Consumers and brand owners favor flexible packaging, particularly pouches, for meat, poultry and seafood products. In fact, flexible packaging will continue to dominate the category and capture more than two-thirds (67 percent) of the U.S. market by 2020, according to a report published in June 2016 by Technavio, London, U.K.
The report, Meat Poultry and Seafood Packaging Market in the U.S. 2016-2020, attributes the growth to rising demand for meat, poultry and seafood products and explains, “Consumers prefer pouches as they are easy to use, are compact and lightweight, and are convenient while traveling.” Pouches also offer leak resistance, broad flexibility in design and size and can incorporate features such as barrier properties for extended shelf life and easy-open/reclose functionality. Pouches can serve as primary or secondary packaging. When used for secondary packaging, pouches often hold product in primary pouches, for example, frozen, single-serving fish fillets.