“To avoid the harm of a product recall and maintain brand loyalty, food manufacturers must do all they can to uphold the safety and quality of their products and allay consumer concerns,” he said.
Clean machines
Garms pointed out that the US Food and Drug Administration’s Food Safety Modernization Act has put a spotlight on the issue, causing manufacturers to pay close attention to hygienic packaging machinery design.
“Truly hygienic packaging technology ensures that 100% of the machine’s surfaces that come into contact with the products meet these standards,” he said. “This will help manufacturers ensure that products are packaged hygienically, meet standards of regulations, and ultimately contribute to brand loyalty because consumers will be able rely on product quality.”
Other important considerations manufacturers are faced with include product protection, cost conservation, decreased resource consumption (especially energy and water), and slimming down total cost of ownership.
Consumer interests
Garms told FPD that food firms and packaging partners face increasing demands from consumers as well.
“Consumers are more critical than ever and invariably expect to buy premium products of impeccable quality at the lowest possible prices,” he said. “This puts increased pressure on the manufacturing process.”
These consumer demands, Garms said, show up in packaging machines via increased automation, heightened flexibility and other factors.
Equipment showcase
Bosch Packaging Technology is showcasing a number of new products and at PACK EXPO Las Vegas 2013, scheduled September 23-25. These machines include a vertical bagger platform, Pack 101 entry-level horizontal flow-wrapper, SVI 2600 vffs machine, CCM3100 case packer, and SVE 2520 continuous-motion vertical bagger.
According to Garms, all the Bosch Packaging machines are designed for ease of integration with other Bosch machines, a high degree of flexibility and simple changeover.