From MAP to VSP/HPP—and linerless labels along the way

This Houston startup now has a line of fresh, refrigerated ready meals that look good, taste great, and emphasize nutrition. High Pressure Processing extends shelf life.

NICE DISPLAY. One of the significant advantages of VSP is that packages can be displayed vertically, and Perfect Fit has taken full advantage of this feature.
NICE DISPLAY. One of the significant advantages of VSP is that packages can be displayed vertically, and Perfect Fit has taken full advantage of this feature.

Perfect Fit Meals started in 2010 with hand filling of ready meals in plastic trays. Refrigerated shelf life was five days, and distribution—which was limited, to say the least—was by way of direct selling to health clubs and smoothie stores where customers pulled product from Perfect Fit’s own coolers. Now, less than four years later, Perfect Fit is leveraging the latest packaging technology to distribute its healthful, balanced, dietician-designed, convenient, multi-component, and right-sized ready meals to hundreds of Kroger stores not only in its home state of Texas but also in Michigan and soon in other states, too.

Some of this growth can be attributed to Director of Operations Jasmine Sutherland, who joined the firm about six months after it was launched. With degrees in Culinary Arts & Nutrition from Johnson & Wales and prior experience not only in dietetic work at the University of Houston and Texas Children’s Hospital but also in the production of fresh ready meals, her assignment upon joining Perfect Fit was to secure USDA certification and grow operations. Funding for the growth part came from Creeris, the Houston-based venture firm that creates, funds, and operates under its control companies like Perfect Fit Meals.

At the time Sutherland arrived, Perfect Fit filled thermoformed polypropylene trays by hand, snapped on a PP lid, loaded the product into its own vehicles, and brought the product to its own refrigerated coolers in health clubs and other nutrition-conscious outlets in Houston. Shelf life was just five days.

“One day,” says Sutherland, “our passionate and persuasive sales person went into Kroger with a bag of meals and said, ‘You should sell these, they’re very good.’ And Kroger said yes.”

To fit into the Kroger system, however, more than a five-day shelf life was needed. So a two-up Multivac T 300 tray sealer was purchased so that trays could be evacuated and backflushed for shelf life extension. Also changed was the rather rudimentary polypropylene tray and snap-fit lid. In came a CPET tray and a flexible film lidding material that included a layer of EVOH for better gas barrier. With these improvements, shelf life went from five days to two weeks.

Linerless labels
Another intriguing step forward at this point was the installation of a linerless pressure-sensitive labeling machine, the Nobac 500, from Ravenwood Packaging. Sutherland explains the appeal of linerless labels.

“As our volume of production started to grow, so did our distaste for the release liners that are an indispensable part of traditional pressure-sensitive labels. Not only did it feel wasteful, it made a mess. So when we encountered Ravenwood at an FMI show in Dallas and watched their system in action, we knew it was the solution we were looking for. With them being based in the UK and our company being so small, it was a big leap of faith on our part. But we went with it because it seemed like a truly green labeling solution. It also helped that we were able to get a pre-owned and refurbished machine, which kept the cost down. Plus the machine rolls on and off a line very easily. And it gives you a number of options on the label format you want. It can do a full wrap, a partial, a C-wrap, or a top label.”

Hub Labels is the label converter that supplies Pefect Fit with its linerless labels. Hub first runs an 8-pt paper stock through an eight-color flexo press that delivers UV-curable inks to both the front and back of the label. On the front, of course, are attractive graphics, Nutrition Facts, and heating instructions. On the back in just black is a QR code for consumer feedback purposes plus an eye mark. The printed roll is then fed into a coating system made by Ravenwood that pattern coats the back of the label material with adhesive. The front side gets a silicone release coating in a pattern that matches the adhesive pattern on the back. This is what makes the absence of a release liner possible, because when labels are wound into the roll that will be mounted on the Nobac labeling machine, the only part of the front side that meets with the adhesive on the back is the part that has silicone release coating. Without this coating-to-coating match, the presence of adhesive would make label unwind impossible.

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