One of the primary reasons food manufacturers will look at machinery to fill rigid containers – such as car cups, clamshells, or trays – is the protection these containers provide their products. Based on each customer’s needs – based on varied container sizes or otherwise – Ohlson may recommend a container indexing system or its inline cup and tray filling system.
In addition to the protection provided by the container itself, products may also benefit from modified atmosphere packaging via a gas flush, which may improve product freshness and extend shelf life.
The nature of rigid containers such as cups and trays also allows for additional automated steps, such as lidding, date coding, labeling, shrink banding, and more – which might otherwise involve a more manual process.
Ultimately, every decision surrounding packaging machinery is one that should be measured in the ROI and process improvements it can bring to the organization – whether in terms of pure labor savings, product giveaway, or simply the ability to focus their team on more productive aspects of the business.