Part 3.1.6: Ready Meals

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Important properties

Heat resistance:

Aluminium foil dishes are impact tolerant and protect their contents through a very wide temperature range from well below blast-freezing to the extremes of oven grilling. There is no risk of cracking, melting, charring or burning.

Durability and strength:

When pressed into a shaped dish, the aluminium foil memorises its shape, particularly where the folds and rims occur. Shape, thickness, alloy and temper can be selected to create exactly the performance characteristics required.

Multi-mode heating or cooking:

Food in alufoil dishes can be heated by convection, fan or microwave oven.

Decorative potential:

Alufoil's metallic finish plus compatibility with all printing technologies provides designers with enormous scope to create stunning graphic design and shelf presence.

Lightness and space economy:

Economies in both transport and storage result from the foil's light weight and nesting shapes which are particularly suited to filling machine magazines.

Sustainability:

Alufoil packaging saves weight and reduces spoilage of sensitive products and so saves energy and material resources. Also, aluminium containers can be recycled at a fraction of their original energy cost. In several countries, collection schemes ensure that the valuable aluminium used for alufoil containers is directly recovered and used again.

Whether in the form of an elegant laquered and compartmented individual dish or as a traditionally formed standard tray, an alufoil container has many benefits. As well as its resistance to all cooking and freezing temperatures, it can be lidded in a choice of formats. Once used, it can be put straight into the aluminium recycling system for clean, efficient metal recovery.

Fresh meat or fish recipes

Deep drawn alufoil containers with smooth shoulder rims have created a growing demand for prepared meal components such as meat joints and fish dishes. The objective is the same: to save time in the kitchen without compromising quality. Small meat and poultry cuts are presented in the ready-to-cook tray, hermetically sealed and protected with an inert gas to reduce oxidation and to extend shelf life. The consumer need not touch the raw meat or fish and the dish acts as an effective, heat-conductive, cooking vessel with possible secondary uses.

Airline meals

Light, quick to re-heat, tough and consumer-friendly, alufoil containers enable millions of airline passengers enjoy hot food. Aesthetically pleasing, the surfaces can be lacquered to conform with the airline's corporate style and embossed with logos or messages. Clip-on alufoil lids can be colour coded or embossed according to the contents without spoiling the attractiveness of presentation.As with all alufoil containers, the empty used dishes can be readily separated, compacted and passed directly into the recycling system.

Versatility coupled with convenience

Enormous Choice

Foil's characteristics offer great scope for the packaging specifier seeking solutions that satisfy the many demands of chilled or frozen ready meals and desserts. Thanks to the ready formability and robustness of aluminium foil, a large variety of standard shapes and sizes is available. This enormous choice ranges from a tiny dish 35 mm in diameter to the biggest ‘gastronorm' catering sizes measuring 527 x 325 mm with nearly ten litres capacity. Between these two extremes there are hundreds of shapes and sizes, many with a choice of rim configuration.

Unique performance

Designed for the rigours of the packaging line, foil containers offer ‘whole life' durability. There is virtually no other pack which can accompany its contents from hot or cold filling through every stage of chilling or freezing, lidding and packaging procedures, distribution and retailing, cooking or reheating and serving by the ultimate consumer.Foil containers nest inside one another. This, combined with lightness, gives ease of storage and handling.