Throughout the fresh produce industry there is a drive to get rid of plastic. One of the options is to replace the plastic film covering with a cardboard sleeve. The challenge here is to make the packing process fast enough and affordable for growers and packers.
The Result Group brought a solution to Hort Connections last month: The linerless label packing machine Fruit Lid, manufactured by UK company Ravenwood Packaging.
“We are now seeing a move towards board-based trays with plastic flow wrap, the next step is using linerless label technology to completely remove plastic,” said Michael Dossor Group General Manager at The Result Group. “There has been a lot of work done with manufacturers to create a board-based solution which can pack at 60- 80 packs a minute (in some cases even more). Ravenwood are the only ones who have been able to achieve this.”
Some companies are doing this by hand and are looking towards automation, to save time, money and labour costs.
“According to research the consumer will always choose board over plastic,” states Michael. “This process does not have to mean a big investment or a long ROI for the packer, compared to hand packing the Fruit Lid system from Ravenwood can offer return on investment in a little as a couple of months, depending on the usage of course. It can take away up to 6 people from the packing line.”
Changing punnet and label size can be done in a matter of minutes and is a very simple process and the machine can be incorporated into any existing production or packing line.
Result Group, the distributors of the Ravenwood machines in Australia, launched the machine at Auspack just a few weeks before the Hort Connection show and have seen a big interest.
Another new technology being introduced by Result Group was laser coding to replace Self Adhesive labelling of single pieces of fruit and vegetables. “We have been working with EcoMark in Germany, to distribute their laser marking machines. The technology has evolved and is ready for the market. There has been lots of interest from packers and retailers as it can remove the need the for sticky labels on fruit and vegetables making the technology extremely sustainable.”
“The technology can be used on any products which have robust skin – kiwifruit, sweet potatoes, garlic etc, the list goes on. What 
information can be lasered onto the fruit is well down the development path, but the ultimate would be a QR code which could contain everything from the source of the product right through to the use by date and origin information for point of sale scanning.
For more information:
Valentyna Skyba
Result Group
Tel: +61 3 9706 4474
Email: val.skyba@resultgroup.com.au
www.resultgroup.com.au