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Heat-sealed foil lidding helps start-ups grow

These start-up food companies have figured out how to navigate the delicate balance between conserving precious capital and providing professional-looking packages.

TABLETOP SEALERS. Even the smallest of start-up food companies can make good use of tabletop sealing machines.
TABLETOP SEALERS. Even the smallest of start-up food companies can make good use of tabletop sealing machines.

Management teams at Legacy Foods Manufacturing, PurFoods, and Salmon Express Seafood all felt that their very different food products had the best chance of success in the marketplace if the cups they were packed in had reliable and professional-looking heat-sealed tamper-evident seals in place. Steve Sallenback, co-owner of Legacy Foods Manufacturing, an Elk Grove Village, IL-based co-packer that produces and packages food products for other companies, puts it this way.

“What is the cost of not having tamper-evident packaging? Probably never breaking into retail or ever taking your food start-up to the next level. Not only have consumers come to expect it as a sign that the product is safe, but also retailers increasingly demand such packaging as part of their food safety programs designed to limit potential liability.”

Unfortunately, high-speed portion packaging equipment is tough to come by for small operations, since price tags too often range in the six figures. This has created a market demand for low-cost, manual foil-sealing machines—small enough to fit on a table-top or kitchen counter—that allow food start-ups to provide professional, tamper-evident packaging from day one. Precisely such systems are available from Wilpack Packaging.

“For food entrepreneurs trying to get their product into a retail setting, Wilpack’s manual sealer is the lowest-cost foil-sealing machine I’ve seen for portion-control cups,” says Sallenback. “It’s a stepping stone to help small specialty food start-ups get onto retail shelves and start building volume with minimal capital risk.”

Another plus is that sealed portion-control cups minimize the potential leaks or spills from non-airtight covers such as snap-on lids, says Sallenback. “Since a foil seal is more spill proof than a simple snap-on lid, it protects against unwanted leaks or spills in the grocery bag.” He adds that pre-printed foil seals on portion control cups, with the start-up’s name, logo, or ingredients, can also provide branding.

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