Packaging company boasts a rarity in the cannabis industry — a United States patent — and helps producers solve the shelf-life dilemma
By Patrick Wagner
Anyone who plays tennis knows the rewarding sensation of cracking open a new can of fuzzy green Wilsons. N2 Packaging Systems has brought that same feeling to the cannabis industry. But instead of smelling tennis balls, pulling back the ring tab on one of N2’s packages releases the fragrance of marijuana.
It’s a feeling that cannot be replicated by a mylar bag.
“Every time we crack one of these tins open, it’s a great experience,” N2 sales manager Luke Olsen said.
N2 Packaging has a patent for the storage, preservation and transportation of a controlled substance. The company started as an off-shoot of Ready Reserve Foods, a food preservation company that holds several patents, including one for preserving ammunition in nitrogen-sealed canisters.
“I believe we have the only patent in the world right now when it comes to the packaging of controlled substances,” CEO Scott Martin said.
Martin said the process of obtaining the patent was a major challenge — “About a year of us going back and forth with the patent attorney and the patent examiner,” he said.
The patent covers the packaging of all controlled substances, not just cannabis, into containers made of tin, steel or aluminum. The containers come in a variety of sizes, but the most popular are eighths, quarters and ounces. The metal containers and nitrogen flushing offer a higher level of preservation than plastic alternatives, Martin said.
“Plastic is gas permeable,” Martin said. “So we can’t guarantee that it’ll retain and preserve the way that a can does. There’s a saying, ‘nothing protects like a can,’ and that’s true because it absolutely is a hermetic seal.”
N2’s canning process removes any traces of moisture or oxygen and replaces them with nitrogen, which acts as a preservative for foods and cannabis alike. The process is similar to what’s used by many of the major snack food companies across the globe, like Frito-Lay, General Mills and Nabisco.
“For the outdoor growers, that really does strike a fork, because they are all harvesting at the same time,” Martin said. “They all go to the market at the same time. So they’re figuring out that the price drops significantly when everybody brings product in at the same time. If you had a way to preserve it then you can choose when you can bring it to the market and then you can start to control your margins.”
“With the emergence of the legal market, a lot of customers wanted smaller, consumer-ready packaging that will stay fresh for a long time,” Olsen added. “With the nitrogen being a gas, it really locks the product into the state that it was packaged in.”
Olsen said N2 Packaging helps eliminate three primary factors that degrade a cannabis product’s shelf life: oxidation, light and heat. In addition to the nitrogen flushing, light is blocked out of the sealed, hockey-puck shaped containers.
For growers or retailers interested in integrating nitrogen packaging into their businesses, N2 has a handful of solutions available, including a mobile packaging unit that can be sent directly to the processing site. There’s also the option to purchase or lease systems, which are scalable to the size and scope of each operation. For smaller grow operations, the recommended system can package up to five cans per minute. For larger operations that require a faster output, N2 has a system that packages 25 cans per minute.
N2 includes a branding service for all customers. Each tin is pre-labeled with the customer’s design and the packaging is customizable to meet the different requirements of each state whether UPC, QR codes or RFID tags are needed for inventory tracking purposes.
The cans are also tamper-proof, child-proof and smell-proof — that is, at least until the exciting moment they’re opened.