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Breakthrough in meat packaging

Vacuum-packaged fresh red meat shipped refrigerated in corrugated cases has long been viewed as an eminently sensible case-ready packaging format.

FPA Gold Winner for Environmental & Sustainability Achievement.
FPA Gold Winner for Environmental & Sustainability Achievement.

Vacuum-packaged fresh red meat shipped refrigerated in corrugated cases has long been viewed as an eminently sensible case-ready packaging format. Why? Because it’s two parts, a desireable alternative to the four-part format that currently dominates today’s case-ready meat category: EPS foam tray, stretch wrap, modified atmosphere master bag, corrugated case. Not only is vacuum packaging greener, more compact, and less costly than today’s most popular case-ready format, it provides a refrigerated shelf life that’s considerably longer. And it lets consumers freeze meat right in its original packaging with no threat of freezer burn.


The one drawback to vacuum packaging that has kept it primarily on the sidelines in the U.S. is that it deprives fresh red meat of oxygen and consequently causes the meat to darken to almost a purple color. U.S. consumers have shown repeatedly that they want fresh red meat to be red, not purple.


But now Curwood has come up with a solution called FreshCase packaging. It won a Gold Award for Environmental & Sustainability Achievement in the 2012 FPA Awards. Introduced in 2011, it’s now in use by several meat processors for both whole-muscle and ground beef in formats that include

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