Punching holes onto packaging of RTE products
Hi,
Currently we have difficulties packing products into cartons due to air in the packaging after sealing the products. Hence, to maximize the space in the cartons, are we allowed to punch holes onto the packaging to remove as much air as possible from the packaged product? FYI, these products are RTE frozen chicken products. Are there any requirements that specifically talk about this?
Thanks.
Whoa..............that's a less than ideal solution
Have a perforation machine installed on the packaging line...........it will put a row of microperforations in the plastic that are just big enough to allow the air to escape
The requirement applicable here would be foreign material................does you current process put tiny pieces of plastic into/onto your finished product?
Why not package directly into the box? Something similar happened here once. We made larger cartons, but they took forever to get here. In the meantime we started packing without the bag at all, and now continue to do it that way with the new box, which ended up being a waste of time and effort to create at all.
Think about it, if you were to go to the grocery store and buy RTE frozen chicken, would you be okay picking up a package with punched holes in it?
Timwoodbag, you're putting product directly against a paperboard box?
Timwoodbag, you're putting product directly against a paperboard box?
I have no experience with doing it, and getting a bit off topic now I but have seen it when working in pizza restaurants say 10 years ago. As it defrosted, because we were too lazy or busy to put it in the fridge right away (FYI almost all pizza places are filled with people too lazy or busy to put things in the fridge right away) it would make a mess. It was waxed, like produce boxes. It was also gross.
Also didn't see RTE, my example and my line of thinking was raw breaded chicken fingers.
I would not be okay with holes in the bags as a customer.
Other than increasing the size of every box, need to make sure that your packaging machinery has been optimized to each product to remove as much of the air as possible. Packaging systems that create bags from film typically have clamps that are supposed to press the side of the bag just before the top seal is made. If these are worn, out of alignment, timed incorrectly, etc., you can easily end up making pillows. Some of these machines also can remove air/inject a gas mix (think chips), so you might be able to retrofit yours to only pull a small vacuum prior to the final seal.
You could also bulk pack into a box with a liner and run the top of the liner through a heat sealer.
Hi,
Currently we have difficulties packing products into cartons due to air in the packaging after sealing the products. Hence, to maximize the space in the cartons, are we allowed to punch holes onto the packaging to remove as much air as possible from the packaged product? FYI, these products are RTE frozen chicken products. Are there any requirements that specifically talk about this?
Thanks.
Indeed it's a beguilingly attractive zigzag.
IMEX of a Company implementing this concept, it was immediately stopped after container load was instantly, totally rejected by customer.
Reason - Product Unsaleable.