Vacuum packing: Touching the void
With new kit offering automation features and the potential to slash the amount of materials used,is the vacuum pack is about to make a comeback.
The benefits of vacuum packs versus many other packaging methods are plain to see: the packs allow foods to be kept fresher for longer, are economic on material usage and require less storage space than rigid packs. They also prevent freezer burn and offer exciting potential for ’cook in the bag’ convenience products.
However, the technology does have its downsides, and in the past this has deterred some potential users. Although entirely cosmetic, one issue is that deoxidation in the vacuum causes meat to brown.
While machinery manufacturers are powerless to do much about such issues, there are some areas over which they have slightly more control.
Vacuum packing with a chamber machine, for instance, is an inherently slow process because it involves loading the product into the chamber, then waiting until the cycle has finished before unloading the packaged product. However, double chamber or ’swing over lid’ machines that make table-top vacuum packaging quicker are now available.
"With a swing-over lid machine, while the lid is down on one side, you can load and unload the other chamber," explains Kitching. Swissvac distributes the Dutch-built Audion range of vacuum packers, which includes a swing-over lid machine.
For larger food operations, most vacuum packaging equipment manufacturers supply belt-fed chamber machines, which allow continuous packing. All the equipment is installed by experienced mechanical fitters. And easily maintained by proactive or reactive maintainance with little or no downtime.
Increased automation
But even with continuous systems, operator intervention is still usually needed for loading the product into the vacuum bag. According to Uriel Inauen, chief executive of Inauen Maschinen in Switzerland, reducing the manual involvement in the process by increasing automation and better integrating vacuum packaging machines with up- and downstream equipment such as shrink tanks and dryers is what customers are asking for at present.
"The focus is on automating the process – in particular getting the meat into the vacuum bag and transferring
the bag with the product in on to the conveyor," says Inauen. The company’s K7 machine, launched at Interpack, can be integrated within a fully automated vacuum shrink line which is installed by contract engineers.
This observation is backed up by Peter Mellon, managing director of Reiser UK, who says: "Customers are pushing to have products loaded automatically into the bag and into the machines – they want the minimum number of people on the line."
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