Everything You Need To Know To Find The Best Custom MAP Packaging Tray

Do you want to improve your packaging, or are you looking for a better packaging option? Either reason, you should choose modified atmosphere packaging.

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This is the best packaging solution as it can keep the food’s freshness, color, and taste for days to months. For this, it only uses different gases for certain products. 

To learn details about MAP, let’s dive into the below-

What Is Modified Atmosphere Packaging?  

If you want to keep fresh fish, meat, vegetables, etc, and increase their shelf life, modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) is your only option. This is a revolutionary method of packaging for perishable food. 

Basically, MAP removes the oxygen and includes carbon dioxide and other gases during the packaging process. Therefore, it slows down the growth of bacteria and maintains the color and texture of the food products. 

Material Used In Modified Atmosphere Packaging  

Let’s take a look at the use of several materials in a modified atmosphere packaging here-

1. Polyethylene terephthalate (PET): It is widely used for packaging food items. PET provides a high degree of protection from moisture and oxygen. Also, as it has a clear and transparent body, the consumer can see the products and their conditions. 

2. Polyamide: This nylon material is often combined with polyethylene to offer an ideal heat seal obstacle. It is best at resisting puncture and abrasion as well as oxygen. Therefore, you can use polyamide(PA) to pack raw meat in vacuum pouches. 

3. Polyethylene: Often, polyethylene (PE) is mixed with other surfaces, like aluminum, to be used in modified atmosphere packaging. It is not great at preventing gas; however, it’s best at protecting food against water. Different types of PE are available for various applications; check them out-

4. Polypropylene (PP): It is one of the materials used for flexible modified atmosphere packaging. You can use PP for rigid packaging. Although it is best for barriers water, not gases. Hence, PP can be microwaved with low-fat food items. However, it’s best to avoid microwave PP when it stores fatty foods. 
5. Polyvinyl chloride: Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) is the best material for thermoformed packaging due to its sound processing and low softening features. It also has moderate gas and water barriers and excellent oil resistance. It’s commonly used in modified atmosphere packaging base trays mixed with PE for heat sealing.
6. Expanded polystyrene (PVC): This material of MAP does not provide full protection against gas for food items. But when you combine ethylene vinyl alcohol (EVOH) and PVC, you can use it in trays like a layer of structure. 

Types Of Modified Atmosphere Packaging?   

Typically, modified atmosphere packaging has two types, however, each one has other kinds with unique features. I have described all of them in the below section; read them thoroughly-

Active Modified Atmosphere Packaging

It involves actively altering the gas composition inside a package to extend product shelf life. This technique replaces the natural atmosphere with a mix of gases, such as nitrogen or carbon dioxide. This way, active modified packaging slows down spoilage and maintains freshness in food products. 

Scavenger or desiccant packs

These scavenger or desiccant packs contain a combination of iron, carbon, and acid. When placed in bags or containers, they can absorb oxygen.

Therefore, you can use these MAPs for various of industry for packing items, for instance-

• 3-side seal pouches
• Doy packs
• Flexible vacuum packaging
• Kraft paper pouches

Gas flushing

This is a type of MAP where the air inside a package is replaced with a specific gas mix, usually nitrogen or carbon dioxide. The process slows down oxidation, microbial growth, and spoilage. So, it is ideal for perishable goods.

Let’s see a few packages you can use gas flushing-

• Cheese packaging
• Flat bags
• Meat or vegetable trays with lidding films
• Centre seal pouches made from rewind

On-package valves

Another popular MAP option is on-package or one-way packaging valves. These valves can release gases inside the package and prevent air from entering from outside. The coffee and tea industries usually use this method more often.

For some of the bag options, you can use the valves- 

• Vacuum pouches
• Custom meat and seafood bags
• Quad Seal pouches
• Flat Bottom Bags

Passive Modified Atmosphere Packaging

If you use breathable films in the packaging, they can diffuse gases. For this, you have to select the best packaging films that can absorb the moisture of the products. 

Vacuum skin packaging

Vacuum skin packaging (VSP) is a MAP method where the product is tightly sealed in a skin-tight film with most of the air removed. This process preserves the product’s freshness by reducing oxygen exposure and preventing spoilage.

You can use vacuum skin packaging in these pouches-

• Frozen meat and poultry bags
• Seafood pouches
• Cheese wraps
• Processed food trays

Barrier films

This is another passive method in MAP. Barrier films are used in controlled atmosphere packaging on the inside of the bags to block oxygen, water, and other properties. Therefore, the products can increase shelf life. 

