When it comes to packaging your product, the choice between tray sealing and vacuum sealing shouldn’t be arbitrary. It’s more than just a decision about how it looks on the shelf. It impacts your product’s shelf life, shipping costs, environmental footprint, and even the customer experience. So, what key distinctions should you look for when contemplating the right sealing for your product? Let’s explore the differences between tray sealing and vacuum sealing to help you make an informed choice.
What Is Tray Sealing?
Tray sealing is a packaging process where a product is placed in a pre-formed tray, and a heat-sealable film is applied to cover it. The result is a tamper-proof, tightly sealed package that can be visually appealing and is typically used for retail displays. Commonly seen with fresh foods, ready meals, and meats, tray sealing allows for greater visibility of the product. Let’s explore some of the key benefits involved with tray sealing:
- Aesthetically pleasing: At the end of the day, you want your customer base to be taken by the appearance of your products. The clear film allows customers to see the product inside, making it ideal for retail environments.
- Customizable packaging: Additionally, the tray shape, size, and the design of the film can be tailored to suit your branding and marketing needs. Whether you need a sleek modern look or a more traditional feel, tray sealing offers a wide range of flexibility.
- Modified Atmosphere Packaging (MAP): Tray sealing is often used in combination with MAP, a technology that replaces the air inside the package with a specific mixture of gases. This helps preserve the freshness of the product and extends its shelf life without the need for preservatives.
- Protects delicate products: If your product is prone to getting squished or damaged (like delicate fruits or ready-to-eat meals), tray sealing offers extra protection.
It’s important to note that these trays are typically larger and bulkier compared to vacuum-sealed pouches, which can increase storage and shipping costs. Additionally, the materials used in tray sealing tend to be more expensive than vacuum-sealing alternatives.
What Is Vacuum Sealing?
In contrast, vacuum sealing involves removing the air from a package to create a vacuum before sealing it. This method is most commonly used for fresh meat, seafood, cheeses, and frozen foods, though it’s also popular with bulk products like grains and coffee. The sealed bags are typically compact, easy to store, and prevent air from causing oxidation, which can spoil the product. The advantages involved with opting for vacuum sealing are as follows:
- Longer shelf life: By removing air from the package, vacuum sealing drastically reduces the risk of spoilage due to oxidation, mold, or bacterial growth. It’s perfect for products that require a long shelf life.
- Space-saving packaging: Since vacuum-sealed bags are much smaller and more flexible than trays, they save space in both storage and shipping. This can be a key advantage if you’re distributing products globally or want to minimize packaging volume.
- Cost-effective: For small businesses or low-volume products, vacuum sealing can be a more affordable packaging option compared to tray sealing.
- Optimal for transit: Vacuum sealing also presents itself as the best option when meals are set for long-haul shipping, as the vacuum seal keeps the product positioned perfectly, maintaining visual appeal and quality.
- Ideal for frozen and sous-vide cooking: Vacuum-sealed packages are often used for products that will be frozen or cooked sous-vide. The vacuum process prevents freezer burn and maintains the product’s quality over time.
While vacuum sealing offers great preservation benefits, it does come with some trade-offs. For instance, vacuum sealing doesn’t offer much in terms of branding visibility. The sealed bag is typically opaque, and customers can’t easily see the product, which can be a significant downside if your product relies on visual appeal.
Which Method Is Best for Your Product?
Ultimately, the decision between tray sealing and vacuum sealing depends on the type of product you’re packaging and your specific business goals. Let’s look at some key considerations:
1. If You’re Focusing on Retail Appeal
- Tray sealing is your go-to option. The transparent film of a cellophane wrapper allows consumers to see exactly what they’re buying, and the packaging is perfect for displaying your brand and design elements.
2. If You Want to Maximize Shelf Life
- Vacuum sealing shines when it comes to extending the freshness of your products. By eliminating air, vacuum sealing drastically reduces the risk of spoilage, making it ideal for products like meats, cheeses, and frozen foods.
3. If You Need Cost-Effective Packaging
- Vacuum sealing is often the more affordable option. While tray sealing can be pricier due to the trays and films, vacuum sealing is typically lower cost and can help your business offer efficient, vacuum seal meal prep products to your clientele, simplifying their search.
