Canned food packaging material application new breakthrough

Traditional canned meat products are packaged in metal containers (metal cans). Metal cans have unique advantages as a canned food package. However, the overall cost of metal packaging is high, and the consumption of such foods is growing rapidly. It is particularly important to seek new packaging materials. In recent years, some new types of canned meat packaging, such as soft cans, have made the consumption process more convenient and more attractive to consumers, which has greatly expanded the scope of development of canned foods for the meat processing industry. The development provided new opportunities.

Meat cans requirements for packaging materials and containers

Its packaging material and container selection must meet the requirements of general food packaging. At the same time, due to the special nature of canned foods (ie, having a longer shelf life, maintaining the original color, aroma, and taste of meat products, and being easy to eat), its packaging materials and containers have some special requirements.

1. The materials and containers themselves are non-toxic and odorless, and no harmful substances are produced after contact with the contents;

2. It has good barrier performance and sealing performance, preventing oxygen from infiltrating and causing oxidation and causing adverse effects on meat products.

3. The moisture permeability of the material is extremely small, which prevents the moisture of the meat product from exchanging with the external environment and affects its quality.

4. Can block the transmission of light, avoid light to maintain the quality of meat products, flavor requirements;

5. Have good corrosion resistance, ensure that seasoned soup in canned meat does not react with deterioration or produce harmful substances;

6. Have a certain degree of mechanical strength, good packaging and handling characteristics, printing and other characteristics, in order to meet the needs of industrial production and packaging and printing needs.

Adaptability of Flexible Packaging Materials for Meat Canned Food Packaging

Flexible packaging refers to “packaging made of flexible materials (such as paper, sheets, plastic films, aluminum foils, and metallized films), while flexible packaging materials are usually laminated rolled materials that conform to the shape of the contents. A large number of single-layer materials can be regarded as flexible packaging materials, each type of single-layer material has its limitations, such as heat sealability, printing adaptability, flexibility, retort, etc.; if used for product packaging, must also be associated with the product Suitable characteristics, such as barrier properties (barrier to moisture, oxygen), light protection, resistance to cracking, material odor, toxicity, etc., must be compatible with the packaged product. Therefore, the soft packaging materials used for meat canned food packaging often use multi-layer composite materials to exert the advantages of each single-layer material in the composite materials, and to meet the special requirements of various aspects of packaging materials for meat canned foods.

In summary, the materials used for meat canned food packaging must meet the requirements of both flexible packaging materials and retort-packed soft materials. Generally, they should be two layers that are different in nature and can complement each other and give full play to their respective advantages. Or multi-layer materials (including plastic materials, aluminized materials, aluminum foil materials, etc.). In general, this type of packaging material needs to be subjected to a sterilization process of hot water or water vapor at a high temperature of 110-140°C. The material is required to have good heat sealing performance, heat resistance and high barrier performance, and at the same time, it is required to satisfy the mechanical processing performance and decoration. Decoration performance (printability) and other requirements.

Application of Flexible Packaging Materials in Meat Canned Food Packaging

At present, the soft packaging material commonly used for meat canned food packaging is retort pouch packaging. There are mainly diarrhea, vomiting, vomiting, squashing, and street frame, U 糁蟠 ? ? ? 氖 ? ? ? 莆 砉尥贰 砉尥贰 砉尥贰 砉尥贰 赣 赣 赣 赣 赣 赣 赣 ? ? 埃 埃 埃 埃 00 °C After the above high-temperature sterilization to achieve commercial aseptic, can be stored at room temperature for long-term preservation of the packaged food. The packaging material is a composite material composed of two layers, three layers or multiple layers of different substrates. In recent years, a new packaging form has emerged in canned foods, especially canned foods made of meat.

The use of cooking bags as packaging for canned meat products has the following advantages over traditional canned metal cans:

1. The light weight of packaging materials and containers, the comprehensive packaging cost, the convenience of carrying and storage, and the ease of opening and closing during production;

2. Due to the small thickness and rapid heat transfer of soft packaging materials used in soft cans, sterilization and cooking time are shorter than those of metal cans of the same capacity, which can prevent foods from overcooking to reduce the loss of nutrition and maintain the original flavor. And can save energy;

3. Soft cans have a long shelf life (usually up to 12 months at room temperature), and some soft cans do not need to be refrigerated during storage, transportation and sales;
4. When the food is packaged for heating and cooking, the loss of flavor can be prevented to the greatest extent;

5. Can effectively save transportation costs and storage space, to a certain extent, can reduce production costs and increase product competitiveness.

6. The side effects and effects between the inner food and the packaging container are less than that of the metal cans, and no metal pollution or the like is produced;

Soft cans also have obvious shortcomings, such as the low strength of the packaging container, it is easy to be punctured; the storage period is not as long as metal cans and glass cans; the production capacity is low. At present, soft cans are still not dominant in the canned meat market in China, but they have good prospects for development.

With the development of cooking bag packaging and related technologies, in addition to the bagged form, the high-temperature cooking packaging container has emerged other types of packaging containers, such as a co-extruded composite multi-layered sheet structure packaging container. This kind of container is different from the multi-layered film structure of the general cooking bag material. The composite plastic sheet produced by the multi-layer co-extrusion method is made into various types of packaging containers by vacuum suction thermoforming or pressure thermoforming. The container can be sterilized with a microwave oven and a resistance furnace, and the structural form changes more, such as cups, trays, bottles, tubes, and the like.

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