Caito says, 'We'll do it ourselves'

This Indianapolis produce wholesaler is breaking into a whole new market segment as it brings its 12-oz Fresh Line fruit bowls to supermarket produce departments in the Midwest.

The bowl is thermoformed from a three-layer sheet that includes a proprietary sealant layer that ensures seal integrity yet stil
The bowl is thermoformed from a three-layer sheet that includes a proprietary sealant layer that ensures seal integrity yet stil

With total sales nearing $8 billion in 1997, the fresh-cut produce business remains appealing to say the least. So appealing that Indianapolis-based Caito Foods, a full-service produce wholesaler with no previous experience in cutting or processing, launched its own line of fresh-cut fruit this summer. To hear general manager Wayne Wolven tell it, management would just as soon have stayed out of the processing business and stuck to its core business: distribution.

"For five years we've wanted to get into the packaged fruit business, but we hoped that someone at point of origin, maybe someone in California or Mexico, would develop a package with enough shelf life for us to handle," says Wolven. "It just never happened."

Rather than waiting for someone else to pave the way, Wolven and colleagues began looking for their own processing and packaging equipment. Their search led them to MAP Systems Intl. (Des Plaines, IL), a machine builder and thermoformer specializing in modified-atmosphere packaging. In January, MAP Systems introduced the MS55, a tabletop version of its larger and more costly continuous-production tray sealers. For Caito, which wanted to start small as it entered an entirely new segment of the produce business, the new machine was perfect.

"One machine does about ten packages per minute," says division manager Armand Angeles. "We have two, so we can sustain about twenty packages per minute. It's a good, affordable machine to get you started."

Should volumes grow and a continuous-production machine be necessary, notes Wolven, Caito will be able to transfer its seal head tooling to the new machine. That would give the firm a leg up on the cost of a new system.

Reached stores in July

With a seven-day use-by date and a suggested retail price of $2.99/lb, Caito's Fresh Line(TM) honeydew melon, cantaloupe and fruit medley in 12-oz portions began reaching store shelves in the Midwest in July. Excluding labels, the package consists of a thermoformed bowl, flexible film lidding, and thermoformed overcap. Clear Lam (Elk Grove Village, IL) supplies the film, while MAP Systems makes the bowl and overcap.

Like any fresh produce, Caito's sliced fruits continue to respire, taking oxygen in and giving off carbon dioxide. Only if the package offers the correct permeability can the appropriate gas exchange take place, thus ensuring quality and shelf life.

The thermoformed bowl, for its part, offers little permeability at all. It's a lamination of polyethylene/polyvinyl chloride/three-layer coextrusion. The proprietary coextrusion is carefully tailored so that when the flexible lidding material is sealed to the bowl, seal integrity is assured without hindering peelability.

The gas exchange gatekeeper is the flexible film lidding. "It's a custom coextrusion that represents a considerable R&D effort," says MAP Systems' Jim Sanfilippo. That's about all he's willing to say about the proprietary material.

Also making an important contribution to gas exchange is the thermoformed polyethylene terephthalate overcap, which is applied manually. MAP Systems has a patent pending on it. In six locations evenly spaced around its circumference are five channels produced by the thermoform tooling.

When the friction-fit overcap is applied to the bowl, these channels remain unobstructed conduits carrying the appropriate amount of ambient air into the package between the overcap and the flexible film lidding. In turn, this guarantees that sufficient oxygen ultimately permeates the film to reach the fruit. A snap-on overcap with no vents, on the other hand, would probably not permit sufficient ambient air to enter the package.

Why use an overcap at all? Wolven likes it for several reasons. "It gives the package more of a 'back-room look," he points out. "Customers told us that some of the packaged produce they've seen looks too manufactured. We wanted ours to look like it was being prepared in the back room of the produce department, and we think the overcap gives that appearance."

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