Last year I was touring a production facility with seven shrink wrappers. It was a lovely warm March day -about 55 degrees outside. The doors to the facility were open in order to let the cool air in.  As we discussed the product line, speeds and quality, I became increasingly overheated.  The shrink wrappers were making me so hot. Even with the open doors and a slight breeze, it could not dissipate the heat generated by the shrink ovens. I kept trying to imagine the working conditions on a 95 degree day in July in that facility.

Armed with the obvious excessive heat generated by their current wrapping method, I asked if they were looking at energy costs in their calculation of potential savings. They replied that they were not.

Imagine our surprise to get a call from a prospect a few month ago who actually cared about the energy savings. They had done their own calculations of their current energy costs for their shrink wrapper and had concluded that the energy savings alone could justify the cost of switching to overwrapping. Unlike all our other customers who switched from shrink wrap, they were not calculating films costs.

More and more customers are looking at costs holistically. Take a look at this recent article on food companies saving money. Email sales@packagemachinery.com or give us a call at +1.413.732.4000 x110 to discuss ways we can save you money.

Someday soon some one will call us and look at both relative film and energy costs.

cucumbers becoming pickles

I recently visited a commercial kitchen which is part of a Community Development Corporation – a non-profit designed to encourage development in the community or region it serves. In this case the commercial kitchen is designed to help fledgling food businesses get off the ground by providing them business support in developing their food product to scale production, creating a business plan that works and getting necessary certifications. Once approved a fledgling food entrepreneur can rent production space including equipment by the hour, and use dry, refrigerated or freezer storage by the week. This space is also available to local non-profits such as Meals on Wheels, a meal delivery service for the elderly.

If you are thinking about getting started and don’t have a commercial kitchen near you, you could consider using a restaurant kitchen in its off hours.

Here are things to consider courtesy of the Franklin County CDC:

• Business Plan: get your ideas and goals in one document. Define your products, market and competitors. How much money will you need?
• Product Development: small batch testing. then lab analysis leads to scale up and testing and onto packaging and labeling
• Regulations: State licensing is required to sell wholesale and local licensing for retail. Meat and poultry require USDA approval. The FDA cares about products requiring acidification. The Bioterrorism Act requires FDA registration for all domestic food producers. Plus you need liability insurance.

We talked a lot about what kind of packaging works for different products and where the highest returns are in selling food products and how packaging supports that value perception. We also discussed what packaging can the kitchen justify buying as opposed to the brand owner.

As a food entrepreneur, you may be able to use a commercial or restaurant kitchen to create your product, but you may need to purchase your own packaging machinery, if you want to be able differentiate your product.

For more information about becoming a food entrepreneur, visit The Foodpreneur. For information about entry level overwrapping machinery for boxes or bundles look here, and for wrapping individual food items look here.

2012 New Year's fireworks over the water

2012 snuck up on us while we were busy, but we are very excited by the variety of wrapping projects on order or in discussion. Some are new and cannot be discussed until they are on the shelf.  Here are some samples of what might be coming.

• frozen food in waxed paper wrapped boxes
• fruitcakes of varying sizes and shapes
• several bundling projects in varying sizes

in addition, we will be revealing a new line of wrapping machinery in in February for the candy and snack market.

Stay tuned for next month and keep us in mind for wrapping projects, big and small. We will help you do it sustainably.

Unboxing Desire spoke to why consumers want packaging (product purity and safety), their emotional response to packaging (anticipation and wonderment) and their frustration with challenging packaging (heat sealed plastic shell) that defies opening.

Tis the Season to Wrestle with Wasteful, Frustrating Packaging explains the psychology of why item are packaged the way they are while explaining what packaging contributes to landfills. (The EPA says it is one third of landfill content.) The different requirements of packaging by the type of product are explained. While it is easy to discuss over-packaging, the reality is that unlike 100 years ago, often the things we consume come from other continents. Packaging makes it possible to safely transport items long distances and therefore allows for efficiencies of production, while minimizing the waste (due to damage in shipment) of the product itself.

Lastly  I saw a tweet from Whole Foods in praise of eliminating packaging by buying and reusing some of their bags for your holiday present giving. Clearly, some sellers can profit from reduction in single use packaging.

It is clear that people want packaging, not simply for product preservation, but to enhance the experience of opening a package. Yet we need to address the issue of appropriate packaging, so that products are preserved and consumer educated on the one hand, and wasteful packaging is minimized on the other.

As always, I am pleased that the machinery Package Machinery provides minimizes the material used to wrap and permits reduction in other primary packaging (trays rather than boxes or cardboard elimination in some cases).

To learn more abut our efforts to help customers reduce their primary packaging, look here.

It is painful to have to ask that the inquirer back up and tell us a little about their product.

What factors go into answering the question of how fast can the machine wrap?

• what is the product? how consistent is it in size? in weight distribution over its volume?
• Is there prior packaging? if so, how consistent is it and how well constructed? Wrapping reveals all the flaws in the consistency of the product and the strength of prior packaging.
• How do you want your product to look when it is wrapped? See different wrap styles.
• How do you plan to load the product into the machine? by hand? from a conveyor?
• At what speed do you think you can consistently load? This question is critical when it comes to predicting how well a semi-automatic wrapper will  work for you.
• What G force will the product tolerate (a necessary question for really fast operation)?
• What kind of material do you want to wrap with? Learn more about wrapping materials here. Paper will not run as fast as film, all other things equal.
• How perfect a wrap do you want? Appearance and wrap quality are critical for some applications, less so for others.

So the real answer is “It Depends!!” Call us with your questions at +1.413.732.4000 or email sales@packagemachinery.com

We look forward to hearing from you. And let’s talk product before we talk speed or price.

Our role is to provide advice on packaging and to give readers the opportunity to think about their packaging. Our latest post focuses on package design and provides guidelines for strategically thinking about your packaging before you commit.

The FoodPreneur creates successful new product launches for food entrepreneurs and all aspects of getting out of the kitchen, getting on the shelf and getting on the consumers plate. At Package Machinery, we are pleased to support Dom and his readers.

We hope that our machinery offerings will serve food entrepreneurs as well as his advice does. Check them out.

After a year that saw record snowfall, a tornado hit our building, flooding in our neighborhoods and power outages for up to a week at home during the october snowstorm, we are all here and grateful to be here.

Happy Thanksgiving from all of us at Package Machinery.