Wrap Up
Packaging innovations present a world of opportunity for meat industry
Basel, Switzerland-based Bell has its pasteurized, refrigerated Quick Meats line packaged in a stand-up, glass-coated, flexible pouch.
by Bryan Salvage, editor
Innovation abounds in meat packaging-ranging from new, futuristic glass-lined flexible pouches to breakthroughs in microwaveable packaging.
Although it's still too early to gauge how well some of these new ideas could work in the U.S. meat industry, they provide excellent examples of what is possible
At InterPac '93, Basel, Switzerland-based Bell exhibited its pasteurized, refrigerated Quick Meats product packaged in a stand-up, glass-coated, flexible pouch. Judy Rice, senior editor/packaging expert for Food Processing magazine, calls it a revolution in meat packaging.
The package is made from Ceramis films by Lawson Mardon Packaging, a member of the Alusuisse-Lonza Group. Ceramis is a range of laminates with an extremely thin, transparent, flexible, glass-type barrier layer that will not react with food products. There are no side reactions or monomer-type materials present.
The Ceramis layer is only Angstroms thick, and it adds little or no mass to the structure while providing an excellent oxygen barrier. FDA has evaluated Ceramis (GRAS). It's also recyclable and microwaveable.
Since initial testing of this concept, Bell has switched its entire Quick Meats line to the Ceramis structure. Although Lawson Mardon Packaging has no commercial meat applications using this technology in the United States, company officials are hopeful this will soon change.
Microwave breakthroughs
Several companies recently introduced items that some believe may revolutionize microwave food packaging. Mississaugua, Ontario-based Beckett Industries, the brain-trust company behind the microwaveable popcorn concept, recently introduced a new patent and product design for a package that is designed to cook raw poultry and raw meat in a microwave oven, according to Bob LaGasse, executive director of the International Microwave Power Institute.
Beckett did not return calls to Meat Marketing & Technology. However, Stan Sacharow, president of the Packaging Group, wrote in the November 1994 issue of Paper, Film & Foil Converter that Beckett's new Micro-Rite energy-management system "allows for crisping, browning and even heating of many foods not amenable to conventional susceptors." Foods using this process do not need to be precooked prior to packaging.
Glenn Walters, president of Taunton, Mass.-based Advanced Deposition Technologies, tells MM&T that his company's ACCU-CRISP bag, equipped with a new safety susceptor located in the lining of the microwave browning and crisping bag, is being used in the company's recipe book for different meat products.
The susceptor is a patterned, metalized coating. The new susceptor material is comprised of a polyester film with a non-continuous thin coating of metal laminated to either paper or paperboard, which reportedly permits superior overall browning and crisping of microwave foods.
"The pattern is made in such a way that you have little islands of metal that are connected to each other through a small, fusible link," Walters says. "So, if a particular region of the product sees too much energy or heat, the fusible link will break and the island will deactivate some heating characteristics."
Applications of this new susceptor technology have been primarily used for pastry items where browning and crisping are more in demand.
However, the ACCU-CRISP bag can also cook raw meat, including hamburgers, bacon or frozen steak.
Milford, Ohio-based James River Corp. offers a new QWIK BALANCE packaging technology for managing microwave energy to deliver uniform food heating.
"This microwave technology significantly improves the uniformity of temperature throughout a casserole. It enhances the convenience of microwave foods," says Walter Bond, James River's vice president of marketing and development/packaging business. "A number of companies that process pot pies and other products are considering this technology."
Building a safer product
Wilmington, Del.-based DuPont Packaging's Jim Shelley says the company is interested in seeing how packaging could help reduce topical pathogens on meat products.
"There are food-grade antiseptic ingredients that may be introduced," he adds. "This is pie-in-the-sky now, but we're experimenting."
The Japanese have products in the commercial state, and the University of Wisconsin is doing more studies on how packaging materials can help reduce pathogens, Shelley says.
When modified atmosphere packaging is mentioned, most people think of it for packaging raw meat.
St. Mary's, Ohio-based Classic Delights has been marketing a five-item MAP line of refrigerated meat sandwiches for national distribution in major retail grocery stores for seven years.
"We can put a 42-day shelf life on the sandwiches," says Keith Leffel, head of quality assurance and safety management for Classic Delight Inc.
Leffel claims Classic Delight's business is expanding in the vending and convenience store arenas.
"We just started pursuing those markets last year," he adds. "We're running close to 60 varieties of sandwiches-anything from bologna wedge cuts to hoagies to Italian combos."
During last year's Pack Expo in Chicago, a number of new packaging and distribution items were on display.
