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March marks the start of spring, blossoming flowers, longer days and warmer temperatures. But March also celebrates “National Frozen Food Month”, which gives us an opportunity to discuss a topic that’s hot in the news: frozen food and its relation to the global pandemic.
According to a report by the American Frozen Food Institute (AFFI), frozen foods are the primary driver of food store sales growth, with a 21% increase on almost all frozen product compared to 2020.
After almost a year since the covid-19 pandemic began, one of the major trends that has been reported across retailers is the rise of frozen food sales. Why?
• It’s Convenient: the growth of eCommerce and packaged frozen food seem to go hand in
hand. As consumers turned to the convenience of online shopping, most of them were adding frozen food
meals to their carts.
• It Lasts: frozen food lasts longer, with some even lasting for a year. With customers
worried about visiting grocery stores in person, frozen meals represented an alternative to stock up on.
Because of the upsurge in package frozen food sales, new trends also developed.
• Health(y): frozen meals have always had a bad reputation of being loaded with fat, sodium, and calories. Since most buyers are worried with the health factor of consuming frozen meals, companies have been responding to this by releasing healthy frozen options (ever tried cauliflower frozen pizza?).
• Options: not only are companies looking at the health aspect, but they’ve also created
frozen meals that can meet every palate, preference and budget. According to a study conducted by IRI, the top 3 frozen food categories with the largest percentage of growth in 2020 were seafood, poultry, and appetizers.
With this new trend through the pandemic, you may be asking yourself how to keep frozen food safe during transit. You also may be wondering how packaging manufacturers are keeping up with the growing demand. This is when Millennium Packaging can help you, by providing customized packaging solutions based on your products and operations. And we have done this already. Read our story to find out how Millennium Packaging team of experts carefully studied our client’s business, analyzed their goals and ultimately increased efficiency, while minimizing downtime.
Frozen Pizza
“No matter what is happening during this global pandemic, frozen pizza still remains one of the most popular frozen snacks in any grocery store. And why wouldn’t it be? It’s delicious! When it comes to frozen pizza, it is very important to shrink wrap the frozen product at a speed that will keep up with the high customer demand. It is also essential that the frozen pizza is shrink wrapped following safety guidelines, while ensuring superior esthetic of the packaging.
And it’s following this scenario that an Illinois frozen pizza producer approached the Millennium Packaging team. They were having issues with the shrink film they were using and needed to find an effective solution that would guarantee outstanding optics while maintaining high-speed production. The Millennium Packaging team examined their wrapping operations, as well as the type of shrink film they were using.
When shrink wrapping frozen pizza at high-speed, it is important to have a conveying system that allows for smooth movement to prevent crust chipping and damage to the toppings. After the analysis, Millennium Packaging recommended to integrate a high-speed belted conveyor into one of the in-feed on their Shanklin shrink tunnels. What’s amazing about these shrink tunnels is that they are intended to apply heat to the shrink film very quickly, so that the product gets minimal heat exposure while ensuring energy efficiency.
And it is with the high-speed wrapping system that you really notice the quality of the shrink film. After evaluating our client’s shrink film performance, Millennium Packaging recommended switching from the Clysar shrink film to the ultra-thin high efficiency Cryovac shrink film. Its innovative composition of 29 micro-layers has shown incredible results over the years, with superior seal strength and greater durability. Because of its thinner nature, the Cryovac shrink film also allows for longer rolls, which reduces weight in film used per package. One of the biggest issues with frozen pizza is maintaining clarity: since it is taken in and out of the freezer constantly, you can get a hazy look. The Clysar shrink film that our client was using created issues of clarity, to the point of not being able to scan bar codes. And it is here that the Cryovac shrink film can help, by providing a clear, crisp film ready for the grocery store.
By combining the use of the Cryovac shrink film with the new wrapping system, we were able to allow our client to handle frozen pizzas at a rate of 80ppm. This represented almost a 10% increase in efficiency over the use of other shrink films. The solution that Millennium Packaging provided allowed our client to keep up with the demand of frozen pizza, while eliminating the issue of clarity and product damage”.
So, what comes out of this? The Covid-19 global pandemic has revived the category of frozen food. In order to keep up with this product surge, producers will have to stay aware of changing consumer tastes and preferences (healthy frozen meals, more options available). More importantly, packaging manufacturers will have to continue to improve their packaging system to match demand. To do so, Millennium Packaging Inc can give you the right key to increasing productivity, by providing you with top-quality materials (shrink films, protective packaging equipment) and superior stretch wrapping equipment (shrink tunnels, shrink wrappers).
If you’re interested in discovering more about our frozen food packaging and how Millennium Packaging can help you achieve tailored solutions based on your operation and product(s), please contact our team of experts at (847) 719-6117 or send us a message.