re~fresh Modified Atmosphere Packaging Proves Perfect for Baby Peeled Carrots

Fraisbon Foods have launched a new line of Farmer Bill's Baby Peeled Carrots just weeks after the release of their standard 350g packs. The new 225g 3-pack modified atmosphere snack packs were developed at the request of health-conscious parents and are targeted directly at the children's lunchbox market.

Both lines of Farmer Bill's Baby Peeled Carrots are packed in custom-made modified atmosphere packaging designed by Convex Plastics.

Ashley Berrysmith, the Managing Director of Fraisbon Foods, says using Convex Plastics' re~fresh packaging has enabled his company to secure national distribution for their baby peeled carrots by allowing them to guarantee an extended minimum shelf-life of ten days.

"In order to do that it was absolutely critical for us to match the respiration rates of our product with the packaging," he says. "Convex Plastics was able to especially design a pack that fits our variety of carrot under our processing and growing conditions, and make it exact to our specific requirements".

This has allowed Fraisbon Foods, Berrysmith says, to provide a pure unadulterated vegetable product that is peeled, ready to eat, and free from any preservatives or additives.

Stephen Dench, Convex Plastics' re~fresh product manager, says re~fresh packaging has now been successfully developed to enhance the shelf life of a wide variety of living produce, ranging from peeled garlic and coleslaw, to gala apples, broccoli and hydrangeas.

He says, "We endeavour in every instance to develop a package that perfectly matches the respiration and ethylene sensitivity of the produce being packed as well as the outside storage temperature and humidity. By using interactive computer modelling we are now able to design customised film structures which provide life extension for almost all living produce."

According to Dench, the real challenge now facing packaging technologists is for them to take these selectively permeable re~fresh membranes and apply them to other applications such as lidding stocks and form fill and seal films without deteriorating the permeable nature of the web.