Packaging supplier Advanta has completed a trial of a new foil packaging solution for poultry.
Aimed at poultry processors, the skin pack aluminium poultry tray and film combination is designed to minimise food waste.
The poultry is vacuum-packed in the foil tray, eliminating oxygen and therefore increasing the shelf-life of refrigerated poultry, sometimes by up to 300 per cent according to the company.
In addition to increased shelf-life, increased demand for convenience has left a gap in the market for a tray of this type. The consumer can easily peel back the plastic skin surrounding the poultry, revealing the whole chicken in a foil tray, ready to bake in the oven, then served directly to the table.
"Both consumer demand for convenience and retailers' requirements for longer shelf-lives have refocused the priorities of poultry food packaging," Miguel Campos, export sales manager at Advanta, said.
"As consumption of poultry products continues to grow, new concepts are required to ensure packaging is fit-for-purpose.”
Generally speaking, today’s consumers don't want to touch the chicken before it is cooked, according to Campos.
A tray that allows poultry to be cooked directly in the packaging it comes in makes cooking more convenient.
The product has a temperature range of -40 degrees Celsius to 400 degrees Celsius, remaining shatterproof while frozen and rigid while in the oven.
The aluminium tray is also 100 per cent recyclable.