It is a flexible process and can match these items-

• Center seal pouches
• Clear flat pouches
• Flat Bottom Bags
• Flexible vacuum packaging
• Stand Up Pouches
• Carton meat and seafood pouches inside boxes

How Does Modified Atmosphere Packaging Work?  

Modified Atmosphere Packaging works by controlling the atmosphere surrounding a product inside its packaging to extend its shelf life. The process involves replacing the air in the package with a specific blend of gases, usually carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and even oxygen. You should adjust the gases depending on the product’s needs. 

This gas mixture helps slow down the growth of bacteria and mold. Also, it can reduces oxidation, and maintain the product’s freshness, flavor, and texture. MAP is commonly used in the food industry for perishable items.

Here, let’s see how MAP controls the atmosphere of the food inside the packaging-

Applications Of Modified Atmosphere Packaging  

• Meat: MAP can prevent spoilage of meat by slowing down the growth of aerobic bacteria and oxidation. It maintains the red color and freshness.
• Seafood: Storing seafood in modified atmosphere packaging minimizes the growth of bacteria. Also, MAP can maintain the texture and flavor by controlling oxygen levels.
• Bakery Products: You can use MAP to package baking cakes or biscuits. It delays staling and mold growth and extends shelf life.
• Ready-to-Eat Meals: MAP ensures that ready-to-eat meals like instant noodles retain their original color, freshness, and taste.
• Snacks: As you know, snacks like chips need to be crunchy, and MAP can provide that by reducing moisture.
• Cheese: MAP inhibits mold growth and delays spoilage of the cheese while maintaining texture.
• Coffee and Tea: The MAP is the best option for protecting the aroma and flavor of coffee and tea. It prevents oxidation and moisture absorption.
• Fruits: Modified atmosphere packaging for fruits and vegetables slows down ripening and spoilage by controlling oxygen and carbon dioxide levels.
• Fresh pasta: MAP extends freshness and prevents discoloration of pasta by minimizing oxygen exposure.

Benefits Of Modified Atmosphere Packaging 

• Improved Quality: With MAP, you can ensure product quality. This is because the packaging can keep the product fresh by maintaining the food flavors and nutritional value. 

• Extended Shelf Life: MAP does not allow moisture to attack the products as it can remove oxygen from the package. Usually, this packaging can extend meat shelf life from 4-22 and pasta from 4-61 days. Also, it can keep the cheese fresh for 6-181 days. 

• Reduced Waste: The MAP can increase the shelf life of food, reducing food waste and spoilage. So, you can transport food items to faraway places and boost sales. 

Drawbacks Of Modified Atmosphere Packaging  

• It can be expensive to set the MAP in the first place.
• When the gas is mismatched, that can spoil the food. 

Machines For Modified Atmosphere Packaging  

You can use different automated machines for modified atmosphere packaging based on your production types and requirements. 

1. Thermoforming MAP Packaging Equipment

A Thermoforming modified atmosphere packaging machine utilizes thermoforming technology to shape plastic film into packages, which are then filled with products. This is an automatic machine that can work at a high speed.

If you have a specific requirement, you can customize the thermoforming machine according to product size. The machine offers precise control over temperature and atmosphere, ensuring the quality of various food items.

2. Vacuum Packaging Equipment

This combines vacuum sealing with modified atmosphere techniques to protect food from spoilage and oxidation. The machine removes air from the packaging and replaces it with nitrogen gas or carbon dioxide. 

Therefore, you can use this vacuum MAP machine to preserve the quality of meats, cheeses, and ready-to-eat meals. This MAP machine will ensure the food remains safe and flavorful over time.

3. Form Fill Seal Machine

With this MAP machine, you can form pouches or other bags and then fill them with products. Before sealing, this machine inputs gas to maintain the quality of the food. Whether you have the pharmaceutical, food, and beverages industry, you can use this machine. However, this machine can be two types, such as-

• Vertical Form Fill Seal (VFFS): These machines form the package from a roll of film, fill it with product, and seal it vertically. They are ideal for high-speed, small to medium-sized packages.
• Horizontal Form Fill Seal (HFFS):  HFFS machines use a horizontal film roll to form, fill, and seal packages. These are suitable for larger and more rigid products, such as frozen foods, prepared meals, and medical supplies.

Other Types Of Modifies Atmosphere Machines

MAP Tray Packaging Equipment: This machine seals the tray and injects gas to prevent mold, keeping the product fresh for many days. It can also print information on the package. 

MAP Fin Seal Flow Wrap Equipment: It can offer a customized option for your specific packaging choice. This machine can also print film that is ideal for single food content, like a tray with meat pieces. 

MAP Band Sealing Equipment: Typically, this sealing machine puts gas inside the package and seals it. 

