Tubes for soups, sauces and ready-made meals

FILLING of soups, sauces and ready-made meals into tubes isn't really new and can be traced as far back as in the 16th century, when paste-like soups were filled into natural casings for storing and conserving and were sealed with a string. For a long time, however, this type of packaging was forgotten. Now it's back - with films and plastic casings, such as Poly-clip System's 'clip-pak' packaging, substituting for natural casings for soups, stews and sauces. End consumers are offered a wide range of convenience products in a variety of packaging units of 50g up to 1kg, depending on the product. These products are also used as big bundles of up to 5 kg in institutional kitchens. Unlike tinned foods, which are sterilised at 121ºC, products in these tube casings are usually pasteurised at temperatures of up to 90ºC, and they thus essentially retain their nutritional value, their fresh taste and their appetising appearance. To retain the maximum nutritional content of the product, it is heated in an extremely short time to a temperature of about 85ºC, is filled as a clip-pak with as little temperature loss as possible and is then cooled in the pack as quickly as possible. A further process is pasteurisation in the pack, meaning that the product is filled cold as a clip-pak and is pasteurised thereafter. With both the cook and chill and the pasteurisation processes a shelf life of six to ten weeks is achieved at a storage temperature of 7ºC. Most dishes can be filled using the well-known sausage fillers, as with sausage products. Some particularly sensitive vegetables that have to remain in pieces in the pack, e.g. broccoli, cauliflower and Brussels sprouts, are filled using extra-gentle piston pumps. Depending on production volume, the tubes are clipped using various types of clipping machines. The entire range of Poly-clip's double-clipping machines can be used, ranging from a PDC in small companies to a TSCA 120 or even a TSA/ ICA combination in industrial production. This means that in both craft enterprises and industrial facilities, soups, sauces and ready- made meals in clip-pak form are a potential profit-making product line.Nike Benassi Slide