Snack Food & Wholesale Bakery's sister magazine Packaging Strategies and its Global Pouch Forum event have announced sustainable solutions supplier AeroFlexx as the 2026 recipient of the Steve Fairfield Memorial Award for Flexible Packaging Innovation. Packaging Strategies will present the award during its Global Pouch Forum, taking place May 27-29 in Clearwater, FL. The Steve Fairfield Memorial Award for Flexible Packaging Innovation, sponsored by Skjodt-Barrett Foods, annually honors a top innovation or innovator in flexible packaging.

Use of flexible packaging continues to expand across a broad range of consumer packaged goods (CPG) categories, helping brand owners catalyze growth, drive category disruption and excitement, and reach new customers and markets. In 2007, Steve Fairfield, namesake of the annual award, began the process that led to the introduction of baby food and purées in pouch packaging, a move that revolutionized the category. Fairfield passed away in May 2024, leaving behind a legacy that will inspire industry innovators for generations. (the inaugural winner in 2025 was Steve Gosling, a collaborator with Steve Fairfield in the early days of pouch market development; see “Meet the Inaugural Steve Fairfield Memorial Award Winner: Steve Gosling” to read the story.)

Offering products like baby food and fruit purée in pouches reportedly proved highly successful, resonating with consumer desires for convenience while offering significant capital savings to CPG brand owners. Since then, flexible, pouch packaging has seen significant growth across the entire global CPG industry across an increasing range of product categories.

The 2026 winner, AeroFlexx, an Innventure company, challenges CPG brand owners to reimagine the possibilities for liquid products, it says, offering one flexible package that replaces the traditional bottle, closure, and label. According to the company, AeroFlexx combines a bottle’s structural integrity with the benefits of flexible packaging, achieving significant sustainability outcomes for CPG brands and the planet while solving some of the limitations of conventional packaging:

• Certified by the Association of Plastic Recyclers for achieving Critical Guidance Recognition as a mono-material package
• Eliminates up to 70% of plastic content compared to a traditional rigid alternative and potentially up to 85% less virgin plastic by incorporating recycled content
• Its structure provides product protection, maintaining its shape and structural rigidity throughout the life of the product, including through the collection, sortation, and recycling process
• Integrated self-sealing technology provides secure containment without the need for additional closure components
• One-step, easy-tear open and precision dispensing
• Curbside recyclable where plastic bottles are accepted (may not be recyclable in all communities, check locally)
• Reduced packaging weight lowers shipping costs and streamlines transportation
• Amazon ISTA-6 approved, eliminating the need for problematic and unnecessary plastics
• Delivers up to 83% less waste to landfills, 73% less water use, and 69% greenhouse gas reduction

Global Pouch Forum will offer a special session featuring leadership from AeroFlexx, detailing the benefits of this original packaging format and illustrating its potential across multiple CPG categories, including personal care, household, pet care, food, and industrial. AeroFlexx will also serve as the basis for a special Packaging Strategies feature article in June.

For more information about Global Pouch Forum and to register for the event, visit packagingstrategies.com/global-pouch-forum.

Related: Steve Fairfield Memorial Award winner announced