Retort Technology – The Latest Packaging Solution For RTE Foods The RTE food revolution Ready-to-eat products (RTE foods) have revolutionized the urban way of life. Think of the working woman who goes home after a long day of work to her children who innocently request her to make palak paneer for dinner. She is too exhausted to remember the recipe, look for each ingredient and then prepare the dish from scratch. The ready-to-eat palak paneer packet she bought last week will now come in handy! The range of ready-to-eat products available in the market is no longer limited to jams, pickles, juices and light snacks. Elaborate meals, like hydrabadi biryani and butter chicken are now available in attractive, ready-to-serve packets.
The promise of goodness These items help the modern home maker to save time and energy, as well as give the assurance that every time she opens a packet of ready-to-eat dal makhni of a particular brand, she will get the same aroma, taste and quality. This promise of goodness is vital to the brand value of the ready-to-eat product. The priority of the manufacturer of the ready-to-eat product is to ensure that the integrity of the product, in terms of taste, texture, aroma, freshness as well as quantity, remains intact until the RTE packaging is opened. To ensure that these highly-perishable products retain their inherent qualities, at least while the packaging is intact, the manufacturer must employ all the latest available food packaging solutions that fit his budget.
The perfect RTE packaging solution
RTE food manufacturers require specially designed food packaging machines that fit the specific requirements of ready-to-eat food
packaging. Typically, two or more ingredients, of varying consistencies, need to be picked up from different containers, filled into the pouch and the pouch needs to be sealed. Hence, the most ideal machine for RTE packaging is a Pick-Fill-Seal Machine that is capable of picking, filling and sealing, all at once.
RTE foods also need to be handled gently to avoid damaging delicate items, like paneer for instance. Rotary filling machines are the best for gentle handling because in this kind of machine the empty pouches rotate and align under the fillers which are connected to the containers of ingredients, so there is minimal movement of ingredients. Another challenge of RTE packaging is that two or more ingredients need to be dispensed simultaneously into one pouch. Not all food packaging machines are capable of handling this niche requirement that involves precision technology. With the growing competition in the RTE foods, especially with respect to innovative packaging, there is also the added challenge of dispensing the ingredients into any and every type of pouch or packet. Very few food packaging machine manufacturers offer the option of versatile pouch formats. However, the greatest challenge of RTE packaging is to ensure that the highly perishable product retains its inherent goodness. The latest technology in food packaging solutions, “Retort Technology�, address this particular need of RTE packaging. Retort Packaging is the process by which an uncontaminated product (typically food or pharmaceutical) is packaged in a sterile container in a way that maintains sterility. Retort technology is hence, critical to RTE foods because quality, nutrition values and appeal are of grave importance. Retort pouches also help manufacturers to increase the shelf life of their RTE foods and to give consumers the option of microwavable products.
The best RTE packaging machine manufacturer Nichrome India offers the manufacturers of RTE foods a highly advanced variant of the PickFill-Seal Machine that addresses all the aforementioned requirements and can be used to innovatively pack a wide variety of RTE foods like Palak Paneer, Dal Makhani, Butter Chicken, Biryani, Matar Paneer, Punjabi Chhole, Punjabi Kadhi, Rajma Masala and all sorts of gravies and curries, etc.