4. If Your Product Is Delicate or Requires Shaping
- Tray sealing is ideal for fragile or pre-portioned products that need extra protection. The rigid tray keeps everything in place, preventing damage during transport and storage.
5. If You’re Concerned About Space
- Vacuum sealing will save you significant space both in storage and shipping. If you’re dealing with bulk or frozen items, vacuum sealing makes the most sense.
6. If You Need to Ship Products Long Distance
- Vacuum sealing will be the ideal choice when packaging products that will be subject to long transit times. The unique design of the vacuum seal packaging helps the food maintain its structural integrity and visual appeal.
Finding the Right Packaging Solution for Your Product
Both tray sealing and vacuum sealing come with defined advantages. The right choice for your product will depend on factors like shelf life, cost, visual appeal, and storage needs.
As with any packaging decision, it’s a good idea to experiment with both methods before settling on one. You might find that a combination of both approaches is what works best for different product lines within your business.
You may have already thought about making the switch. As a food processor, your customers prefer it. As a foodservice company, you’ve heard it’s better for business. But switching packaging formats can seem daunting. If you need the extra push... well, here it is.
1. Flexible Packaging Maximizes Valuable Space
Whether you’re a food processor or foodservice operator, you don’t have an endless amount of space to dedicate to packaging equipment or materials. A simple way to maximize the space you have is through flexible pouch packaging for liquid food products like sauces, condiments, soups, or even ground meat. Flexible packaging occupies 40% less space than metal cans, which helps optimize warehouse space and back-of-house storage. That means easier inventory management so food processors and restaurants can keep more product on hand.
Not only does flexible pouch packaging maximize your own space, but it also maximizes the product in the package. Flexible packaging requires less material that results in a significantly higher product-to-package ratio than its rigid counterparts. Less headspace and less material help reduce costs and improve sustainability.
2. Flexible Packaging Reduces Costs
Food processors and restaurants can decrease their total cost of operations by switching from rigid to flexible formats. You know that flexible packaging takes up 40% less space versus metal cans — but that doesn’t only translate to increased inventory. Because it takes up less space in shipments and weighs one-tenth as much as traditional metal cans, both processors and restaurants can take advantage of significant cost savings. By investing in this format, food processors will support the process efficiency needs of their customers and maximize their own return on investment.
Whether it’s a can of tomato sauce or a jar of guacamole, restaurant employees spend time scraping the inside of the container, careful not to throw out valuable product. Flexible pouch packaging, on the other hand, has a structure that enables up to 20% more product yield. Innovative technology like CRYOVAC® brand FlexPrep® portion-dispensing pouches offers up to 98% product yield for condiments, sauces, and toppings. Less product thrown out means less money wasted.
3. Flexible Packaging Increases Safety
In a restaurant environment, employee safety is always top of mind. Whereas the evacuation of product from number 10 cans creates a safety hazard for restaurant employees due to sharp edges on the can and lid, flexible packaging is a much safer option. Employees commonly use can openers, knives, and scissors to open a rigid container and scrape the remaining product from the bottom of the can, jar, or jug — this creates both a messy kitchen and an unnecessarily dangerous situation. Flexible packaging is a much safer option, especially with options like easy-open tabs.
Requiring tools doesn’t only impact employee safety, though. The use of scissors and knives for rigid containers also present a risk of cross-contamination. Flexible packaging solutions, on the other hand, keep food safer by reducing cross-contamination and increasing durability throughout the journey.
4. Flexible Packaging Is More Sustainable
Think about what you've read in this article so far. Almost everything we've mentioned helps improve your sustainability profile — improved yield, increased food safety, and space savings. Each of these benefits plays a factor in truly sustainable practices. But there's even more to this sustainability story.
When consumers see dented cans on grocery store shelves, they avoid them. And for good reason! The same happens with foodservice operators — due to fear of contamination and loss of confidence in the product, restaurants frequently throw out dented cans and jugs. Because flexible packaging solutions are, well... flexible, restaurants can avoid this problem and have peace of mind that their products aren't going to waste.
