Who doesn’t love a juicy, well-cooked steak or chickenf? According to statistics, most of us! The protein industry is valued at 52.5 billion U.S. dollars globally. That makes protein the perfect business to be in right now. Our appetite for meat, poultry, dairy, and even plant-based protein is only expected to grow in the future.
The protein market is projected to hit 71 billion U.S. dollars by 2025.
Lots of demand often comes with tough market competition as well. If you are in the business of packaging, processing, and selling protein products, the time to streamline operations is now.
Automation such as automatic tray loaders can leverage many advantages in your brand’s favor. Increasing overall production and profitability of your entire manufacturing plant. Here are some advantages tray loaders provide to factories dealing with protein products worldwide:
Uncooked protein, be it poultry, meat, or seafood, is an ideal carrier of bacteria and viruses. Not only do they pose a health hazard to your staff, they can also ruin your products. Tray loaders automate the parts of your factory dealing directly with raw meat.
Trays can be loaded, weighted, and sealed by the fully automated tray loaders increasing worker and product safety. They also cut down on the risk of cross-contamination. Tray loader parts that deal with raw meat can be fully washed-down using chemicals or hot temperatures.
These parts also don’t touch other surfaces and spread contamination as your staff might. Resulting in more safety for your employees and your products.
Food recalls are very common regarding protein-related products. The reason is simple; protein carries contaminants. Do you know what else transfers bacteria and viruses? Humans. By automating manual processes such as cutting meat and poultry to size and filling trays, you minimize the chances of your products being hit by a recall notice.
Modern-day tray loaders and automated packaging lines are equipped to print a serial number on each tray, recording the batch number, time, and date. Increased traceability means more control over your products, even after they’ve left your factory. Even in the case of a recall, you can gather up the products in question more effectively.
Tray loaders are designed to handle multiple products. Thus, you can add new products to your factory’s processing pipeline without investing in new machinery. Tray loaders can be calibrated to quickly switch between loading and packaging different products with minimum downtime.
Also, adding new product lines doesn’t require tons of space with tray loaders. They are also more compact and can be accommodated in smaller factories.
These features are handy for businesses dealing with holiday-specific or specific types of protein, frozen turkey, for example. You can now package a different type of product for the rest of the year when demand for frozen turkey plummets, which is usually after Thanksgiving is over.
To stay relevant in the growing protein business, you need faster throughput of products. Tray loaders are not only the smarter but also the more adaptive choice for packaging protein.
On-boarding tray loaders can maximize the return on investment on other manufacturing machinery you’ve invested in throughout your assembly line.
Your entire production line will be sped up by loading and packing trays faster in primary and secondary packaging. That means more products go out to supermarket shelves faster and more efficiently.
Another way tray loaders help increase profitability is by preserving your brand’s image. Consumers prefer predictability and high-end packaging quality. Most are even willing to pay extra for well-packaged merchandise. Tray loaders uphold your brand image by creating uniformly packaged products and delivering the quality expected from your brand.
Proteins are perishables with a very short freshness window. It’s crucial to chill, cut, and package proteins quickly before they start spoiling. Temperatures must also be maintained throughout the manufacturing process.
There is always a place and time for hand packing, but the protein business is not it. Manual packaging costs you more than you realize. Here are three ways tray packers help reduce waste:
Manual packaging heightens the risk of bacteria being introduced into your finished product. Moreover, the speed of automated tray packers simply can’t be matched by manual packaging.
Automation means products are cut to size, loaded into trays, and sealed before they have the chance to spoil. Tray loaders also decrease the incidents of bottlenecks forming or other manufacturing hold-ups.
These days, staff is hard to find, train, and retain. Packaging tray after tray of meat chunks or chicken legs can get repetitive and lose efficiency. Tray loaders free up your staff for less mundane tasks. While you will still need staff to monitor the loaders, their time can be used much more efficiently, thanks to packaging automation.
Also, manual packaging means more error rates and accidents. By handing the messy work to tray loaders, you conserve waste from being produced all over your factory.
Automation in trimming down your meat, poultry, or seafood means each cut will be butchered more efficiently. The fewer scraps you produce, the more you're left with to package and sell. That makes packaging automation the more profitable and sustainable choice for your business.
More than 30% of businesses report increased profits after they improved their product’s packaging process. That's business you can’t afford to miss out on just because of inefficient wrapping.
Take the first step towards better packaging solutions for your business today. Talk to one of our packaging experts about which tray loader best suits your business model and product type.
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