U.S. Army Soldier Systems Command, Acquisition Directorate, Attn: AMSSC-AD, Natick, MA 01760-5011

A -- SOURCES SOUGHT BARRIER POST COATING OF FOOD PACKAGING Sol DAAK60-95-U-0003, Due 100395, POC Contract Specialist, Judith L. Uthoff (508) 651-5286 (fax) (Site Code DAAK60). The U.S. Army Natick Research, Development and Engineering Center located at the Soldier Systems Command, Natick, MA, is interested in identifying sources capable of performing barrier post-coating on food packaging. Currently, military operational rations employ the use of aluminum foil laminated pouches to achieve the oxygen and moisture vapor barrier protection necessary to meet the military requirement for a three-year minimum shelf life. These pouches are normally used for each individual ration component requiring extended barrier and thereby prevent commercial items for being assembled into rations while in their normal commercial package. This repackaging or specialty packaging of items adds cost to each operational ration and detracts from the presentation of what might otherwise be a commercially equivalent food product. Soldier acceptability of ration components is known to be highest when commercial items, or at least commercial packaging, is used. A need exists to develop a barrier post-coating system which will allow commercially prepared and packaged food items with limited inherent shelf life to be spray or otherwise coated with an agent to increase the packages' barrier properties so as to achieve a three-year minimum shelf life. Development of such a system will promote the increased use of commercially-packaged foods in military rations, thus reducing the cost of procuring ration components in specialty packages, and maximizing the acceptance of rations to the soldier in the field. The contractor will be required to refine/develop a suitable post-coat material and technique for application onto prepackaged items, which can be performed at ration assembly plants. The contractor will be required to fabricate, test and deliver to Natick for evaluation and inspection preliminary prototype post-coated food packages. Final limited production representative samples of three post-coated food packages (to be selected by the government), shall be delivered to Natick and tested to determine their ability to meet the extended shelf life requirement while surviving the rigors of the military distribution system. The contractor will be required to provide technical data. Interested firms must submit within 15 days following the publication of this synopsis, information on their previous related experience, personnel resumes, list of facilities, and any other specific information the firm believes demonstrates its ability to perform the proposed work. The firm should include its CAGE code, whether or not it is a small business, woman-owned or socially and economically disadvantaged. The size standard for this procurement is 500 employees. This is not a Request for Proposals. Advance Reference No. DAAK60-95-U-0003. NO solicitation document is available at this time. See Note 25. (262)

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