Off-The-Shelf Life Extension Packaging Proves Popular In the Food Service Trade

Convex Plastics Laboratory Technician, Andrew Sheerin, monitors the oxygen and carbon dioxide levels within a 2.5kg bag of shredded lettuce

Ready to use life extension packaging for shredded lettuce and sliced onions is now available from Convex Plastics as a new standard off-the-shelf product range.

Marketed under the re~fresh brand, the new packaging is specifically designed for the food service industry and is already proving popular in a number of fast food restaurant chains, and large institutions such as universities, hospitals and prisons.

The new packaging is specifically designed for 2.5kg packs of shredded lettuce and 2kg packs of sliced onion, and is available as either ready made bags or form fill seal films.

According to Convex Plastics' re~fresh Business Manager, Stephen Dench, using the new re~fresh packaging saves preparation time in the kitchen and helps significantly reduce waste.

He says, "re~fresh packaging has proven to be an effective method for extending the shelf-life of fresh and minimally processed produce often up to several weeks more than that provided by conventional packaging. The advantage of the new ready to use re~fresh packaging is that it allows modified atmosphere packaging for heavily used produce lines to be sourced almost immediately, with all the usual prepurchase testing already done."

The life extension properties of the new standard re~fresh range has already been extensively trialed and tested throughout New Zealand and Australia. Once purchased, approximately two weeks free monitoring is provided to ensure the packs work at optimum level in each individual packaging and handling situation.

For non-standard produce items re~fresh film is scientifically custom designed for each specific produce and packaging application, and prepurchase trialing normally takes several months.

Convex Plastics is currently working to develop several other standard re~fresh films for widely used minimally processed produce lines such as diced capsicum and tomatoes.