The company, based in Valladolid, Spain, was initially created to provide ready-made food and drinks to the emergency services, volunteers and victims caught up in natural disasters, a war zones, or for those travelling on a train or mountain.
Liquid foods
The self-heating cans now include assorted beverages including coffee, chocolate, chai latte, with soup and liquid foods on demand.
Commercial sales will start next month with a suggested retail price of approximately €3 depending on the distribution chain.
Ignacio Lanao, head, commercial sales B2B, The 42 Degrees Company, told BeverageDaily, the company was initially created to answer an increase in demand for food and drink as a result of emergency situations all over the world, such as humanitarian crises and natural disasters to offer relief to the victims but also for the people working on-site.
“From that we created a commercial line, based on our motto ‘anywhere, anytime’, to have a hot drink when you want without an electrical outlet, targeting the ‘convenience’, on-the-go sector,” he said.
“The can takes three minutes to heat up with a starting temperature of approximately 42°C and there are new recipes on our website all the time, including milk, choco milk and banana milk.
“There was another company producing these cans in the past but we have bought the patent for these products and now we are improving the recipes and packaging.
“So far, we have been investing to improve the existing line that was built before, and we have created a brand strategy to promote our recipes carrying out consumer pilot tasting with more than 300 people.”
Monomer Tech
The 42 Degrees Company worked with Monomer Tech (MT), plastic packaging manufacturer, part of M&A Packaging Group, to produce an inner activation device to heat the liquid in the cans.
The system consists of a thermo-sealed capsule full of water, which comes into contact with a reagent and heats up the beverage once the capsule is activated.
Monomer Tech also produces the lip protector for the whole product range of The 42 Degrees Company.
“MT produce some components of the can but it was us who developed the idea and the patent. Manufacturers can buy it from us on a b2b basis and we are now working to address retail shops and stores to launch the range to consumers direct,” added Lanao.
The labels on the cans have been designed by Spanish hyperrealist artist Luis Pérez also from Valladolid, Spain.