I recently spoke with a packaging executive whose fingers are in the tray sealing and the thermoforming markets both abroad and in the U.S. I came away from our conversation with a clear appreciation that, with a few exceptions, thermoformed trays have a place in protein packaging; it’s just not first place.
Despite its eye-catching benefits, thermoforming suffers from an incurable ailment: being second. Tray sealing was and remains first. It works, it adapts to a multitude of production needs and, most important, there is a large installed equipment base. “You don’t see many people changing over to thermoformed because it’s quite an expensive proposition to do so. You could probably pick up a couple of tray sealers for the price of a thermoforming machine,” says the executive.