Ground meat is a broad term of various minced meat products. In this article, we will be talking about ground meat packaging machines and main packaging types
What is ground meat
Ground meat is the general name of raw meat processed by meat grinder. Ground meat consists of animal muscle, fat, and connective tissue of different mix ratio, 70/30, 80/20, 85/15, etc, which indicates the lean meat to fat percentage. Ground meat is often used to make burgers, kebabs, patties, and meatballs.
Any raw meat can be processed to ground meat, including and not limited to:
- Ground beef
- Ground pork
- Ground lamb
- Ground turkey
- Ground chicken
- Ground venison
- Ground fish meat, ground lobster, ground prawns, etc.
Ground meat packaging machines and packaging types
In supermarkets or grocery stores, you can find many ground meat products in different packages. According to marketing strategy and application, there are mainly 4 types of packaging methods for ground meat, including traditional cling film wrapping, vacuum packaging, MAP modified atmosphere packaging and chub packaging. For details of related ground beef packaging machines, please read the following contents.
Ground meat packaging machine – Foam tray cling film wrapping packaging
Foam tray cling film wrapping packaging involves the using of a foam tray and cling film that wraps the foam tray and ground meat inside. This is the most commonly used ground meat packaging solution with about 2/3 of the market share.
Foam tray cling film wrapping packaging dominates the market because it offers some irreplaceable advantages for ground meat products:
- The cling film that is used to wrap the ground meat is not oxygen-barrier which allows direct contact with air and oxygen in the storage environment, so ground meat in this package shows an appealing bright cherry-red color which is favorable by consumers
- The packaging material cost is inexpensive
- This packaging is easy to operate. Unlike other packaging types, cling film wrapping simply wraps the products with plastic film manually or automatically, without having to worry about air composition or packaging material’s air permeable rate
Disadvantage of cling film wrapping packaging for ground meat
- Because the ground meat exposes to oxygen in this packaging, the meat spoils fast, which means this packaging type can’t prolong shelf-life of ground meat to over 2 days. So this packaging only suits fast-selling occasions.
- Ground meat in cling film wrapping packages can’t be frozen stored because of freezer burn.
Ground meat cling film wrapping machines
Cling film wrapping process can be done manually or automatically. If you’d like to apply automatic packaging, please visit our cling film wrapping packaging machine page. We provide ground meat cling film wrapping machines from tabletop type to inline type with different costs and packaging speed.
Ground meat modified atmosphere packaging machine
MAP modified atmosphere packaging is an advanced packaging method for ground meat products. MAP packaging requires rigid plastic tray and plastic sealing film to contain ground meat and seal ground meat in the tray. Unlike cling film wrapping packaging which wraps the whole tray with cling film, MAP packaging only seal the top side of the rigid tray. More importantly, MAP packaging vacuum out the air in the plastic tray and fill the space with a modified atmosphere which contains certain ratio of Oxygen (for example, 70% O2, 30% CO2 for red meat) so that the ground meat still shows a favorable cherry-red color.
Advantages of ground meat modified atmosphere packaging
- MAP modified atmosphere packaging machine prolongs shelf life of ground meat to 10-14 days without freezing storage
- Prolonged shelf life can expand the selling period and area of ground meat products
- MAP packaging let the ground meat show the cheery-red color which is favorable by consumers
Disadvantages of ground meat modified atmosphere packaging
- Modified atmosphere packaging is complicated for newbies, it’s important to choose the right plastic rigid tray, sealing film, and most importantly the mixing ratio of modified atmosphere.
- MAP packaging costs higher than traditional cling film wrapping packaging
Ground meat modified atmosphere packaging machines
As a professional manufacturer of modified atmosphere packaging machines, we offer the machines from tabletop type to fully automatic inline type, as well as thermoforming modified atmosphere packaging machine. The costs and productivity of the machines are different, please visit our modified atmosphere packaging machine page for details.
Ground meat vacuum packaging machine
Vacuum packaging creates a vacuum environment inside the ground meat package, all the air (at least almost all the air. Good vacuum packaging machine can make sure of least oxygen residual) is evacuated out of the package, so ground meat loses direct contact with Oxygen to prevent oxidation reaction which is the main reason of spoilage. Because of the lack of Oxygen, the ground meat will show a puple red color. Among all the packaging methods, ground meat in vacuum packaging has the longest shelf life and can be stored in freezing environment.
Generally, there are 2 types of ground meat vacuum packaging machines: Vacuum packaging machines that use premade vacuum bags, and Thermoforming vacuum packaging machine that automatic make vacuum containers by the machine itself. Please visit our vacuum packaging machine page for details.
Ground meat chub packaging
Chub packaging is another packaging type for ground meat products. This type of package uses metal twists to tie the both ends of the package, and the package is vacuumed, very much like the packaging of some sausages.
Conclusion
So far, because ground meat products are meant to be sold fast at the supermarkets and grocery stores, cling film wrapping packaging is the most common packaging method. But for longer shelf life, more and more ground meat is packaged by modified atmosphere packaging and vacuum packaging. The only rule for selecting certain packaging method is only marketing strategy. If you’d like to know for about ground meat packaging machines, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
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