Food packaging technology has made it possible the diversification of the agro-food industry. Nowadays the market offers not only first, second, third and fourth range products (unprocessed products, preserves, frozen products and minimally processed fruit and vegetables, respectively), but we are also witnessing a whole revolution in fifth range products presented in convenience packaging, easy to consume at any time.

Ana María Tone and José Luis Vázquez - ITENE

 

 

Fifth range products or ready-made meals are food products that have been heat-treated, packaged and are mainly sold refrigerated. They are ready-to-eat products under minimal preparation or pre-heating in a conventional or microwave oven.

V range products are generally packed in rigid plastic or

aluminium packaging and protective atmospheres (vacuum, modified atmosphere, second skin, among others). Product shelf life can vary between 6 and 45 days depending on the type of food, the heat treatment and the packaging technology applied.

 

A sector in constant growth

In 2019 the convenience market exceeded 3 billion euros, an increase of 6% over the previous year. For the 2020-2021 biennium, forecasts point to variation rates of between 5% and 6% per year, according to the Sector Observatory DBK of Informa (1). This upward trend is caused by consumers, who are increasingly opting for prepared food solutions, while foodservice industry is increasing its supply of ready-made meals, all combined with the emergence of new products and formats.

 

In order to adapt to the different consumer demands, one of the main objectives of ready-made meal industry is to identify the different consumer profiles and offer healthier and sustainable recipes. The variety of V range products is extensive and new recipes are continuously being incorporated into the market. Some examples are refrigerated omelettes, pizzas and soups, as well as meat, fish, pasta, rice or vegetable meals.

 

Challenges in packaging for V range products

It could be said that V range food packaging innovations aim to satisfy to a greater or lesser extent three main interconnected aspects: firstly, the hedonistic nature of today's consumer, seeking greater differentiation on the shelf, customised formats or an increase in convenience; secondly, sustainability, using environmentally friendly materials; finally, the demand for increasingly natural and healthy products, which must be in agreement with the packaging design and its guarantee of safety.

 

Enhancing consumer experience as a key feature

V range products offer a great variety of flavours and formats to those consumers who do not have enough time or interest in cooking. Therefore, convenience packaging must be presented in an attractive way allowing the product to be seen, with an adjusted size for each consumer profile, and be easy to consume.

 

In addition to the comfort and functionality factors, consumers especially value ​​being able to easily access traditional and exotic dishes or those with special ingredients that can be difficult to prepare at home. The existence of a wide variety of ingredients and combinations adapted to meet these needs favour the proliferation of compartmentalised containers that separate the ingredients for the consumer to mix them once the container is opened. This concept, already popular for fresh salads, also applies to elaborated menus in which the different parts are presented in different compartments. Apart from those consumed directly from their refrigeration temperature, such as some vegetable soups or cold salads, most of V range products must be heated, from their refrigerated or frozen state, in a conventional or microwave oven prior to consumption. In this case, one of the problems is the presence of cold spots after heating, especially in those meals made up of different types of food which are heated at different speeds.

 

By Tony Branston (my Flickr profile) - https://www.flickr.com/photos/33568433@N02/3126067174/, CC BY-SA 2.0,

https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5544826

 

The incorporation of microwave susceptors in the packaging contributes to improving the heating of the product in the microwave oven and, additionally, it can provide characteristics typical of conventional oven heating, such as roasted finish and crunchy texture. The susceptor element absorbs the microwave radiation and transforms it into heat that is transmitted to the food. Susceptors are mainly manufactured with aluminized PET, although inks are currently being developed to perform the same function. Both Sira-Crisp Crisp-it Dry containers, from Sirane (2), and Micro ~ Grill, from Inline Packaging (3), include a susceptor element that increases the crunchy texture of microwaved foods and even provides them with a toasted finish. To provide these characteristics, Sira-Crisp Crisp-it Dry combines the susceptor with an absorbent material, while Micro ~ Grill uses specific moisture vent channels to complement the susceptor.

 

Ovenable containers must withstand high temperatures, without losing their performance at cooling and even freezing temperatures. Therefore, packaging materials should be suitable for temperatures between -18 °C and 210 °C. Moreover, they must have good barrier properties during storage and retain moisture to prevent the drying of the product. That is why ovenable ready-made meals were usually presented in aluminium trays. Now more and more references are made from C-PET, a type of plastic that supports a temperature range of -40 °C to 220 °C, which makes them suitable for both frozen and ovenable meals.

 

 

Furthermore, there are also self-heating packaging solutions (4), which heat the food without the need for a microwave or conventional oven. This makes them perfect for consumption at any time and any place. This type of packaging, which can be found for broths and coffee drinks, contains a mixture of harmless substances that, once in contact with water that the consumer adds, raises the temperature of the container to approximately 70 °C.

 

The growing consumer interest in obtaining new sensory experiences has led to the development of olfactory marketing applied to food packaging. This involves stimulating the consumer through the sense of smell by incorporating an aroma into the package that enhances those already present in the product or that evokes a specific feeling in the consumer.

Carburos Metálicos is a company that applies this concept in its Freshline Aroma MAP (5) system. This system vaporizes natural aromas in a gas mixture that is introduced into the packaging machine following the same procedure as a standard modified atmosphere packaging (MAP).

