In promoting its upcoming international trade fair, Pacovent, host Koelnmesse GmbH issued a press release pertaining to shrink-wrap developments for food packaging. Among the release’s insights were the following:
• In meat packaging, “Consumers are more likely to buy prepackaged goods than queue up at the meat counter. For retailers, this development allows shops to cut down on the number of sales personnel. Discounters have followed suit. This development was made possible through innovations in shrink wrapping.”
• Of the approximately 55 million tons of plastic that were processed in western Europe in 2004, 21 million tons were used for packaging.
• With consumer demand for ready-made meals is growing, “manufacturers are using a blown-film co-extrusion process to produce highly transparent multilayered sheets. In particular, wrapping for ready-made meals has to withstand steam sterilization temperatures of 121º C while retaining its barrier properties. This opens up new uses for semi-aromatic polyamides, which are used as blends in conventional polyamide layers. These serve as stable oxygen and moisture barriers comparable to those created by ethylene vinyl alcohol. However, unlike EVOH, the sheets also provide protection from ultraviolet rays while also being far more transparent.”
• “Shrink wraps with a defined degree of porosity to gases are used as packages for cheese ripening that make it possible to store cheese as it ripens for up to 12 months.”
• “Today’s consumers have grown used to packages for sausage or cheese that can be reclosed, so that the product doesn’t have to be repacked once it has been opened.”
Pacovent is an international trade fair focusing on machines, materials, and processes for package production and converting. It is scheduled for November 6-10, 2006, in Cologne. For more information, visit Pacovent.com.
