Prepared Foods: Page 73

Closures

Automated bagger

The Paxem(TM) is a new high-speed automated bagger from Colt Eng. Corp. (Calgary, Alberta, Canada) that allows flexibility in product and bag sizes at high production rates.

March 31, 1998

Multipacking/shrink bundling/banding

Catching the rays

Packagers seek FDA approval of resins for use in overwrapping and trays for irradiated beef and poultry.

March 31, 1998

Coding, Printing & Labeling

Digital-on-demand printing opens new markets for converter

Two six-color digital offset presses drive Watson Label Products into the packaging market. Machines specialize in short-run production of flexibles used primarily for prototyping and promotional purposes.

March 31, 1998

Conveying & accumulation

New machines and materials fuel prepackaged fresh beef

An unusual foam tray, seven-layer coextruded lidding, a high-speed rotary backflushing/lidding machine, and weigh/price labeling let this Florida meat packer respond to supermarket demand for case-ready ground beef.

March 31, 1998

Additives, coatings & inks

Freezer-to-oven CPET trays

A thermoformed tray of crystallized polyethylene terephthalate holds frozen, unbaked muffin batter and can be put right in the oven to allow foodservice operators in Australia to offer fresh-baked goods on-premise.

March 31, 1998

Flexibles

Polyester film

Rhodia (Cranbury, NJ) has introduced Terphane® 14.31, a PVOH-coated film for lamination. Applications for the film include lidding for refrigerated and oxygen-sensitive foods such as fresh and processed meats, fresh pasta and cheese.

February 28, 1998

Bag/pouch fill/seal (pre-made bags)

Bags stretch advantages for packagers and end users

Among FPA's winning packages sold at retail are a flat-bottom flexible bag made on first-of-its-kind vf/f/s machinery, a club-store bag incorporating a transverse zipper for reclosability, and a patented shaker bag that handily dispenses ice melt.

February 28, 1998

Feeding/inserting/unscrambling

Woodland Poly casts for western film business

Cast and blown film-making equipment, using metallocene resins, enable Woodland Poly to produce rugged stretch-wrap film in thin gauges for its customers in the west.

February 28, 1998

Flexibles

Cudahy takes bacon out of the fridge

Patrick Cudahy Inc. of Cudahy, WI, is probably the first to package precooked sliced bacon for display outside of the refrigerated deli case. "Shelf-stable packaging opens up more opportunities," says Cudahy marketer Jason Kapella.

February 28, 1998

Bag/pouch fill/seal (pre-made bags)

Packaging potatoes for consumer convenience

Add sliced potatoes to the growing list of branded, prepared produce packaged in flexible films for refrigerated display in the supermarket. Launched in the first week of January were four varieties of Fresh From The Start® potatoes from 50/50 partners Maine Packing of Caribou, ME, and Fresh From The Start LLC of Riverhead, NY.

February 28, 1998

Flexible packaging

New Year's promise: Further packaging advances

There's a better-than-even chance we'll see a surge in packaging advances this year. Packaging developers in a host of segments see the promise of their long labors bearing fruit in 1998.

December 31, 1997

Dairy

Outsourcing benefits point to continuing trend (sidebar)

Sara Lee plans to market, not make

December 31, 1997