The market for meat packaging is expected to experience significant growth during the next five years, according to The Journey Ahead for the Meat Packaging Industry, a market study from Infiniti Research.
For years, buying a steak to prepare at home involved the same step: go to the supermarket, rifle through the wrapped foam trays to find the best cut, and take it to the cashier. Even if you were lucky enough to live by a meat market or a butcher and could get custom cuts, you still were able to see the product before bringing it home.
Meat, poultry and seafood processors benefit from an ever-increasing array of flexible packaging options with product-differentiating features, enhanced functionality and more sustainable structures.
Processors have several options for pasteurization, including high-pressure pasteurization (HPP), hot water, steam, hot air, infrared heat, radiofrequency and irradiation. Hot water, steam and HPP are the most popular, with HPP and hot water growing the fastest, says Wes Shilling, professor of food science at Mississippi State University in Mississippi State.