Convenience continues to be a focal point at Anuga FoodTec

FAST preparation and ease of use offer so many tempting advantages that more and more people are buying convenience products. Demand for convenience food products will continue to rise in the coming years because shopping habits are changing, and a growing number of people are making spontaneous purchases instead of stocking up on groceries in advance.

Modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) is a process that makes many convenience products possible, especially baked goods, cheese, sausage and fresh meat, many ready-meals, sandwiches and fruit salad. Packaging food products under modified atmosphere conditions or protective gas is a process that has been in use for many years now in various segments of industrial food production. Depending on the gas mixture used, the shelf life of pressure-sensitive food products can be lengthened, for example, and the bright red colour of beef and pork can be preserved longer. As a rule, the protective gas is a mixture of oxygen, carbon dioxide and nitrogen.

Individually tailored to the product

MAP packages can be produced using either thermoforming machines or tray sealers. Thermoforming machines use rolls of plastic film, which can be refilled inline. Tray sealers, on the other hand, work with prefabricated trays.
Intended to not only ensure longer product shelf life, they also are designed to be environmentally friendly, practical and convenient: Products with not only longer shelf life, but also more visual appeal. At Anuga FoodTec many companies will present their latest developments in terms of consumer-friendly solutions that also ensure visual appeal to customers at the point of sale. In many cases, for example, clever little technical features in the package make it easier to handle ready-meals. The company ES-Plastic of Passau, Germany, for example, offers two-compartment PP trays for pasta dishes with a perforation. After heating in the microwave, the 'instant cook' can pour the sauce over the noodles, easily and without dripping.

Another example is a polypropylene tray that holds four small skewers with meat, vegetables or fruit. The skewers seem to float in the tray on two small side compartments, each featuring four indentations. The skewers are anchored by clicking them quickly and securely into slots, where they present an appetising appearance.

In demand: Easy-open packages
Easy opening without having to use implements such as scissors or knives is also increasingly in demand in the area of MAP packaging for fresh meat. Here the peel-back cover foil must manage a balancing act between an absolutely hermetically sealed closure, even in the event of contamination at the seal edges, and an easy to open solution. This is necessary to ensure a high degree of food product safety, which reliably prevents oxygen from penetrating into the package.

With a new cover foil, the German company Südpack Verpackungen offers just such a solution for easy opening of fresh meat trays. Developed in cooperation with the manufacturers Sealpac and ES-Plastic especially for tray sealer applications, the foil is an alternative to PP-single-compartment trays with tightly sealing foil, which can't be opened without using an implement.

Fewer germs, greater safety
As a rule, only vacuum-packed food products have been processed under high pressure. Until now, the main reasoAdidas