 

 

Busy lifestyles and changing consumer habits have widen the range of consumption situations to many places and many times of the day, and they are opening new opportunities for the introduction of new smaller and more practical formats. This format diversity can be clearly seen in the ready-to-serve soup sector, where various strategies have been followed to replace the traditional tin cans or glass jars. On the one hand, we find stand-up pouches or bricks, which reduce the carbon footprint of the container due to its lightness. On the other hand, we find microwaveable containers that resemble a bowl to enhance the concept of convenience.

 

Source: https://point3.com.au/portfolio/heinz-black  

 

Source: https://www.carretilla.info/platos-microondables/sopas-listas/sopa-de-quinoa

 

Seeking the minimal environmental impact

Packaging design must adapt to new formats and sales channels, in addition to integrating environmental aspects that take into account the entire life cycle of the packaging. Ecodesign is an essential tool to comply with new environmental policies and satisfy the growing environmental awareness of consumers. Therefore, many brands are replacing the non-recyclable materials of their packaging with recyclable ones (for example, replacing complex structures with others made of a single material), introducing biodegradable, compostable and/or biobased materials and, in general, trying to reduce the amount of packaging material and overpacking.

 

Last year, the British supermarket brand Waitrose launched, in line with this trend, the first compostable moulded container made from wood fibre for its range of prepared dishes (6).

 

Source: https://www.verdictfoodservice.com/news/waitrose-partners-launches-compostable-packaging/

 

The use of sustainable materials should not, however, compromise product quality and shelf life in order to minimize food waste. Biodegradable polymers from renewable sources, such as polylactic acid (PLA), are proposed as candidates to replace conventional plastics. However, its application is limited for V range products since, they are not currently microwavable. In addition to guaranteeing that these biomaterials have similar mechanical and barrier properties to those of conventional plastics, it is also necessary that they adapt to the requirements of current thermoforming and injection lines for the manufacture of packaging.

 

Health and safety

V range packaging requires materials whose properties ensure the functionality of the package, guarantee product shelf life and comply with food safety requirements, in accordance with Regulation 1935/2004. The growing trend towards more natural and preservative-free recipes involves an exhaustive control of processing and packaging conditions to guarantee the expected food safety and shelf life standards.

 

Micvac technology (7) offers a V range food production method based on cooking and pasteurization in the container, all in a unique and continuous process. The cover film has a valve with a special adhesive through which steam is released during pasteurization and that is closed during the cooling stage. In this way, a protective vacuum atmosphere is generated in the package. This valve also acts as a differentiating element, since it whistles during the heating of the product at home and warns the consumer that the right temperature has been reached.

 

 

Source: www.micvac.com

 

Active and intelligent technologies

A large part of the innovations in V range packaging, such as active packaging, are aimed at extending the shelf life of the product to reduce food waste. Active packaging intentionally incorporates components that either release substances in the food or its environment (antioxidants, aromas, antimicrobial agents, carbon dioxide), or absorb them (oxygen, carbon dioxide, moisture, ethylene, undesired odours), all for the purpose of triggering a technological effect on food. In this way, active packaging makes it possible to compensate for the decrease or absence of additives in the product without compromising its safety or shelf life. The active compounds can be incorporated inside the package together with the product, in the form of small bags (sachets) or permeable material labels. Despite these displays being common in other countries, Spanish consumers are still starting to get familiar with them. The presence of these "strange" elements inside the package can be a cause of rejection, in addition to the risk of inappropriate handling of these systems by the consumer. An alternative strategy involves introducing the active compounds in the packaging material itself or retaining them on its surface by means of coatings. In this way, the packaging material is manufactured with essential oils or natural extracts with antioxidant and/or antimicrobial properties, allowing to extend product shelf life. In line with this, ITENE’s project FOOD-REDUWASTE, financed with IVACE-FEDER funds, addresses different strategies for incorporating active compounds in food packaging.

 

Last but not least, we must mention the so-called intelligent packaging, which incorporates systems that provide information about some characteristics of the product (microbiological quality, maintenance of the cold chain, time-temperature indicators, tamper-evident systems, etc.). In this sense, in the SNEAKPACK project, financed with IVACE-FEDER funds, ITENE has developed colour-changing labels to know when the product has reached the appropriate temperature of consumption or to indicate whether the product is still fresh.

 

We can conclude that packaging for V range products is a dynamic sector in which current trends are aimed at increasing packaging sustainability, in line with the increasing demand for natural products, and greater on-shelf differentiation through innovative designs and formats where convenience and new features prevail, all aimed at satisfying the individual personalities of consumers.

 

Bibliographic references

(1) https://www.libremercado.com/2019-12-17/mercado-platos-preparados-supera-3000-millones-este-ano-1276649570/  

(2) https://www.sirane.com/es/productos-por-categoria/susceptor-de-microondas-para-comida-crujiente/sira-crisp-crisp-it-dry-embalaje-susceptor-de-microondas-absorbente.html

(3) http://www.inlinepkg.com/micro_grill.htm

(4) https://www.hmgtrader.com/2go-self-heating-products/

(5) http://www.carburos.com/microsite/es/eap/

(6) https://www.packagingnews.co.uk/top-story/waitrose-launches-world-first-home-compostable-ready-meal-packaging-24-05-2019

(7) https://www.micvac.com/retail-solutions/

 

https://www.itene.com/