Sealed Air has developed a new continuous soft vacuum packaging system to help cheese producers optimise product quality and improve sustainability.
The innovative CRYOVAC® SVS45 consumes up to 50 % less energy compared to similarly performing systems, while at the same time achieving higher packaging speeds and maintaining cheese structure, texture and flavour. The packaging machine works with a differential pressure vacuum system and continuous sealing. The technology efficiently utilises energy to evacuate the cheese pack at high throughput while the cheese remains exposed only to atmospheric pressure.
„The technology and patented design of the CRYOVAC® SVS45 are completely new to the market and to cheese producers and processors. The differential pressure vacuum completely removes the air in the pack without damaging the structure of the cheese. This preserves quality and flavour, improves the appearance of the cheese packaging and meets customer expectations. These benefits are achieved without a vacuum chamber, which is not ideal for packaging sensitive products such as cheese.“ Peter Thuerig, Development Director Equipment Food Packaging at Sealed Air
The new vacuum system consumes around ten times less compressed air than conventional systems
Sustainability is further improved by the use of Sealed Air CRYOVAC® shrink bags, tubing and OptiDure™ bags.
„Thermoforming materials used for the packaging of Euroblock cheese weigh 71 grams. The CRYOVAC® SVS45 is designed to process sealed air shrink material that weighs less than half as much - 32 grams. This allows cheese processors to significantly reduce material consumption per pack and save hundreds of thousands of tonnes of carbon dioxide.“ Aldo Galbusera, Marketing Manager Europe for cheese and sausage products at Sealed Air
The CRYOVAC® SVS45 can be used to vacuum pack and seal hard cheese and semi-soft semi-hard cheese.
The fully automatic system offers great flexibility from the standard format of 500 grams to blocks of more than 25 kilograms and can pack up to 40 cheeses per minute or up to 15 tonnes per hour.
Aldo Galbusera concludes: „As cheese producers usually prefer soft vacuum systems to preserve the texture and flavour of the cheese, they have to compromise on efficiency and productivity. Sealed Air has developed a completely new system that eliminates these disadvantages. The CRYOVAC® SVS45 increases performance and improves brand presentation by preserving flavour and improving product appearance and sustainability.“
Source: Sealed Air
