PACKAGING
Why send 750 million soiled absorbent pads to landfill if there is a better way?
There are no pad-related issues with the new plastic trays.
Food & Beverage Industry News speaks to Sealed Air’s Kevin Taylor about its latest developments with packaging technology within the meat industry.
R
educing the use of packaging materials is one of the aspects that will help lead to a sustainable future. When redesigning plastic trays for ANZ’s fresh red meat sector, Sealed Air Australia ventured beyond “reduce” and found a way to “eliminate” the need for absorbent pads. Sealed Air’s Kevin Taylor is the APAC portfolio leader for the company’s trays, films and absorbents business. Here, Taylor spoke to Food & Beverage Industry News about some of the new technologies behind the latest meat-packing developments from the company.
"When re-designing plastic trays for ANZ’s fresh red meat sector, Sealed Air, Australia ventured beyond ‘reduce’ and found a way to ‘eliminate’ the need for absorbent pads." Why was HydroLoQ developed? While absorbent pads solve the problem of retaining product purge, they can also be problematic for food processors and our planet. HydroLoQ was developed to eliminate lost time associated with pad related issues for moist protein Modified Atmosphere Packing (MAP) applications that are estimated to contribute to
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three per cent of overall down time. Furthermore, pads comprise ‘end of life’ challenges. In fact, each year, more than 750 million absorbent pads used across ANZ’s fresh red meat sector end up in landfill. Meat discolouration is also a challenge for retailers. Meat in direct contact with an absorbent pad is not experiencing the
Sealed Air’s Kevin Taylor. full colour preserving benefits of the surrounding modified atmosphere and thus can undergo product discolouration causing subsequent product mark downs.