Conclusion

Now you are expert and know everything about modified atmosphere packaging (MAP), from its definitions, applications, benefits, and cons. So, if you want to keep your food tasting as fresh as organic and maintain quality for months, use MAP in your industry.  

But if you need professional help choosing the best packaging machine, you can contact us. Our professional R&D team will assist you.

FAQs

What are the gases used in modified atmosphere packaging?

Gases like nitrogen, carbon dioxide, and even oxygen are commonly used in modified atmosphere packaging. Therefore, nitrogen helps displace oxygen and reduce food spoilage. At the same time, carbon dioxide inhibits microbial growth and slows down the ripening process. Also, by controlling oxygen levels, you can maintain food items’ freshness and quality.

What temperature is modified atmosphere packaging stored at?

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Typically, modified atmosphere packaging is stored at 0-5°C. This temperature helps to slow down microbial growth and preserve the product’s quality. Often, the ideal storage temperature can vary depending on the specific product and its packaging.  

Is modified atmosphere packaging safe?

Yes, modified atmosphere packaging is safe and sustainable as it only uses gases to protect the food from bacteria. This way, it can reduce food waste. However, nonrecyclable plastic can impact environmental pollution. So, try to choose materials that are reusable and recyclable. 

If you need packaging, custom plastic packaging can be one of the most versatile and affordable options. Lightweight, see-through and protective, thermoform plastics are ideal for thousands of products. At Indepak, we can design many different types of plastic packaging, including the following.

Blister Packaging

The term blister packaging often conjures up images of foil-back, single-dose medications and this is one type of blister pack, but there are many other varieties of blister packaging.

For instance, many small and lightweight retail products can be placed in a face seal blister, which includes a plastic cavity designed to surround your product exactly. This plastic piece is heat-sealed to paperboard, and you’ll find this type of packaging used for many types of inexpensive products from pens to mascara to batteries and much more.

For larger products or products that require a bit more protection, we can opt for full-face seal blisters or trap blisters, which can be sealed tightly to prevent tampering as well as keeping your product safe from moisture and mold.

From a sustainability perspective, blister packaging can be a good option as the amount of plastic needed is reduced because we also incorporate paperboard. Keep in mind, we often can create the custom plastic cavity using recycled content, which can further increase the sustainability of your custom plastic packaging project.

Clamshell Packaging

When a blister package features a hinge at one end and folds onto itself, this is known as a clamshell, and this is an excellent option for a wide range of products. We often see the clamshell used for specialty food products, but they also are used for personal care items, electronics, office supplies, hardware & tool-related items, toys and just about any retail product one could imagine.

Plastic clamshell packaging can be sealed in many ways. For instance, if your clamshell holds a food product, you’ll want the package to be easy to open and close so that consumers can access a portion of the food product and then securely close the lid to enjoy the remainder of the food at another time.

An easy-open, easy-close clamshell also is an excellent option for items such as thumbtacks, nails and other small items that you won’t necessarily use all at once. We can provide an initial seal that you tear away, keeping your product safe while it sits on a store shelf, but also design a tab that keeps the clamshell closed for future use by the consumer. If you have a more expensive or non-food product, our sealing options are a bit more advanced, ensuring that packages are as tamper-proof as possible.

Additionally, we can create easy-open clamshells suitable for eCommerce packaging. Many online retailers, such as Amazon, prefer it when vendors can offer packaging that is easy for customers to open. You could opt to have a portion of your packaging tightly sealed for placement in brick-and-mortar stores and a portion easy to open for online sales. We also can create mock clamshells and tri-fold designs, the latter of which can hang from a peg or be free-standing packaging.

Flexible Packaging

Flexible packaging is a type of custom plastic packaging that’s all the rage these days, and there are several reasons why. Flex packs, as they sometimes are called, are created using fewer materials and can be designed to re-seal securely. Because a minimal amount of packaging materials is needed to create flex packs, more units can fit on store shelves, and you can ship more units in a single shipment.

Flexible packaging can be used for many specialty food products as well as products such as detergent pods, medical supplies, personal care items and more. However, one of the downsides is that flex packs cannot be recycled so this packaging will always end up in a landfill.

Additionally, flexible packaging is not particularly protective. It can lock out moisture, but it cannot protect products if they are jostled about during transport or are knocked off of a store shelf. However, flex packs can be a good option for some products. While we do not design flex packs, our design team will let you know if flexible packaging is a better fit for your product or if rigid plastic or another material is the best option.

