From Curwood, the bag is engineered to eliminate the risk of package punctures that could lead to the potentially dangerous contamination of meat products. This is a product extension of Curwood’s ABP™ (Absolute Boneguard Protection) product line for large cuts of bone-in fresh pork and beef weighing up to 40 lb. Unlike ABP, the protective boneguard area extends throughout the entire bag and is an alternative to patch bags for large cuts. In this application, the supermarket repackages the meat for retail display.
A Flexible Packaging Assn. Gold award winner for Packaging Excellence, the CBP bag also earned a Silver award for Technical Innovation due to its unique two-ply construction. A continuous lamination of proprietary coextrusion blends, the 6.5-mil thick structure contains polyethylene to enhance puncture resistance and toughness. The result is a bag that provides toughness, shrink, clarity, and protection against bone punctures. Leaker rates have been halved in field tests in extremely demanding applications, according to Curwood.
Because it doesn’t use a puncture-protecting patch, the resultant shrink package is said by Curwood to achieve a tighter fit and better appearance than bags with patches. It is also claimed to be readily heat-sealable on rotary chamber vacuum packaging machines at rates to 20 packages/min.
The bag is also suited for case-ready meat applications due to its high clarity, sheen, and shrink properties. It is printable in register on both sides to accommodate high-impact graphics in up to eight flexo-printed colors.
Curwood says ArmorX CBP was test-marketed in summer 2003 and commercialized in December, though an end-user company was not disclosed.
