High volume flexible packaging for bread and baked products

The advantages of Printed Rewind when it comes to packaging high volumes of food product have been clearly defined by the work of Favourite Packaging. Food & Beverage Industry News reports.

I spoke with Justin Yates, managing director at Favourite Packaging recently to discuss some of their product ranges, specifically their packaging for bread, baked products and high-volume flexible packaging for food and perishables.

With operations and logistics based in Beresfield (N.S.W), the ease of transporting rolls of printed rewind and pre-formed bread bags over less pallet space is one of the factors where Favourite Packaging's clients benefit.

"Pre-formed bread bags and printed rewind have a significant advantage when it comes to transport, especially the printed rewind, because it is wound tightly onto a roll. A pallet of rewind film will give you the equivalent of five or six pallets of pouches, so there is definitely a transport advantage for sure," said Yates.

The second part of the logistics advantage offered by Favourite Packaging is their ability to have high volumes produced, hold their customer's bread bags or rolls of printed rewind in stock and supply them on a regular, periodic basis.

Overall, these logistics offerings provide savings for Favourite's clients in the form of reduced freight costs, cash flow management and also in inventory space.

An exciting area where Favourite Packaging is becoming a specialist is Bakeries and Baked Products.

"We are finding a solid foot hold in the baked goods sector, for bread that is still packed into traditional pre-formed bags, and for baked goods with Printed Rewind," Yates explained.

"We supply printed rewind film for packing cakes, muffins, sausage rolls, pies and similar products that are individually wrapped and sold," said Yates, "And we supply specialised pre-formed bread bags, including wicketed bread bags for bread packaging."

Relative to the baked products, Favourite Packaging is able to provide the special packaging such as the micro perforated oven or micro-wave friendly packaging.

"For pies and sausage rolls, we supply special material with an airhole perforation so they can be cooked without having to come out of the packaging," added Yates.

Just like any other printed rewind film or pouches, this type of baked products packaging can be printed as per Brand requirements.

"One bakery customer we have who bakes bread also sells packaged muffins and lamingtons. Their cakes go into the printed rewind packaging and the bread goes into pre-formed bags," said Yates.

Favourite packaging's specialised pre-form bread packaging presents a great productivity gain to manufacturing lines, particularly those exceeding 20,000+ order quantities on its production line, and if applied correctly the potential for unit growth is only limited by the machinery its combined with the printing, branding and best selected materials.

Printed Rewind is well known to be the ideal flexible packaging solution for high volume, repetitive food and perishables packaging.

Favourite Packaging's printed rewind film offering presents a great packaging solution which can improve productivity, economies of scale and save on overhead costs as well as providing great packaging products that fit in with Brand requirements.

They can tailor the printed rewind film to suit different types of filling machines, including the speed, type of fill, type of bag, pouch or container and the type of flexible material.

"The product fill is important as that is what decides the barrier layers to be incorporated to manage shelf life, and the print is also vital (although sometimes we supply un-printed rewind). Printing usually utilises the Gravure method, but sometimes digital or flexography methods are a good option. The main point is, printing is customised, full colour and done to our customers Brand and artwork specifications," Yates told us today.

"And to achieve the desired shelf appeal, it is invaluable that you can pretty much print what you want on the rewind film."

Yates said because many of Favourite Packaging's clients supply to supermarkets or retail groups (in some cases, direct to the supermarkets), customers mostly come to them with an existing design, which helps quicken the turnaround time.

Nevertheless, Favourite Packaging do contribute to the packaging and printing design with advice on recycling labelling and up and coming National Packaging Targets.

Favourite Packaging supply printed rewind film rolls in laminations of LDPE, HDPE, PET, BOPP & CPP for flow wrapped or Vertical Form Fill products such as roasted nuts, confectionary, pasta, potato chips & dried fruit.

An exciting development for Favourite Packaging is that they can now supply recyclable rewind film. Demand for recyclable packaging is growing both at consumer and distribution levels.

Indeed, Favourite Packaging are working closely with a few of their customers to convert to recyclable printed rewind material.

"Although our production can include recyclable printed rewind material, predominantly we are using traditional structures at the moment but will continue to convert to recyclable format," said Yates.

"The challenge is to ensure that the new material is suitable for current filling machines’ processes and sealing temperatures."

Favourite Packaging work closely with baker's food processes and/or their Packaging Companies to ensure the best possible solution for their packaging requirements.

It's exciting to see Favourite Packaging's capabilities and strengths in innovation, customisation, customer service and supply chain management and if you would like to know more about Favourite Packaging's offerings, visit their website www.favouritepackaging.com.au.