Czech meat processor calls in Cryovac

10 August 2010

A Czech meat company claims to have dramatically improved quality and sales by overhauling packaging systems at its processing plant. Kostelecké uzeniny turned to Cryovac for packaging automation to meet a demand to package its products in shrinkable films.

Located in the Vysočina region, Kostelecké uzeniny is the largest meat and meat products manufacturing company in the Czech Republic with a market share of approximately seven per cent. The company’s product range includes fresh pork, beef and poultry. The flagship product is fermented salami covered with fine natural mould.

The company’s annual sales amount to approximately €150 million, with ten per cent for export to Germany, Poland, Slovakia and Austria. It supplies multinational chains, as well as retail associations and traditional markets.

Recently, the company upgraded from standard shrink bags to high performance shrinkable films and automation. Sealed Air Cryovac provided the solution with Cryovac RS2000 film running with the innovative Cryovac Ulma Flow-Vac system. Kostelecké installed the FV45 that is based on horizontal form-fill-seal technology operating at very high speeds and loading into Cryovac vacuum equipment.

The new packaging system immediately provided various advantages. The low impact investment in automation adding to an already existing flat belt vacuum chamber allowed a user-friendly and flexible change with substantial benefits, such as improved meat quality, longer shelf life thanks to shrinking and vacuum properties, or better pack appearance due to the Flow-Vac automatic adaptation of bag length to product length.

Consequently, productivity was enhanced as the need for repacking – due to rejects or meat contamination on seals – dropped significantly. Last but not least, the level of hygiene was enhanced.

The newly packed products have been distributed via Tesco, the Makro / Metro chain and smaller retailers, as well as hotels and restaurants.


Contact Details and Archive...

Related Articles...

Print this page | E-mail this page