#retort technology

Vivek is all set to leave for Australia to pursue a master’s degree in marketing. His bags are packed and his mother is teary eyed. Out of the 30 kg weight limit he’s allowed, palakpanner, dal makhani, matter paneer and hydrabadi biryani account for at least 5kg so that his mother doesn’t have to worry about him missing “home food”. Ready-To-Eat Food Packaging ensures that all Vivek has to do when he’s missing home is open a packet of dal makhani, pour the contents into a pan, heat it and relish the authentic taste, miles away from home and moths after he left home.

 Shalini and Sudhir are an urban, working couplewho share the household duties. Today, they have both come home later than usual and are too tired to cook an elaborate meal. They are health conscious and hence, do not want to order fast food. The ready-to-eat butter chicken packet Shalini picked up on her monthly grocery-shopping trip easily solves the problem.

 Ready-to-eat products(RTE foods) have thus revolutionized the urban way of life. Think of the working woman who goes home after a long day of work to her children who innocently request her to make palakpaneer for dinner. She is too exhausted to remember the recipe, look for each ingredient and then prepare the dish from scratch. The ready-to-eat palakpaneer packet she bought last week will now come in handy!

 The range of ready-to-eat products available in the market is no longer limited to jams, pickles, juices and light snacks. Elaborate meals, like hydrabadi biryani and butter chicken are now available in attractive, ready-to-serve packets.

 These items help the modern home maker to save time and energy, as well as give the assurance that every time she opens a packet of ready-to-eat dal makhni of a particular brand, she will get the same aroma, taste and quality.This promise of goodness is vital to the brand value of the ready-to-eat product.

 The priority of the manufacturer of the ready-to-eat product is to ensure that the integrity of the product, in terms of taste, texture, aroma, freshness as well as quantity,remains intact until the RTE packaging is opened.To ensure that these highly-perishable products retain their inherent qualities, at least while the packaging is intact, the manufacturer must employ all the latest available food packaging solutions that fit his budget.

 RTE food manufacturers require specially designed food packaging machines that fit the specific requirements of ready-to-eat food packaging. Typically, two or more ingredients, of varying consistencies, need to be picked up from different containers, filled into the pouch and the pouch needs to be sealed. Hence, the most ideal machine for RTE packaging is a Pick-Fill-Seal Machine that is capable of picking, filling and sealing, all at once.

 RTE foods also need to be handled gently to avoid damaging delicate items, like paneer for instance. Rotary filling machines are the best for gentle handling because in this kind of machine the empty pouches rotate and align under the fillers which are connected to the containers of ingredients, so there is minimal movement of ingredients.

 Another challenge of RTE packaging is that two or more ingredients need to be dispensedsimultaneously into one pouch. Not all food packaging machines are capable of handling this niche requirement that involves precision technology.

 With the growing competition in the RTE foods, especially with respect to innovative packaging, there is also the added challenge of dispensing the ingredients into any and every type of pouch or packet. Very few  food packaging machine manufacturers offer the option of versatile pouch formats.

 However, the greatest challenge of RTE packaging is to ensure that the highly perishable product retains its inherent goodness. The latest technology in food packaging solutions, “Retort Technology”, address this particular need of RTE packaging.

 Retort Packaging is the process by which an uncontaminated product (typically food or pharmaceutical) is packaged in a sterile container in a way that maintains sterility.Retort technology is hence, critical to RTE foods becausequality, nutrition values and appeal are of grave importance.

 Retort pouches also help manufacturers to increase the shelf life of their RTE foods and to give consumers the option of microwavable products.

 Nichrome India aims to protect the inherent goodness of packed foods, offering manufacturers of RTE foods a highly advanced variant of the Pick-Fill-Seal Machine that addresses all the aforementioned requirements and can be used to innovatively pack a wide variety of RTE foods.