Meat, poultry and seafood processors benefit from an ever-increasing array of flexible packaging options with product-differentiating features, enhanced functionality and more sustainable structures.

Processors have several options for pasteurization, including high-pressure pasteurization (HPP), hot water, steam, hot air, infrared heat, radiofrequency and irradiation. Hot water, steam and HPP are the most popular, with HPP and hot water growing the fastest, says Wes Shilling, professor of food science at Mississippi State University in Mississippi State.

Form-fill-seal has moved steadily over the years to become a major packaging force for retail proteins. “It’s only rivaled by shrink bags,” declares one packaging veteran. “Certainly in North America it’s dominant largely on the flexible side.”

Filling a sandwich is not particularly difficult, unless it is being done on an industrial scale with a throughput of thousands of sandwiches per hour. One American business is making a determined effort to further automate the process.