Pouch success for semi-liquid fat

Vandemoortele is a Belgian food group that supplies soy products, frozen dough products and margarine/fats to the food service and retail sectors.

The company was recently under pressure to reduce costs from one of its main clients of semi-liquid frying fats. The objective was to find a packaging alternative to the 10 L rigid container held in a thick cardboard box. Vandemoortele quickly launched a study to optimise its environmental and cost performance.

Vandemoortele opted for 5 L flexible pouches based on the vertical pouch packaging technology of Sealed Air Cryovac. This concept results in hygienic and highly-resistant flexible pouches that ensure prolonged shelf life, convenience and security.

Cryovac flexible pouches are made of fully coextruded, multilayer, high barrier film. This technology provides a pack with no headspace, which is formed, vertically filled, heat sealed and separated into a finished, hermetic, puncture-resistant pillow pouch offering high pack integrity. The high barrier materials provide optimal protection and extended shelf life. The chlorine-free formulations are compatible with environmental and recycling requirements.

The new packaging fulfils both cost reduction and environmental requirements: direct packaging cost reduction when comparing two 5 L flexible pouches to one 10 L jerrycan and increased output of the packaging line from 18 to 24 tonnes per team. Logistics were improved with fewer truckloads: reduced volume of packaging material with 28 fewer truckloads per 1000 tonnes of finished product; optimised palletisation of finished product with nine fewer truckloads per 1000 tonnes. Space utilisation was 30-35% more efficient.

Other benefits include: packaging waste reduction - less plastic is used and cardboard boxes have been eliminated, resulting in waste reduction of 18 tonnes per 1000 tonnes produced; and the chlorine-free formulations fulfil environmental and recycling requirements.

In addition to these economic and environmental benefits: increased convenience - the pouches are easier to handle and empty to the last drop in one single gesture; enhanced security - a firm handle integrated in the pouch seal allows staff to safely empty the semi-liquid fat with no risk of the pouch slipping off their hands; better product quality - the higher barried pouches ensure better product preservation by reducing the fat oxidation process which is frequent after prolonged storage.