Chinese company brings barrier performance to meat packaging

5 December 2006 – Chinese film manufacturer J&A Industrial (Suzhou) has commercialised a new multi-layer package design to improve packaging characteristics for local food company Linyi Xincheng Jinluo Meat Products.

The co-extruded film structure developed by J&A Industrial is said to preserve the sweet flavour and freshness of Jinluo’s corn sausage product without losing barrier properties when exposed to moisture in high humidity environments – in contrast to traditional EVOH film packaging materials that are susceptible to humidity.

It also represents the first global application of co-extruded film based on polyolefins and Dow Chemical’s Saran PVDC for packaging processed meat. The multi-layer film structure can be customised to meet shelf life requirements and can be widely used for a range of packaging applications, as well as in controlled atmosphere, vacuum and thermoforming packaging.

Linyi Xincheng Jinluo Meat Products R&D director, Zhang Lifeng, said the company opted for a technology that could provide barrier properties because of the recipe, processing, circulation and other factors in the production of the corn sausage.

Additionally, the film is considered to be more cost effective due to the elimination or reduction of lamination or coating processes that are required to accomplish barrier and other functions, while the use of high-barrier PVDC film offers downgauging possibilities.