GEA FoodTray

Sustainable food packages

MAP, vacuum and skin packages are greatly contributing to ensuring food safety and prolonging shelf life. To protect the environment with sustainable solutions, we at GEA are committed to reducing the use of plastic in food packaging. One example of a smart solution: The cardboard-based GEA FoodTray now uses this renewable and recyclable resource as a carrier for a comparatively thin bottom film. During the thermoforming process, both are combined to create a stiff and yet sustainable tray which is then sealed to make a high-quality food package. It enables manufacturers to be more sustainable while still ensuring food safety and reducing waste.

The resource-saving GEA FoodTray is a high-quality MAP food package produced in a form-fill-seal process to preserve food products, such as meat, meat substitutes, fish and seafood, dairy or bakery products, safely.

The GEA FoodTray consists of a pre-made cardboard tray, a thin film inlay and a thin top film made out of mono-materials. The thermoformer just needs the addition of a module for tray denesting and tray loading into the thermoforming packaging machine.

The GEA FoodTray can be assembled easily and automatically in a form-fill-seal system such as the GEA PowerPak or PowerPak PLUS in 4 steps: 

1. Denesting
   A denesting and loading unit automatically transfers single units from the stacks of pre-manufactured cardboard trays to the forming station of the thermoformer. 
2. Forming
   In the forming system a thin flexible bottom film is formed into the trays by vacuum and compressed air. The film is then spot sealed to the upper rim of the cardboard trays using heatable plugs. 
3. Loading
   The trays are filled with the designated products, either automatically or by hand. 
4. Sealing
   In the sealing station, the FoodTrays are covered with the top film, which is then sealed to the bottom film.

The sustainable, innovative GEA FoodTray is perfectly adapted to the extremely flexible and user-friendly GEA PowerPak and PowerPak PLUS thermoforming packaging machines. They provide high-quality horizontal packaging of food products such as meat and processed meat products such as sausages and cold cuts, cheese or dairy products, fish and seafood, vegetarian or vegan products, fruits and vegetables as well as pastries, and other baked goods.