FURTHER PROCESSING & PACKAGING
Oven-ready packaging adds value,
convenience to poultry
Oven-ready packaging offers poultry processors and consumers advantages in convenience
of handling and cooking, ;avor, tenderness and food safety. BY SHELLY MCKEE
❯❯Meat packaging has come a long way in recentyears;especially withcommercialap-plications for oven-ready raw meat products.
Current applications for oven-ready packages
for raw meat products include vacuum packaged meat with a secondary or outer package
such as a sleeve, netting, box or other type
of pouch. The ;rst level of vacuum package
is for containment, while the secondary
package is to convey product identi;cation,
cooking instructions, branding and nutrition
information and other label requirements.
many raw poultry and other meat products.
One advantage is convenience. The packaging eliminates the time for meat preparation.
Consumers tend not to like having to handle
raw poultry, and with other meat cuts they are
often unsure how to prepare and season them.
The poultry products in oven-ready bags are
generally pre-seasoned and often marinated.
For consumers, the ease of removing the outer
container and having the product go right into
the oven is a huge bene;t.
For consumers, the ease of removing the outer container and having the product go right
into the oven is a huge benefit.
Consumer convenience
Flavor profiles
Fibers offer clean labels in further processed poultry
www.WATTAgNet.com/17813.html
for poultry, oven-ready packaging for whole
birds and parts is a means of adding value
through marination and ;avor pro;les to
target retail and foodservice markets.
Additionally, vacuum packaging is common
in the poultry industry, and the majority of
companies already have vacuum packaging
equipment, so there is not a need for capital
investment of new equipment.
Secondary packaging conveys product
identification, cooking instructions, branding and nutrition information and other
label requirements. Image courtesy Sealed
Air Cryovac
Vacuum packaging and cooked
characteristics
Another advantage of oven-ready pack-
aging is that the products are vacuum
packaged. This is similar to the concept
of sous vide where products are vacuum
packaged and cooked in the package, but
with sous vide cooking the products are
cooked in water in a thermal circulator or
similar equipment.
