Business

Sealed Air, the protective packaging specialist, aims to help students develop the food packaging of tomorrow by opening the Cryovac Flavour Mark retort laboratory at Clemson University in South Carolina.

Clemson students will use the laboratory as a hands-on classroom to study shelf-stable retort packaging using equipment donated by Sealed Air, including a Cryovac Onpack 2070 vertical form/fill/seal machine, bucket conveyor and Surdry AO142 retort.

Sealed Air's Cryovac food solutions division will be a major user of the laboratory, which will in addition be available to lease or on a fee-for-service basis to allow other food packaging companies to produce their own pouch samples.

Scott Whiteside, associate professor and associate director of Clemson's centre for flexible packaging, told Packaging News that more than 300 students in the packaging science and food science & human nutrition departments would benefit from using the laboratory and participating in projects.

"These modern lab facilities also give us the ability to conduct retort pouch product research that was previously limited. It is imperative that we focus much of our research efforts on industry-specific problems and needs," he said.

"There are only a handful of institutions nationwide that focus on the science of food packaging and Clemson University is one of them. Given that food packaging is an ever-changing industry, it is important that students learn in a real-world environment."

Cryovac Flavour Mark pouches are made from a multi-layer film for products such as meat, stews, soups, vegetables and sauces that require thermal processing after packaging to achieve shelf stability. The film also provides secure seals to survive handling during distribution.