Barrier Packaging & Modified Atmosphere Packaging

Barrier packaging is a type of custom plastic packaging that can be created as a pouch, but it doesn’t have to be a pouch. It also can be a plastic tub with film seal that you peel back, such as with products such as butter or fruit cups. It can be a thermoform tray with a film seat, such as you might see with fresh meat, fresh pasta or other food items.

Within the medical industry, your barrier packaging might feature a custom tray with multiple cavities. This could hold medications or sterile medical kits and feature a film seal, protecting these important medical items from contamination. The function of barrier packaging is to protect a product from oxygen, moisture and UV radiation. These UV rays can discolor products, especially food, and while the discoloration may not affect the food quality, it does tend to turn off consumers.

Modified atmosphere packaging, sometimes called MAP packaging, takes tall of this a step further, and this is barrier packaging to which oxygen has been removed and other gases are added, such as nitrogen or carbon dioxide. This is done to extend the shelf life of food products, including fresh and processed meats, fish, poultry, pasta, cheeses, produce, cookies & crackers, premade meals and more.

Additional Custom Plastic Packaging Options

Beyond clamshells, blisters and pouches, we can create other types of custom plastic packaging. For instance, you might need to create a bottle to hold your liquid products, or you might need custom bins with or without lids.

You might simply need custom thermoform trays that will be placed into foil packaging or another type of container. We can even dream up designs that no one has seen before as well as creating entire parts or products with rigid plastic materials.

Benefits of Custom Plastic Packaging

While there are many packaging materials, rigid plastic materials can be the best option to consider for several reasons, including:

Affordability

Custom plastic packaging is one of the most affordable packaging options for several reasons. Rigid plastic materials are highly affordable, but they also are very lightweight, which reduces your shipping costs. Paper-based packaging as well as aluminum and glass packaging weighs significantly more and costs more to transport, not to mention that this extra weight requires more energy to transport.

Protectability

Few materials protect products as well as plastics. Plastics lock out moisture and mold, and plastics also are tamper-resistant and impact-resistant. When it comes to food products, with modified atmosphere packaging, you can preserve and protect food and extend its shelf life, reducing food waste and allowing you to expand your market.

Customization

Thermoforming is the process we use to create plastic packaging, and we can design custom plastic packaging in just about any shape or size. No other packaging materials allow for complete customization down to the smallest details. With clear plastic packaging, you also provide consumers with the opportunity to see your product, and consumers are much more likely to buy a product if they can see what it looks like.

Why Indepak?

At Indepak, we’ve been creating custom plastic packaging for more than 50 years. We know there are many plastic packaging manufacturers out there, but there are several reasons to choose Indepak.

Experience

Not only do we have more than 50 years of experience creating and designing packaging solutions, but we also have extensive experience working with many different industries, including the specialty foods industry, medical & pharmaceutical industries, electronics industry and the agricultural industry. We also have extensive experience designing retail packaging for a wide range of products from office supplies to toys to tools and beyond.

Additionally, we have experience with a myriad of rigid plastic materials. Our facility includes multiple lines of high-speed thermoforming equipment allowing us to meet the needs of a diverse clientele. We can process materials such as ABS, HDPE, HIPS, OPS, PP, PVC, PET, PETG, starch-based biomaterials and more. We also can use materials made from recycled content.

Cost-Containment

At Indepak, we kept everything in-house including design, prototyping and production. We even have an in-house tooling shop where we create top-quality production parts. We can handle your entire packaging project from start to finish, and this reduces costs. We also look for other ways to reduce your costs, such as reducing packaging sizes or searching for the most affordable materials.

Total Packaging Solutions

In addition to providing our customers with product packaging design, prototyping and production services, we also offer package fulfillment services and inventory management. With packaging fulfillment, we can seal your packaging together with processes such as RF welding and heat sealing.

We have 50,000 square feet of warehouse space, and we can design whatever type of inventory management system you might need. This includes a simple minimum-maximum system up to sophisticated customer-based web portals. We also offer on-time shipping so your packaging will arrive when you need it, every time.

Quality

We focus on consistently providing our customers with the highest quality custom plastic packaging and services. We have earned ISO : certifications, as well as FSSC certification. The latter is an ISO-based standard that is recognized by the Global Food Safety Initiative, an international organization focused on improving food safety around the world.

Additionally, we are always concerned with sustainability and minimizing our impact on the environment. We go beyond ISO : requirements, resulting in a very low-waste operation in every part of the company. We also use materials compliant with regulations such as REACH, RoHS and EICC, and we are a registered user of the BOMcheck system.

The company is the world’s best Custom MAP Packaging Tray(it,hi,vi) supplier. We are your one-stop shop for all needs. Our staff are highly-specialized and will help you find the product you need.

Need Custom Plastic Packaging? Contact Us Today!