Nichrome: Serving The Ready-to-Eat Industry with Excellence

According to an ASSOCHAM report, the perceived convenience of packaged foods has been driving impressive growth in the segment. Rising incomes, younger households & working couples in urban India suggest that this surge will continue in the next few years. Since 2010, the packaged food industry, which includes beverages, dairy products, snacks & baked foods, ketchups, jam, etc., has been growing at 32.5% per year and is expected to swell to 35% till 2017 at least. Urban households account for 80% of this market.

India has a large base of young consumers, who form majority of the country’s workforce. These young consumers hardly find time for traditional cooking due to their busy life styles which further creates significant potential for ready-to-eat food products. Yet, even as convenience is the main driver, health-conscious consumers also seek healthy ready to eat meal options.

Major players like ITC, Kohinoor, MTR and McCain among others are providing impetus to the industry with product innovation, branding and attractive packaging. The players in the packaged food industry tweak their product offerings to suit the taste of Indian consumers and launch new variants to cater to region-specific demand which have widened their consumer base. The industry players also consider factors like freshness, crispiness and flavor of the product, which the consumers consider important, before launching new products.

Nichrome’s HFFS Totpack Pick-Fill-Seal (PFS) machines offer the combined benefits of variety, productivity and specialty packaging for ready-to-eat foods. The high-precision Totpack PFS machine is controlled through a PLC with touch-screen interface, and supports a variety of pack/pouch formats. Packing material for preformed pouches include heat sealable laminates like PET/PE, Paper/Alu-foil/PE, Alu/PF, PET/Alu-foil/PE or Co ex films.

Advanced packaging technology enables 2 or 3 different fillers to dispense multiple types of ingredients in the same pouch. The machines conveniently pack a wide variety of ready-to-eat foods in eye-catching innovative shapes while maintaining freshness of the products.

The sturdy PFS machine offers multiple filler options. The RTE Filler facilitates ready to eatmeals packaging for products such as Palak Paneer, Dal Makhani, Butter Chicken, Biryani, Gravies, Matar Paneer, Punjabi Chhole, Punjabi Kadhi, Rajma Masala, etc.

The Linear/Gate Weigher can be used for vegetable seed packaging while the Servo Auger Filler is suitable for powders like ORS, Pharmaceutical Powder, Spice Powder, Milk Powder, Coffee, Health Drinks, Instant Mixes, Premixes, etc. Multi-Head Weighers are used for ready to eat snack & namkeen packaging; Piston Fillers for viscous products like pastes, pickles, ketchup, soup, sauces, ghee, etc.

Other filler options include Cup Filler (for sugar, rice, pulses, etc.) and Gravity Filler/Flow Meter (for liquids like milk, lassi, oil, juices, wines, etc.).

A comparatively recent offering from Nichrome is Athena Automatic Tray Sealer from Tecnovac, Italy. Using pre-formed trays, Athena is able to seal, pack in a protective atmosphere (vacuum + gas) or with ‘skin effect’ all types of trays or jars. Due to its strong stainless steel structure and easy maintenance, Athena is ideal for use in small and medium sized companies. Applications include cut vegetables & fruits, meats, fish, ready-to-eat meals, snacks, etc. With these features and its speed of up to 60 trays per minute, Athena finds easy acceptance among India’s ready-to-eat food manufacturers.

Thus, for players in the processed food industry, Nichrome offers among the best ready to eat food packaging solutions. Decades of industry experience and expertise to customize solutions make Nichrome the food packaging supplier of choice across India