Supermarket Perimeter - March 2019 - 50

Food Safety: Tamper-evident delivery

Cutting cost

Ready to cook

Elkay Plastics, and others, offer up alternatives to tamper-evident bags,
which can sometimes increase costs substantially.
"A tamper-evident takeout bag, generally, is about 30 to 40% higher
to produce than the standard takeout bag," Umbenhouer says. "From a
cost standpoint, a company is probably not going to replace their current everyday takeout bag with a tamper-evident bag for all orders. The
cost is going to go up dramatically."
Instead, he says, there has been an increase in companies who are
choosing to stick with their current takeout bags and instead spend
money on a customizable label that, in essence, seals the bag and
makes it tamper-evident. It's a fancier version of simply stapling the
bag shut.
"It's a lower-cost option than doing a bag, not to mention you're not
carrying an extra SKU from a bag standpoint," Umbenhouer says. "A
label is much easier to get than producing a custom bag and carrying
two takeout bags of the same size - one with a tamper-evident label
and one without."

Elkay Plastics' new Ready. Chef. Go! bags - which are designed to have
food cooked right inside them - feature tamper-evident technology.
Retailers fill the bags - whether it's a mix of protein and vegetables or
just one or the other - and then seal them, either with a permanent tap
closer or a heat sealer.
"If someone tried to open that bag, it would obviously be apparent,"
Umbenhouer says. "It provides that layer of security when an consumer
orders it online and has it delivered."

Joining forces
Not every retailer will want to go with tamper-evident bags for delivery.
In those cases, a combination of standard bags and tamper-evident
plastic containers will produce the desired end result.
Safe-T-Fresh PagodaWare containers from Shelton, Connecticutbased Inline Plastics, for example, provide a tamper-evident choice for
prepared foods, salads, sushi, fruit and more. They feature a patented
freshness seal and patented Safe-T-Fresh technology, which the company says is tamper-evident and tamper-resistant.

Consumer interaction
Tamper-evident packaging must provide a barrier between the food
and unintended recipients while also not providing too much of a barrier between the food and its intended recipient.
The first generation of plastic tamper-evident bags from Novolex, for
example did not include perforations underneath the sealed flap.
"We found out that consumers were going to have to get out scissors
or a knife and try to cut into it," Tipton says. "We didn't want that to
be a deterrent."
The perforation is strong enough that it doesn't break
under the weight of the bag, but it's weak enough that
Novolex utilized
the seal can be broken when the consumer slides their
technology from its
lawn and leaf bags
finger underneath it.

in designing its food
bags to properly deal
with moisture.

Ventilation is a relatively new
concern when it comes to
tamper-evident packaging
- another side effect of
delivering hot, fresh food.
Condensation can wreak havoc
on your bag of choice, whether
that be paper or plastic.

50 - MARCH 2019

"That's the main challenge
along the lines of grocery
delivery or picking up instore,"
says Adrianne Tipton of
Hartsville, South Carolinabased Novolex.
Too much condensation
on a paper bag and it can
begin to weaken and fall

apart. A plastic bag keeps all
the moisture inside, which
can lead to a soggy mess and
unappetizing food.
Novolex battles these
problems separately, utilizing
technology from its line of
lawn and leaf bags to create
stronger paper products and

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adding ventilation in the plastic
products.
"We can leverage expertise
from our special laminations
division, which helps with a
stronger bag component,"
Tipton says. "And on the
plastic side, that's why we add
vents to the product."

NOVOLEX

ROOM to VENT

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Supermarket Perimeter - March 2019

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