Pouches are becoming a dominant style of food packaging for produce companies

Walk through any produce section today and you’re sure to see an onslaught of different fresh produce products being offered in pouches. It’s a trend that began around the turn of the 21st century, but has really taken off in the past year or two.

Micah Johnson, flexible packaging product manager for Volm Companies, Antigo, Wisconsin, notes pouches are being adapted to contain an ever-wider variety of produce products in 2015.

While in the past, pouches held only dry and solid foods, liquids and powders, they have evolved to the point where they can now hold fresh product.

“Different substrates, venting options and pouches that are optimized for automated packing are ways pouches continue to be adapted for fresh produce,” he said. “They can hold fresh product, whether that be fresh produce or other fresh products that are vacuum packed, like meat products.”

Volm began providing pouches for different industries a number of years back, but more recently has focused on fresh produce because of increased demand in the marketplace. According to Johnson, Volm offers traditional stand-up pouches, 2-side seal, 3-side seal and quad-seal side gusset pouches for potatoes, citrus, apples, cherries and many other types of fresh produce.

Traditional stand-up pouches can be designed with a standard gusset or a square bottom gusset and can be created with many features for an optimized customer experience when purchasing and using the product, such as multiple handle styles, zipper options for reclosability and tear notches for easy opening.

Kevin Young, president of Americas for the Mondi Group, said pouches appeal to consumers because of their ease of use, single-size serving and the barrier properties that lead to improved shelf life.

“One of the biggest concerns of consumers today is the amount of food that goes into the waste stream,” he said. “The quality of the pouches is allowing fresh produce to last longer on-shelf. Older Americans find it easier to open than the other structure of semi-rigid containers, and young families on the go find them easy to pick them up and go.”

Jim Foster, marketing manager for Clear Lam Packaging, Elk Grove Village, Illinois, said more producers and brand owners are utilizing lightweight stand-up-pouches (SUPs) produced from flexible film to reduce packaging weight and create “billboards” at the retail shelf.

“Typical applications in retail include cut greens, vegetables (e.g. peppers) and salad kits (with proteins),” he said. “The SUPs are typically heat-sealed closed and may include a zipper for easy consumer convenience.”

Produce brands like Dole, Chiquita and Apio are using SUPs today for fresh produce.

“The film structure used to make the pouch is customized with specific barrier properties (oxygen, light, water, etc.), which help keep the product shelf stable,” Foster said. “Pouches can also be gas flushed to remove oxygen and include custom micro-perforations to help the product breathe properly.”

Pros Of Pouches

Partisans of the pouch say their packaging has numerous benefits over other kinds of containers, including innovation. The Half and Half pouch is a further advancement that allows all the benefits of a traditional pouch with the added benefit of the venting of its ecofriendly Ultratech mesh.

“Pouches have very high visibility graphics, great shelf presence and convenient end-user features like handles and reclosability,” Johnson said. “The Half-N-Half Pouch helps differentiate produce on the store shelf by offering the high graphic impact of a stand-up bag while also offering breathability to keep the produce fresh.”

Markus Hoedebeck, Mondi Group’s vice president of product development, said that compared to traditional cans, pouches have less packaging weight per 100g of filled product and less shipping weight (3 percent of the filled product, as compared with 20 percent for metal cans). This drastic weight reduction of a stand-up pouch benefits both end-consumers and the environment with less waste, less carbon and less costs.

Additionally, he said, thanks to the reduced retort time for a stand-up pouch, the vitamins, minerals and original taste of the meal are also preserved more fully.

“High-performance laminates ensure excellent barrier properties of the flexible pouch and keep content safe from oxygen, moisture and light,” he said. “Microwaveable food packaging with features such as zippers for reclosability or laser perforation for easy opening ensure high consumer convenience.”

Foster said SUPs merchandise well on the shelf, typically featuring high-end graphics on clear film that highlight the brand and enable consumers to easily see the contents. The packaging is also designed to be easy for consumers to open and store.

“The flexible concept of our printed stand-up pouches also gives you a wide range of presentation possibilities to choose from,” he said. “High-quality rotogravure print or flexo print designs ensure an elegant, attractive appearance and catch the attention of potential buyers.”

What pouches mean to the retailer are reduced spoilage, shipping and storing less material, which results in less storage space needed and cuts down on transportation costs.

Technology Time

When it comes to technology, Johnson said Volm uses the highest quality printing, laminating and converting for precision in all elements of a stand-up pouch.

Clear Lam has been producing flexible film since 1969. Today, Foster said flexible film gets assembled into a finished package (e.g. SUP) during the manufacturing/packaging process at the producer.

“The SUPs are assembled and filled with product on vertical-form-fill-seal machines, like an Ilapak,” Foster said. “The pouch is made with a film structure that is customized with barrier properties and microperforations to meet the needs of the product being packed.”

Volm uses a Kangaroo Bagger, capable of high-speed pouch bagging and sealing, which is perfect for flexographic printing, laminating and converting of pouches that are ideal for the packaging of fresh produce.

Looking ahead, Young believes pouches will use thinner material with fewer layers involved.

“Today you use four layers, and in five years we’ll be talking about two layers,” he said. “I think you will be seeing an increased demand by manufacturers to move product from semi-rigid and rigid containers into flexible packaging. This helps in logistics savings, shelf appeal, and you can print on all sides of the pouch. Plus, at the end of the day, it’s less waste.”

— By Keith Loria, contributing writer