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Cook-in bags debut in South Africa

Two seafood ready meals have been launched by the Woolworths chain of stores in South Africa. Heating can be done in either the microwave or the conventional oven.

Cook-in bags for ready meals.
Cook-in bags for ready meals.

Ovenable bags appear to be picking up some momentum not only in the U.S. (see pwgo.to/070 and pwgo.to/071) but elsewhere in the world, too. In South Africa, for example, the Woolworths chain of stores has launched two refrigerated seafood ready meals in an innovative ovenable bag.

The interesting twist to this launch is that the bag has two compartments. In one is the seafood item, either a salmon filet or calamari rings. In the other is a sauce. During cooking—in either microwave or conventional oven—the seal between the two compartments breaks so that fish and sauce are united.

“The packaging fits the product like a glove,” says Gavin Anhaeusser, product developer at Woolworths. “It’s perfect for absolute convenience and no-fuss cooking. Not only is it quick to cook, it’s a flavorsome end product with no fishy smell in the kitchen. The fact that the product is sealed in the bag means no yield loss and added flavor to the finished product.”

The pre-made Smart Release bags are supplied to Woolworths by Sirane. Precise composition is considered proprietary. Sirane managing director Simon Balderson says the multi-layer adhesive lamination is made up of “fairly standard packaging materials like polyethylenes, polyesters, and EVA. But they’re used in unusual ways.”

Sirane has established itself in the ovenable bag space over the past few years. But typically the protein—fish, chicken, meat—goes into the same compartment as the sauce. The dual-compartment format grew out of a request by a large retailer in the UK.

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