Food Packaging: VisionSeal targets poultry packers

By Kevin T. Higgins

Buoyed by wide acceptance in the UK, Multivac Inc. is mounting a North American push for VisionSeal, a system that delivers hermetically sealed packages of cooked meats and raw chicken.

MAP and conventional films can be hermetically sealed to tray flanges with Multivac's VisionSeal system.

English poultry processors face a September deadline to convert from over-wrapping to hermetically sealed packaging. That touched off a wave of packaging equipment purchases, and Multivac’s T-400 was the big winner, with more than 40 units sold in the last six months. U.S. processors may not be as highly motivated as their English counterparts, but people “want leak-proof” packages, points out Mark Wilhelm, Multivac’s traysealer product manager.

Both conventional and MAP film can be stretched over product and hermetically sealed to the tray flange in Multivac's VisionSeal system.

An airtight seal makes VisionSeal compatible with case-ready poultry in MAP packaging. Film is stretched over the product and sealed to the tray flange. While that isn’t a problem with chicken, discoloration may result at the contact point with beef and pork.

The real innovation with VisionSeal is the modified tray sealer, which accommodates products that just above the horizontal plain of the tray flange. A whole raw chicken can be MAP packaged in a 1-inch deep tray, extending shelf life in packaging that resembles traditional over-wrap containers.

While most of Multivac’s tray sealers can be modified for VisionSeal, the T-400 is the focal machine because its small infeed and footprint permit easy integration into a poultry plant’s packaging line. T-400 also has a simplified changeover design that complies with lock out/tag out requirements and still allows operators to change over for different sized trays in less than seven minutes, according to Wilhelm.

For more information:

Mark Wilhelm, Multivac Inc., 816-891-0555,

mwhilhelm@multivac.com