Choosing the Right Food Packing Solutions for Your Product

At WePack, food packing is our speciality. Our well-established food packing company has helped thousands of companies create and distribute all kinds of high quality goods over the years – and one of the biggest challenges these businesses face is finding the right combination of packaging types, designs, and techniques to ensure their products go the distance and everything is manufactured in accordance with current food regulations.

To help you decide on the right packing solutions for your needs, let’s take a closer look at what’s possible, or read our guide to contract packing solutions to find out why your business should use one and how to choose the right one.

Before we go any further… you’ll need to get acquainted with the current regulations and standards

We wouldn’t be a responsible food packing company if we didn’t remind you of the rules you need to follow. The Food Standards Agency has created comprehensive policies on food labelling and food compositional standards.

Further food labelling and packaging guidance can be found on the gov.uk website.

Understanding food packing materials

The food packaging you choose will play an important role in safeguarding your products while they’re being shipped and supplied to customers. Your packaging will have four main purposes:

Protecting the product from oxygen, moisture, microorganisms, dirt, chemical toxins, and anything else that could interfere with its quality
Containing the product in a way that prevents knocks, shocks and light accidents from damaging it
Being easy to open or adjust
Communicating ingredients, nutritional value, product life, storage instructions and branding information

So, it needs to be tough, durable, and, of course, be well suited to what it’s carrying.

Paperboard, cardboard, and corrugated materials are great for keeping fresh produce safe during transit, while cans and cartons are best suited to liquids. Bags offer you a lightweight and versatile way to ensure foodstuffs don’t come into contact with the air and their surrounding environment, so they can maintain their freshness. Wrappers, on the other hand, will provide you with an effective way to protect individual products to prevent mass spoilage.

Food packing techniques

Once you’ve settled on the correct food packaging route, it’s time to think about how you will produce your items, bearing in mind that you want to a) ensure maximum shelf life and b) ensure the manufacturing process is as fast and cost-effective as possible. Common techniques to consider include:

Vertical form fill sealing (VFFS) – This involves forming and packing the bags at the same time. It uses gas flushing to displace the oxygen inside the container and keep the item fresher for longer. Good for:Powders, rubs, spices, sweets, seeds, small liquid samples
Vacuum packaging – This method removes all the air from inside the plastic film package. Packing food in this way can extend the life of the product by up to five times! Good for: Dry foods (cereals, teas, coffees etc), refrigerated foods (including cheese and cut vegetables)
Modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) – Similar to vacuum packaging, this is ideal for preserving the quality of fresh goods. Good for: Cheese, meats, fish, other perishable items
Horizontal bagging / Flow wrapping – A high speed packing method that wraps solid products into air-tight bags through a conveyor belt that can handle up to 70 bags per minute. Good for: Sold items (dry pasta, snacks, chocolate bars, cakes, biscuits, products that need to be bundled together)

However, there are plenty more methods to explore, including trending food packing solutions, such as:

Smart packaging – Which contains QR codes, NFC chips and other means of sharing engaging content with consumers
Edible packaging – Derived from natural ingredients and fully consumable for maximum value
Minimalist packaging – For businesses wanting to adopt a simple, fuss-free aesthetic that complements their brand identity
Sustainable packaging – Utilising eco-friendly packing materials that can be easily reused or recycled, or are compostable

If you’re blinded by choice, you can always contact us directly for tailored advice.

The role of design in food packing

Food packaging design is a huge topic and it’s something that is certainly best left to the professionals. But the number one rule is, you must make sure your chosen packaging contains enough usable space for all the information you need to include on your food labels (as per the legal requirements that are set out by the Food Standards Agency). This information must be easy to find, easy to read, difficult to remove, and accessible without opening or interfering with the product.

For more insights into any of the food packing solutions mentioned here, or to discuss your packaging needs in more detail with a member of the team, contact WePack today.