The topic of packaging perishable food items deserves some expert advice. It’s challenging to manage when dealing with varying temperatures and preserving the edible items you’re shipping.
This information is helpful for food businesses getting their products out to the market and for various industries dealing with delicate and perishable shipping items. If you follow these dos and don’ts for packaging your food items, you’ll be one step closer to perfecting each step of the supply chain process.
Top Packaging Tips When Shipping Food Items
Tip #1 — Know How Your Products Handle Different Temperatures
This is a baseline tip that shouldn’t be dismissed. Knowing your products and how they hold up in various temperatures is essential. Have a practice batch of the items you want to pack and ship. Test these items in the freezer and track how long it takes to thaw within various temperatures and what type of materials would best preserve them within the temperature ranges. Some food products don’t freeze well, so you need to know this before shipping to ensure your customers’ satisfaction.
As you familiarize yourself with your products, you’ll gain the knowledge necessary to know what techniques are needed for successful shipments.
For example, these food items should NEVER be frozen:
- Leafy greens, salads, etc.
- Cream-based soups
- Cooked pasta or rice
- Cooked egg whites, like meringue
If you ship cookies, dessert bars, cakes, etc., you should test them with various flavors and ingredients and keep notes on how each recipe reacts in multiple situations.
Tip #2 — Try Shipping in Smaller Quantities
When you are getting to know your products and how best they will survive the shipping and handling process, it’s a good idea to try out smaller packaging. However, you should also use different sizes and structures of boxed packaging before determining what works best — understanding how your product shifts during shipping will determine the ideal packaging combination to keep your product safe.
Tip #3 — Consider Vacuum Sealing Your Product
Some brand owners consider the quickest and easiest solution when preserving the quality of their food items is to vacuum seal and freeze them just before shipment. Using vacuum bags prevents your perishable food items from the denaturing impact of air, moisture, and other elements that would compromise their integrity. Vacuum sealing your food items before packaging and shipping has many benefits.
Packaging perishable food items is sometimes tricky, but you’ll have a winning strategy by knowing your products and what works best for them. And by doing so, your customers will continue to rely on you and place their orders for good quality products that are packaged and shipped with the utmost consideration to detail.
Pioneer Packaging, Your Go-To Food Packaging Design Partner
For over 35 years, Pioneer has been the go-to source for designing product packaging that sells. We work closely with you to ensure your brand is recognized for quality packaging design and materials.
So whether you’re looking for frustration-free packaging or attracting new consumers, we can create a design fit for you. In addition, we strive to keep costs down to help our customers keep their products moving along production lines.
Contact Pioneer Packaging today and learn why we’re a leader in custom packaging solutions.