is the first packaging company in the cannabis industry to conduct—and ace—the rigorous USP671 test.
Then, Warner adds, “We went further. We sent our M112 pre roll package to Boveda, a company that makes humidity packets that keep cannabis at the optimum humidity level. They tested their packets and sent back some striking findings: the 1-gram packet had a 10-month shelf life and the 4-gram packet had a 3-year shelf life.”
The testing confirmed that AssurSeal is a packaging game-changer.
More positive feedback followed. AssurPack didn’t expect the new product to make immediate inroads in the market. But raves streamed in. We anticipate more positive feedback now that, as part of our ongoing commitment to sustainable packaging, we’ve begun adding the biodegradable plastic additive BioSphere®.
Fun fact: Packaging treated with BioSphere degrades in landfills and aerobic facilities—basically anywhere—faster and more completely than with any other solution available.
AssurSeal offers a host of unique features
- The signature “D” shape fits easily in pockets and purses—and stacks easily for display.
- It offers an easy, one-handed opening feature.
- Even its inner seal is detachable and recyclable.
- Like all AssurPack packaging solutions, it meets the highest standards for child safety.
AND it offers absolute freshness protection across a range of edibles, flower, and pre roll product types. Food-grade (BPA-free) and CPSC-certified, AssurSeal is raising the bar for the industry.
AssurPack continues to innovate, contain costs, and lower MOQs so our freshness protection packaging can be more widely adopted. We will also be adding 25% PCR to the plastic blend this year. According to Warner, “We’re getting out ahead of new state regulations and pushing toward more and more sustainable solutions every day.”
With AssurSeal, the story of airtight freshness is just beginning.
