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[News] Which Package Type Out Stands along with the Rapidly-growing Prefabricated Food Market?

Release time:

Aug 03,2022

Packages competes fiercely in the Rapidly-growing Prefabricated Food Market.

[News] Which Package Type Out Stands along with the Rapidly-growing Prefabricated Food Market?
[News] Which Package Type Out Stands along with the Rapidly-growing Prefabricated Food Market?

In the first seven months of this year, the sales of prefabricated food showed an exponential growth trend, and the sales in the four months exceeded that of the whole of last year." the person in charge of the prefabricated food project of the E-Commerce Department of CP Group China recently told the public media.

Attracted by the vast market space, prefabricated food has become popular, and prefabricated food packaging has also become popular.

For those in the packaging industry, prefabricated food is an opportunity to fill the air with sweetness. In particular, fresh-keeping packaging, cold chain packaging, and other functional packaging will surely promote the great prosperity of this type of packaging.

So, what specific packaging will usher in the historical opportunity of the occasion?

1. Vacuum packaging technology to ensure quality and freshness

Vacuum packaging technology is a relatively common preservation technology for prefabricated food. Vacuum packaging can be divided into two types of packaging: vacuum bag packaging and vacuum box packaging.

The main function of vacuum bagging is to remove oxygen, which is beneficial to prevent food spoilage. Commonly used types of vacuum packaging machines are double-chamber vacuum packaging machines, rolling vacuum packaging machines, stretch film vacuum packaging machines and so on.

Vacuum boxed packaging is often used to package ready-to-eat products such as cold meat, clean vegetables, duck neck, crayfish, cold rice noodles, etc. These products are usually packaged in modified atmosphere vacuum packaging, mostly using modified atmosphere vacuum packaging machines.

At present, the air-conditioning vacuum packaging machines commonly used in the market are mainly divided into two categories, one is the semi-automatic air-conditioning vacuum packaging machine, and the other is the fully automatic air-conditioning vacuum packaging machine. In the type of semi-automatic air-conditioning vacuum packaging machine, it is divided into two types, one is single-in and single-out type, and the other is double- in and double-out type.

Modified atmosphere lock fresh box

There is also a body-mounted vacuum packaging machine. The principle is to use a low-viscosity composite film, put the material on the tray or film of the lower template, and in a vacuum state, the heat generated by the heating plate is sent to the vacuum chamber through the exhaust port. The low-viscosity composite film is instantly heated and compounded together to achieve the effect of vacuum packaging. This type of packaging is to heat and soften the film and then shrink the packaging, so there is no phenomenon of puncturing the film when packaging items with sharp corners and hard thorns. This kind of packaging has no low breakage rate.

2. Foldable insulation turnover box

At present, logistics giants such as JD.com, Shunfeng, and Cainiao are already operating thermal insulation turnover boxes. Taking JD.com as an example, the use of foldable thermal insulation turnover boxes has been fully implemented in JD.com's fresh food business, instead of disposable foam boxes, which are returned to the warehouse for recycling through JD.com's reverse logistics. The service life of JD’s circulating cold chain box is more than 1.5 years. The average number of uses per box has reached 130 times, and the cumulative number of uses over the years has reached 180 million times, effectively reducing the use of disposable foam boxes, ice packs, and dry ice. So far, 180 million disposable foam boxes have been reduced, 600 million disposable ice packs have been reduced, and 50 million kilograms of dry ice have been reduced, with a cumulative emission reduction of more than 300,000 tons.

According to reports, JD Logistics also leverages its own advantages in the supply chain, and cooperates with upstream companies to work hard on the packaging reduction cycle. On the one hand, the original packaging is used, that is, the product packaging has the function of protecting the product during the logistics and transportation process, and meets the external logistics environment, and does not require secondary packaging to achieve direct delivery. Through preferential policies for warehousing, JD Logistics encourages upstream brand companies to implement direct-delivery packaging. Thousands of product SKU from brands such as P&G and Unilever have been shipped directly from the factory in their original packaging. Up to now, the use of logistics cartons has been reduced by more than 150 million. Duan Yanjian of JD Logistics pointed out that this measure has reduced the use of paper by about 125,000 tons, which is equivalent to reducing carbon emissions by 4.4*105 tons.

3. Pulp molding cold chain incubator

Vericool of the United States has recently developed a new type of cold chain incubator, which is mainly made of compostable insulation materials, including recycled paper fibers and other plant-based materials, which can be recycled and composted. Discarded Vericool cold chain incubators can be recycled and degraded in 180 days or less.
 

Vericool 's compostable insulation is biodegradable, certified to ASTM D6400 in the US and EN 13432 in Europe, and is priced at $4.99. At the same time, compared with traditional foam insulation boxes, Vericool 's cold chain packaging boxes can be kept warm for a longer time and at a lower cost.

Note: The picture comes from Vericool official website

 

4. Thermal insulation kraft paper insulation pad

WrapPak 70/70 solution launched by Ranpak, kraft paper is pressed into corrugated paper pads with protector equipment, which can be cut and folded as needed. With unique material properties and corrugated structure, it can effectively reduce the heat loss caused by heat conduction, convection and radiation, and can control the temperature to keep within a certain range, thus ensuring the freshness of fresh food.

The time function graph plotted by calculation shows that with 2 layers of corrugated paper, the temperature can be kept below 5°C for 26 hours; with 3 layers of corrugated paper, the temperature can be kept below 4°C for 26 hours. Experiments have shown that WrapPak corrugated paper has better thermal insulation properties.

5. Prefabricated food packaging with coated iron technology

Coated iron technology refers to the process technology of compounding plastic films on the surface of metal substrates by hot melting or bonding, thereby improving the corrosion resistance of metal substrates and metal containers. The products produced by this technology have the characteristics of corrosion resistance, acid resistance, no bisphenol A, no plasticizers, etc., which can not only ensure that the contents are sterile and safe, but also lock the original flavor of the ingredients.

The representative enterprises in China of coated iron packaging technology are Origen, which independently developed food-grade coated iron technology and launched a prefabricated food brand "Origen Bowl" built on the basis of this technical process, and as of now, China’s famous brands like Buddha's Temptation or Fotiaoqiang (Chinese: 佛跳牆; pinyin: fó tiào qiáng), Sea cucumber millet porridge(Chinese: 小米辽参; pinyin: xiǎo mǐ liáo shēn), and some others.

Image credit: O.R.G.

Coated iron has strong universality and can be used in most food packaging on the market, and simply through the advanced technology of packaging materials, it can effectively extend the shelf life of food to one year without adding anti-corrosion. In addition to the environmental protection performance, thermal conductivity, light insulation, airtightness and adaptability of special environments of metal materials, this packaging form has also become one of the new tracks for prefabricated food packaging.

Of course, with the continuous in-depth development of the prepared food industry , more packaging needs will be derived, and we will continue to pay attention.

END

 

Shared by SuperPack, Translated and Edited  by Minjie.

Disclaimer: information originally comes from the official website of CHINAPLAS International Rubber and Plastics Exhibition, O.R.G., etc., if there is any infringement, please contact to delete.

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