Meat + Poultry - April 2009 - 114

Simple Steps packaging offers
processors and retailers the same
beneﬁts of the pouch-packed foods and
addresses the convenience factor.

Simple
Steps®

beneﬁts throughout the food-production process. "Providing a good, homecooked meal is emotional and consumers always come back for quality and
consistency," says Brady.

Multi-purpose innovation

Many new
products in the
rapidly growing, heat-andeat segment use pouches that can be
heated in a microwave oven or boiled in
a bag. While they offer processors and
retailers the beneﬁts of efﬁcient production, longer shelf life and often better use
of space in the retail case, consumers are
left to handle excessively hot and often
messy pouches en route to serving the
food. Cryovac's Simple Steps packaging
offers processors and retailers the same
beneﬁts of the pouch-packed foods and
addresses the convenience factor. The
skin-package technology additionally offers customers in all segments the beneﬁt
of holding juices inside the package and
preserving moisture inside.
Applications for pre-cooked entrées
include those that are available in other
pouch-type packages, including barbecue pulled pork, meatloaf and roasts
in gravy.
From a production standpoint, products packed using Simple Steps technology offer processors savings by eliminating packaging material and a production
step. The most common alternative to
Simple Steps technology is laminated
packaging that goes on top of a tray
holding a pouch of heat-and-eat product. The process requires two pieces of
equipment, Brady points out, which adds
costs for the equipment investment and
in the ﬂoor space required to accommodate it. "Overall, Simple Steps is cheaper
in the long run," says Brady.
As for retailers, time beneﬁts can be
realized indirectly by improving the method of displaying ready-meals in displays.
Because of the ﬂexibility of the technology, the food can be offered in a va6

PACKAGING MATTERS

April 2009

riety of forms.
"Merchandising
of ready-to-eat meals
used to be a headache,"
says Brady, but having the option of displaying the food in multiple
sites, from the hot deli case area to refrigerated or frozen cases, gives retailers
ﬂexibility in merchandising.

Time for listening
Convenience is in the eye of the beholder.
Cryovac commits signiﬁcant resources to
consumer research each year to ensure
its products address factors consumers
consider to be conveniences. "We share
the research with the processors and the

Cryovac technology
gives time back
to processors and
retailers.
retailers to give them direction on what's
needed and what consumers are asking
for, including ranking convenience factors," Brady says. "We continue to build
those [ﬁndings] into our packaging to address those needs."
The company's market research indicates that for consumers, convenience
means ease of clean-up and not having to
touch the food directly. But, as Brady says,
"What's convenient for processors isn't
necessarily convenient for consumers. And
at the end of the day, it's what consumers
want that matters and you have to make
sure the package and product addresses
their needs. Otherwise, it's going to be just
another product on the shelf."
The goal of every link in the food
chain is to consistently provide a good
meal. Technology such as Simple Steps
accomplishes this goal while offering
www.cryovac.com

Some packaging innovations spawn
from other technologies that might deliver results adequately but leave the
door open for improving the process of
delivery. Cryovac's Multi-Seal packaging
concept, for example, was developed for
customers in the smoked and processed
meat market. It was designed to provide
an alternative-packaging option for delimeat applications where press-to-close
and slide zippers, or reusable tubs, had
become the standard. The technology
utilizes a peel-back ﬁlm that can be reapplied many times using an adhesive
to seal the container for the life of the
product. According to Al Williams, North
American director for rollstock, Multi-Seal
offers time-based value in the form of
convenience for consumers while also
protecting the product between uses. It
also provides time and space savings for
processors and retailers.
The technology allows processors to
enhance packaging options using existing machinery and packaging supplies,
says Williams. "We developed a roll of
ﬁlm for our processor-customers, who
could apply it to an existing packaging
machine or a standard rollstock machine
used in the market today," he adds. Using
a slightly different bottom ﬁlm, processors were then able to offer a package
to retailers that provide portion control,
product freshness in an easy-to-open
format that can be resealed numerous
times. "We felt like the operative things
we bring to the market are a single roll
of ﬁlm that can be run like any other roll
of top web on a rollstock machine," providing a resealable option that has all of
the beneﬁts of zip-style or press-to-close
technology, Williams adds.
Other attempts have been made at
a Multi-Seal-like packaging option from
other companies in the past. "We even
had an attempt of our own for a resealable top web roll of ﬁlm, printed-label

http://www.cryovac.com

Meat + Poultry - April 2009

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