Customers don’t expect safe, healthy, tasty, and fresh food. They demand it.
And the best method to protect food from deterioration and contamination is to package it. Pick the right material, and you can extend the shelf life, maintain quality, and, more importantly, freshness.
And that’s not it.
For consumers, packaged fruits and vegetables are just a convenience, but for businesses, they are a direct benefit to the bottom line.
A customer may not pick up a single banana lying on the shelf, but they’re more than happy to buy a pack containing individual bananas. It’s why the global fresh food packaging market is set to reach $95.93 billion by 2028.
How do you deliver "fresh" food? You do it with an intelligent weighing and packing machine.
The current consumer has a growing appetite for quality and precisely packed food. To feed it, an integrated system that reduces perishable losses with faster packing and saves costs is essential. It makes investing in an automated and smart weighing and packing machine a no-brainer for every food business, from exporters to retailers.
Benefit 1: Take a stand against perishability
Of all the advantages a weighing and packing machine hands you on a silver platter, the biggest is speed. Fresh produce is perishable. The slightest delay leads to a bullwhip effect.
An automated machine takes care of this by working 10 times faster than manual packing. So, with one system, you not only get to pack 40+ fruits and vegetables but do it at a turbo speed of up to 2000 packs/minute.
Benefit 2: Reduce giveaway to a minimum
The hardest challenge in packing produce is not the dependence on labour. Although that’s an issue in itself, it’s the consequence of using manual labour that costs businesses more. Packs are constantly underweight or overweight.
In both cases, the business suffers.
An AI-powered machine determines the weight and communicates it to the packing unit. That ensures every pack is within the tolerance limit. Consistently. It also means you price each pack down to the gram.
Called dynamic weighing, the machine can reduce excess weight by up to 80% in fresh produce packs. So, you’re always weight-compliant!
Benefit 3: Save on labour and material costs
Investing in an automated weighing and packaging machine also means you can cut your dependence on labour. Where you would need 5 people to weigh, pack, and label, with a machine you need only 1. And you’re not just saving on labour costs, you’re saving on the expense of training them because the machine does the job.
It’s where the rubber meets the road that an automated machine is really effective. Since it packs with precision, there’s no material wastage.
You’re not packing 5 kg of potatoes in a pack meant for 9 kg. Businesses can save up to 50%!
Moreover, the machine doesn’t have a fixed pack length, which can cause a lot of material wastage. Rather, it intelligently varies to fit the length, width, and height of the commodity being packed.
Benefit 4: Pack on the fly with versatile commodity coverage
For retailers and e-grocers, meeting all customers’ requirements means catering to a large SKU that ranges from green leafies to seasonal fruit.
So, while a weighing and packing machine is all well and good, what you really need is one that can cover as much as 70% of your SKU. And can do it without any damage to delicate commodities like spinach or tomatoes.
Take Intello FlowStar for example. From flats to cut pieces, it can pack even the most delicate commodities accurately, gently, and at speed.
You can control packing lines and quickly switch gears by packing different SKUs at different times of the day.
Benefit 5: Get packing that suits your SKUs
The right kind of packing material can make a world of difference to shelf-life. And that’s the last benefit of an intelligent weighing and packing machine. It uses a variety of packing materials to suit the commodity at hand.
From durable, low-cost polypropylene (PP) to tamper-proof low-density polyethylene (LDPE) packing to prevent theft, to modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) to increase shelf-life, you can choose the packaging that fits what you sell.
If you’re looking for a cherry on top, invest in a machine that can pack with or without trays for convenient handling.
Likewise, look for a machine that can punch holes or perforations for breathability to ensure fresher food.
Intelligent weighing and packing machines are the need of the hour
A Deloitte study puts it just right: "Fresh equals food in the mind of the consumer."
Ask a person to draw a picture of food. They don’t draw a burger. They draw fruit or vegetables.
How do you leverage this perception?
You pack and deliver it fresh.
Yes, any packing machine can pack fruits and vegetables. But can it pack to the exact tolerances and compliance weight limits? Can it pack in a variety of materials? Can it stick a label that mentions the exact weight and price of the pack?
It’s in between these lines that your profit lies. Don’t let it just lie.
Capture it with Intello FlowStar: an intelligent weighing, packaging, and labelling machine that delivers high performance even with difficult F&V.
