Packaging – Focusing on Creative and Cost-Effective Equipment

The current economic environment has created the need for packaging equipment that translates into lower costs for food producers, while at the same time offering ingenious solutions which contribute to the ongoing fight against food loss and waste. In this article, we take a look at an environmental initiative presented at interpack 2014 and also detail the results of a case study involving a successful packaging collaboration.
Dan Orehov reports

According to a current study by the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Australia, suitable packages are capable of reducing food loss considerably. Developers are therefore working hard on new concepts for packaging machines, the related process technology and “smart” packages. A total of 100 companies from the entire food value chain, from production, retailing and packaging through to logistics, are now participating in the “Save Food” Initiative, a joint project of the FAO, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and Messe Düsseldorf GmbH. Its goal is to foster dialogue between industry, research, the political sphere and civil society on the subject of food loss. Reducing spoilage will also be the central theme at the Innovationparc Packaging at interpack 2014 in Düsseldorf. Exhibitors at this show will be presenting their ideas on how food can be protected better from 7 to 14 May 2014. Furthermore, during the Save Food Conference at Messe Düsseldorf’s Congress Center South on 7 and 8 May, experts from politics, industry and society will be exchanging views on food loss and wastage.

The world’s leading trade fair for the packaging sector takes place at the Düsseldorf exhibition grounds from 8 to 14 May 2014 and is dedicated to packaging and process engineering companies specializing in foods and beverages, confectionery and bakery products, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, non-food consumer goods, industrial goods and related services. According to the organizers, the latest show attracted more than 165,000 trade visitors, 84 per cent of whom said they were involved in decision-making processes in their companies.

Tailored packaging machines
The requirements profile for packaging various types of cheese, such as the Emmentaler and Tilsiter varieties differs. While one cheese is packaged when completely mature and so does not involve any special conditions, the other has to continue maturing under the packaging film. For this purpose a deep-drawing machine and corresponding soft films are used. The system solution works so well that it only needs one third of the time thus making it possible to substantially reduce the unit costs of the individual batches.
“We have more than 40 years’ experience with a wide range of tasks in the food industry,” explains Jörg Feisel, Application Support Manager for Packaging Material at GEA Food Solutions (GEA FS), Biedenkopf-Wallau. “From the conception to the development, from the design to the operating behaviour – customers’ output is central to our actions. Among other things our user-friendly machine concepts ensure the greatest flexibility. For example, they enable companies to produce and package various products in small quantities, and they facilitate fast and trouble-free retooling times without any evident loss in performance.”
This is true in particular for the multifunctional PowerPak product range. With these thermo-formers it’s all a matter of packaging performance. It involves a fundamentally newly designed machine technology which meets all the current and future market requirements. Its high machine availability and modular design provide long-term investment security, as the following practical example shows.

Lowering unit costs
The Slovenian dairy Pomurske Mlekarne d.d. from Murska Sobota has a workforce of 173 at two production sites making its milk into quark, yoghourt, milk powder and butter, and also turning it into Emmentaler and Tilsiter-type cheeses. Both varieties of cheese were previously packaged in shrink bags. When it was no longer possible to repair the Emmentaler packaging line, the idea arose of packaging both dairy products in one line in future. “The packaging of the Tilsiter specifically had previously been extremely time-consuming. This was partly done manually and in the long run it didn’t pay,” says Karmen Dugar, the General Manager, looking back. “To stay competitive in a difficult environment and to reduce the unit costs further we set out to find a new packaging solution. It was decided that the two cheese varieties should preferably be packaged in a deep-drawing machine.”

While the Emmentaler-type cheese is packaged under a modified atmosphere, the unmatured Tilsiter-type cheese demands much more from the packaging solution.  After a series of discussions with various machine manufacturers the dairy decided to go for a GEA FS packaging machine which has no difficulty in fulfilling all the food-related requirements when packaging cheese. It consists of a CFS PowerPak deep-drawing machine Shrink Pak with a film width of 320 mm, as well as a shrink tank and a packaging dryer from the machine engineering company Supervac, Vienna. This company specializes in vacuum packaging technology. These two specialist suppliers have collaborated for years. At the same time CFS-DIXIE Flexibles GmbH, Kempten, has developed and successfully tested a maturing film with special permeation properties. Today this is also a component of the overall solution.

Roughly two thirds less time
The standard deep-drawing machine has been adapted individually to meet customer requirements. Once extensive tests with the two customer products had been completed successfully in Biedenkopf it was possible to place the order. “We saw on the spot that the packaging of both varieties of cheese on a single line works perfectly,” claims Karmen Dugar. “Whereas previously the machine and film manufacturers were always exchanging mutual recriminations, with this packaging line we’re on the safe side.” Since the late spring of 2010 the whole installation has been running successfully in Slovenia, and a line converger and automatic cartoning facility have now been added. Training courses and a service contract ensure its long-term operational reliability.
Today 170 tonnes of Tilsiter and 20 tonnes of Emmentaler per month are packaged fully automatically on the deep-drawing machine. Manual work is a thing of the past. Whereas previously it was necessary to reckon with three hours for 1,200 kg, this can be handled today in a third of the time. “For this quantity we now only need one hour,” the general manager confirms. “And of course this pays off in business terms.”