You Eat Where You Are

© Duni FoodSolutions

In times when people throughout the world are spending less and less time on eating and fast food is part and parcel of our daily life ever new markets and concepts are emerging. Nevertheless, a trend towards fresh foodstuffs that taste homemade while fully meeting modern society’s convenience demands is gaining ground: Home Meal Replacement - dishes you eat wherever you are.

The days when mums prepared fresh meals for the family at home every day seem to be gone for good in modern consumer societies: there are more and more working women, their children eat at school and mobile consumers generally spend less and less time on meals. A flexible catering routine can therefore no longer be imagined without modern snack and take-away concepts.

In parallel there is a growing desire for healthy nutrition and fresh food - but everything must be "at a push" and work "on the go".

A contradiction in terms? No way! Rather a new market with huge growth potential. Home Meal Replacement (HMR) is the name of the concept that has edged over from the USA to Europe and the other industrialised nations of the world. Hand-made snacks, mouth-watering sandwiches, freshly sliced wraps, delicious delicatessen or trendy bagels round off every well-assorted food retail range these days.

Attractive Packaging for Attractive Products

At the POS attractive products require equally attractive packaging with traditional requirements such as simple protective functions playing just as important a role as the latest consumption trends. For instance, consumers’ eco-awareness has been rising for years now. PLA trays, which are completely compostable including their sealing films, are the right answer here. They are suitable for both cold and fresh dishes such as salads, fruit, deserts or fine foods. Likewise, microwave resistant carton packaging - for sandwiches, wraps, baguettes, salads and complete meals - are in demand. Add to this the fact that carton trays are easy to print on - thereby giving producers plenty of scope for individuality. Classic PP trays also fulfil their purpose.

Today special innovative bags with unfoldable cardboard bases can by all means replace rigid trays in terms of stability and all offer added value: they are easy to fill, allow snacks to be easily removed and can be reclosed without a problem. Furthermore, large packaging openings often render table-top support superfluous for eating when standing up.

Social Catering

On the other side of the equation is "Social Catering". Demographic growth not only means a fast-pace society in a hurry but also more and more elderly people in future, too. This target group also wants to be catered to - and loves having their meals delivered. Widely known in the past as "meals on wheels" this option is gaining increasing ground for a menu of healthy, balanced and delicious food delivered to the doorstep every day. Even though these customers as a rule accept their deliveries from delivery services at their front door - without front cooking, sales-promoting presentations and a communicative atmosphere - this business is worth billions and makes high requirements on modern and functional packaging solutions.

Practical Solutions for Every Need

Especially for ready meals, frozen meals and portion packaging there is a wide variety of blister lids and deep-drawable flexible composite and barrier films and foils available - with or without barrier layers. Retort and temperature-resistant versions for ready meals and various thicknesses for lid and backing films for vacuum bags for frozen food applications are available. Relevant solutions can be found from the likes of Wipak GmbH & Co. KG. This company’s composite films featuring "Walofilm XXL" ensures protective gases cannot escape and chilled products stay fresh for much longer. "Bialon XX" is suitable for packaging fresh pasta and sauces, looks great and is pasteurisation-resistant up to 90°C. This transparent and durable film consist of polyamide with an embedded EVOH barrier layer. It serves as a carrier film for high-quality composites. By company accounts, "Walofilm XXL" with this combination forms an efficient oxygen barrier that is up to ten times higher than with lacquered films. The type of film depends on the specified requirement profile. Upon request opening aids or valves can be incorporated into the blister lids by means of laser engraving. Via finest predetermined breaking points excess pressure can be released from the packaging. In this way these "valves" make for uniform heating throughout the product and gentle steam cooking in the microwave.

You Eat with your Eyes

Even Duni - originally known as a Swedish supplier of table-top decorations - has ventured into the food packaging market. "Good food deserves good packaging" is the slogan of Duni FoodSolutions actually implying that: "you eat with your eyes." Their range includes box solutions for salads and other cold or hot delicacies. A double-wall hotbowl is perfectly suited for soups, pasta, curry and the like. Add to this relevant sealing devices that show off the contents to their best advantage under an anti-fog film - thereby promoting sales and allegedly increasing the shelf-life of the food. The company also takes environmental considerations into account: for instance, this year Duni launched an all-new series of packaging solutions on FSC-certified cardboard