Fresher Than Fresh fish caught in case-ready trays

The company installed in late 2006 a Model 750 leak-proof gas-flush overwrapper from Ossid (www.ossid.com), a division of ProMach. It coincides with a major change for the packaged seafood marketer in switching from lidstock-sealed trays to overwrapped trays.

FTF also moved from rigid barrier trays to standard polystyrene foam trays from Cryovac/Saled Air Corp. (www.cryovac.com). The overwrap film that hermetically seals each tray provides the barrier.

In this video, the prestaged trays of fresh seafood are supplied to the overwrapper infeed at rates to 45 trays/min. The barrier film is formed into a tube around the modified atmosphere-packaged trays, which are also gas-flushed by the machine using a mix of carbon dioxide and nitrogen.

After sealing and cutting of the film to separate the packs, the packs continue on for top-and-bottom labeling and weigh-scale labeling. The latter generates a weight and price code, among other information, as well as a serialized number that can be used for tracking and tracing of package, lot, and origin of the product. A time-temperatire indicator label is also applied for visual confirmation of product quality related to temperature abuse and the sealed tays are cased for shipment.

Look for the accompanying story, A deep dive into case-ready seafood on the cover of the September issue of Packaging World.