Too hot to handle!
The demands on packaging performance can sometimes be high, especially in the food industry – and a new project for ovenable panninis to be served on commercial airlines was no exception.
The panninis needed to be re-heated inside the wrapper from a frozen state in a conventional oven – which required a high performance food-grade film able to withstand prolonged exposure to high temperatures without breaking down. In addition, the airlines wanted the film to be printed with a full colour photographic image to enhance the visual appeal of the product.
The pannini manufacturer commissioned film packaging specialists National Flexible for the project who are well-known for their expertise in the field of converting ovenable films for this type of application. Working with their technical team they were quickly able to specify a suitable film and had knowledge of specialist inks that would be ideally suited.
The special food-grade inks are able to withstand extremes of temperature (both hot and cold) and are resistant to moisture. They have a consistent lay-down which allows for excellent image clarity when printing and the strength of their bond to the film ensures that there are no problems with ink-lift, cracking or flaking – even for surface printed films.
“This was a challenging project on several levels,” said National Flexible’s Marketing Manager – Andy Smith. “Fortunately we have a strong background in this area so we were able to make recommendations to the customer, which saved them a lot of time in the development and testing process. This meant that we helped them to fast-track the whole project and they could supply their customer more quickly,” he added.
National Flexible are the UK’s largest distributor of polypropylene, laminates and special films. Their custom factory is purpose built to be compliant with the latest BRC standards for food-grade packaging, and they have become well known as the preferred supplier of packaging films for the food, bakery, snack, confectionery and contract packing industries.
