Fruit producers need fast and reliable food packaging solution for berry season

Getting fresh fruit from field to market quickly, efficiently and without compromising quality is vital to the bottom line of many UK fruit producers, and packaging is key to this. Producers must maintain a contaminant-free environment to protect both the product and consumer, so high-quality packaging processes are a must. Though producers can use traditional packaging methods, growing demand during berry season can lead to higher workloads and a stressed workforce. This, in turn, could lead to a decline in packaging quality – something which must be avoided where food is concerned. With this in mind, under-pressure fruit producers are increasingly opting for automated traysealing machines as a packaging solution. The traysealing process ensures food products are consistently protected against potentially hazardous contaminants, without the variation in quality that can occur with traditional packaging methods. Similarly, as a fully automated system, traysealing machines can package products in automatic cycles for prolonged periods of time. Not only does this allow producers to redeploy their workforce to other important tasks, it also enables a consistent pace of production that may not be possible without automation. The combination of automation capacity and consistent, high-quality packaging has made traysealing machines extremely popular with fruit producers. In fact, the machines have been in such high demand that ULMA Packaging quadrupled its traysealing sales from 2014 to 2018. In response to the continued need for traysealing solutions, ULMA Packaging is now expanding its facilities in the Goribar neighbourhood in Oñati (Gipuzkoa). The new 5,500m2 production plant is being built next to the existing 6,000m2 traysealing facility, and further increases production capacity for the manufacturing of traysealing machines. Indeed, the new plant will also allow ULMA to exceed their current production capacity of approximately 400 machines per year, resulting in better lead-times while also fostering new developments and innovation. When this expansion is completed, fruit producers wishing to upgrade their food packaging processes will receive state-of-the-art traysealing machines even quicker than before.