Faerch Plast Wins Food Packaging Award

Færch Plast has won the 2008 FoodTech Innovation Award for the design of a package with integrated absorber.

In all its simplicity the concept is based on exploiting the natural surface tension of liquids to retain meat juices in specially designed grooves.

Færch Plast was awarded the prize for being the first company in the Scandinavian market to find a solution to replace the absorber traditionally used for retaining liquids. These have always been a necessary evil in that they impair displays and are expensive for the manufacturer, while they irritate consumers who find them attached to the meat and have to remove them before use.

As always, there was quite some way to go from idea to finished product, but after many trial and test designs the company managed to make traditional absorbers redundant.

The package trays with the integrated absorber were primarily developed for the poultry segment, but trials have shown that they are also suitable for other types of fresh meat. A typical tray with a base area of 225 cm² can catch and retain some 15 ml of liquid. In addition, trays contain the design-protected raised bosses on the base which raise lift the meat so that the meat juices can drip off leaving the meat dry and clean and settle in the grooves in the base.

“The very simplicity of design makes this package unique. Natural surface tension does all the work. And we have one less work process, since we no longer have to insert absorbers,” says CEO Jens Bornstein.

Yet another financial benefit is that there are no costs for customers when converting to a new tray with an integrated absorber from the old tray with absorber insert. Færch Plast is able to convert use tooling for existing trays with ordinary bases for trays with integrated absorbers, thereby allowing the customers to avoid changing the production lines to accommodate packages with the integrated absorber.

Of course they save the cost of the old absorber that used to be there. The environment also benefits from the integrated absorber. Compared with traditional trays with absorber inserts, the new trays reduce energy consumption in that they utilise less material, and thus limit CO2 emissions.

Packages also have better stacking properties, thereby saving road miles, logistics costs for transport and storage. After use the packages may either enter the normal natural cycle or be reused in production. What is the natural cycle? Can they be reused in production?

“The price savings show that innovation can pay off. We have already sold the new package to several poultry customers and others are in the pipeline,” Jens Bornstein says in conclusion.