Cryovac exhibited Wilson's brand deli meat products in modified atmosphere packaging.
Cryovac barrier shrink film and hermetic sealing are two critical components of this package.
The product contains an oxygen absorber made by Mitsubishi Gas Chemical inside of the package.
"That's critical to get the 60-day shelf life the company was looking for in processed meat," says Randy Koteles, Cryovac's manager of films applications development. "This is probably one of the first applications for this absorber in the deli case."
Top protection
John Wilde, general manager of Watertown, Wis.-based Lewis Systems, says his company launched its new USDA- and FDA-approved 4840 system of reusable stack-and-nest plastic containers to provide maximum product protection during processing and shipping.
"It's a series of five containers designed to provide maximum cube for sending the product," he says. "They nest to take up minimum space during storage and return.
"They are all designed to come up 50 inches so you can cross-dock and mix-and-match on a pallet," Wilde adds.
These containers would be used after meat has been reduced from primals to prepackaged products, Wilde points out. His company plans to look at developing products for primal cuts in the future.
Switching from cardboard to plastic shipping containers will be welcomed by some packers.
"Cardboard and packaging costs are getting high," says a packaging professional from one Iowa-based boxed beef company. "We're looking into using returnable plastic trays instead of cardboard shipping containers.
"We have also been experimenting with different items to replace boneguard," she points out. "Boneguard does a good job in preventing bag punctures, but the customer can't see the product.
Looking at Labeling
Safe handling labels might be unpopular in some quarters of the meat industry, but they are viewed as a plus for the labeling industry. "We've done a lot of projects with labeling equipment because of safe handling," says Mike Wade, systems division manager for Forest Hill, Md.-based Mid-Atlantic Label. "[The mandate] has helped a lot of label and equipment companies."
Wade says he sees a growing trend of packers putting polystyrene safe handling labels inside of the package. "It still meets government requirements, but it doesn't hinder the product the consumer wants to see," Wade notes.
Many companies exhibited wares designed to meet safe handling and nutrition labeling needs at Pack Expo last November. Bell-Mark touted its Flex Print In- Line Printer for nutrition labeling on form fill seal machines; US-8000 In-Line Printer for Nutrition Facts on form fill seal machines; US-4302 Imprinter for safe handling instructions; and its large character ink jet coding system for absorbent surfaces.
As pressure builds to enhance meat safety, advocates say jet printing is a safety benefit because it avoids direct contact with package or product surfaces.
"The newest technology [in jet printing] we're working on are the food grade F, D and C-approved inks," says Barry Bruckner, president of Gardena, Calif.-based Independent Ink Inc. "We are pursuing that market for [various segments of] the food industry."
Bruckner says he sees the possibility of jet printing various types of government codes and labels-as well as company labels, logos or other items-directly onto the surface of the meat product with food grade ink.
"We're also working on food grade ink that will change colors after a certain programmed timetable," he adds. "We're working on an ink for the milk industry for printing onto cartons based on temperature and time. It will give a freshness date or indicator. This could also be used on meat packaging."
John Rosberg, technical training/documentation manager for Wood Dale, Ill.-based Videojet Systems International, says to expect more food grade fluids from his company. "We see more coding opportunities on edible substances as government regulations increase," he adds.
Mid-Atlantic's Wade, however, points to ink jet systems' limitations. "The technology isn't there [for ink jet systems] to give a nice package appearance," he adds. "The consumer will prefer a decorative label over an ink jet system."
Rosberg stresses that his customers want to be able to quickly change the types and sizes of products on a line. Ease of use in labeling equipment is also becoming more important as plants strive for maximum capacity shifts. There's also an increase in connecting labeling systems to material handling systems.
Bar coding-specifically the adoption of the UCC/EAN 128 bar-coding system-is also gaining momentum. John Harris, vice president of systems sales for Accu-Sort, says he sees more companies in the meat industry moving away from their own internal bar-coding systems toward adopting UCC/EAN 128. The system is designed to bring bar-code uniformity.
"I've seen more large warehouse and distribution centers that are purchasing product putting pressure on meat companies to adhere to this specification in the past two years," Harris says.
Some large meat packing companies are now paying attention to this. "They're making the decision they had better adopt this system if they want to retain their market share," Harris claims. "They're switching from an internal bar-coding system to one that meets requirements of their customers.
"I'm seeing the end-user saying, 'Yes, we see a lot of value in having a standardized bar code on a product we receive,' " Harris adds. "We want to be able to automate our receiving, shipping and inventory processes. Within the next three to five years, you're going to see this [type of] bar coding become mandatory in the industry."