Everything You Need To Know To Find The Best printed lidding film

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You’ve probably experienced it: pastries going stale right after you purchased them, berries growing mold in just a few days, lettuce going bad before the “best by” date. If you have, you’re not alone — keeping foods fresh for extended periods of time is a top challenge at every stage of the supply chain, including consumers. The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that 30–40% of the food supply is wasted and notes food spoilage as one of the driving factors. And, with much of our food traveling hundreds, if not thousands, of miles before it reaches retailers, the chances that food will be wasted grow.

Packaging plays a central role in product quality, and it can help reduce food — and plastic — waste. Today’s consumers want products that will stay fresher, longer; at the same time, they’re looking for convenience and sustainability. As plastic is still the most viable solution for transporting and protecting various food products, meeting all of these demands can feel impossible, especially for single-serve items or commoditized products.

Sealutions™, Belmark’s line of peelable and resealable lidding films, mitigates this challenge and offers benefits for both brands and consumers. Whether you offer single-use products or products designed to be used over time, Sealutions™ preserves freshness, creates convenience and reduces waste.

Here’s more about the benefits of Sealutions™ lidding films and their applications.

Sealutions™ Peelable & Reseable Lidding Films

Sealutions™, a portfolio of lidding films that seal to rigid, semi-rigid, or premade tray packaging, is Belmark’s food packaging solution. Featuring proprietary technology, Sealutions™ lidding films help extend the shelf life of products in numerous markets, including fresh produce, snacks, dairy, pasta, dips, hummus, and confections. Sealutions™ can adhere to almost any kind of container and feature engineered barriers that protect your products.

A disruptor in the industry, Sealutions™ offers benefits for both you and consumers. It allows you to go to market with peak-quality products that stay fresher, longer — in packaging that’s eye-catching, eco-friendly and simple to use. In addition to precision-engineered films tailored to your products, Sealutions™ products are not subject to branding limitations encountered with marketing spec labels but rather provide ample edge-to-edge real estate allowing more space for high-resolution printing and dynamic visuals that differentiate your brand on-shelf. They can also reduce your plastic usage by 30% or more compared to rigid lids and other traditional packaging solutions.

For consumers, Sealutions™ lidding films offer convenience, a repeatable product experience and packaging that helps reduce plastic and food waste. Sealutions™ products help extend the shelf quality of produce, for example, by creating an ideal environment that allows products like lettuce to breathe. These lidding films can also be applied to single-use containers for snack products for a one-time, convenient solution that reduces your and the consumer’s plastic footprint significantly.

Resealable Lidding Films

One of the primary benefits of Sealutions™ is their ability to extend product quality on the shelf. Choose from the following Sealutions™ depending on your product and application

Flange Reseal PET

Flange Reseal PET is optimal for produce and other products, such as pasta, that consumers use over a period of time. Engineered with precision laser perforation, this solution creates the optimal environment products such as lettuce need to remain fresh for longer periods of time. Flange Reseal PET film features a premium, easy-to-open closure that can be opened and resealed up to 10 times and is also anti-fog and designed for use with PET containers.

Label Reseal

Label Reseal is a premium, tamper-proof closure ideal for meat, cheese, produce, bakery and wet wipes. It bonds securely to all plastic tray types and fiber trays and is easy to open and reseal. Choose from corner peel and center peel options. Label Reseal includes anti-fog properties and features precision engineering to protect products and extend shelf quality.

Racetrack Reseal

Racetrack Reseal is a highly engineered solution that incorporates a film flange instead of a container flange to offer the best re-closure performance in the market. Racetrack Reseal provides a smooth opening experience and can be reclosed up to 20 times. It is ideal for fresh produce.

Flange Reseal PE

Flange Reseal PE is an ideal choice for multi-use products that require an engineered barrier for optimal freshness such as meat, cheese, snacks, and bakery. Designed with a container flange, users can easily open the pack to serve food, then re-close it and store until the next use.

Single Use Solutions: Peelable Lidding Films

Peelable lidding films offer a superior consumer experience, allowing for portioning, product protection, simplicity and plastics reduction. The following Sealutions™ are available for snacks and single-serving products.

Single Seal

A premium sealed lidding film, Single Seal provides a one-time, easy-to-peel opening and can be engineered to the exact needs of your product for optimal freshness and longer shelf life. This lidding film is excellent for snacks, dips, deli meats, cheese cups and other single-serve products and seals to all container types, both plastic and fiber.

Contact us to discuss your requirements of custom gusseted bags. Our experienced sales team can help you identify the options that best suit your needs.

Single Seal PET

Single Seal PET provides an economical, one-time-open lidding for quick and convenient meal kits or salads. With oven-safe and microwaveable options, you can also use Single Seal PET for cook-in-package products. Single Seal PET is available with or without anti-fog plastic film and can incorporate either macro or micro laser perforations for fresh produce and other products. It is only for use with PET containers and is the best balance between low cost and performance.

A Sealution™ for Almost Any Food Product

The Sealutions™ family of lidding films has applications for numerous products and use cases.

We’ll identify and create your packaging solution with no order minimums, on the timeline you need it so you can get to market faster. If you want to see and feel how your product will appear on-shelf, we also offer a prototyping program to identify and correct any issues before your product goes to market.

You cannot go wrong with a nicely printed lidding film on a crate of premier potatoes or fresh asparagus. Not only does it look good, but it also offers protection and provides a bit of publicity and information. That could benefit many vegetables, from chicory to spinach to tomatoes and radishes, but also fruits like apples and pears. Belgian company Alpagro Packaging supplies many packaging solutions for the fruit and vegetable sector, including lidding films.

Laurenz Vincke (r), CEO of Alpagro Packaging

Full color
Most fresh produce requires transparent lidding films. Film for potatoes and chicory, though, is black on the inside, making it lightproof. The customer's logo, brand, and other information are printed on the outside. A lidding sheet presents well, and you can trace the products and improve the logistics process. "Our two eight-color printing presses guarantee full-color printing. We can also print a specific color for your logo or brand. We're happy to present a design to clients, but companies often supply a digital file," says director Laurenz Vincke.

Printing process for personalized packaging

The press gets fired up from around 25,000 pieces, and Alpagro has an ample stock of unprinted lidding films. "Companies can, thus, start with a standard sheet, and once they've built up a direct sales channel, they can switch to sheets printed with their logo and further information. These sheets are available for every crate size and every corner shape, including wooden boxes. And for the fruit and vegetables that need to breathe, the lids are perforated when delivered."

Personalized packaging

Laurenz applauds society's awareness regarding plastic. "In recent years, we've become more realistic about it. There was, for example, a whole series of paper packaging options that were meant to mimic plastic properties by adding a coating. That obviously misses the actual environmental mark. I, however, won't deny that plenty of great initiatives have been started," he says.

Lightproof cover sheet for endive

In that context, most plastic solutions focus on thinner films. "That's noticeable in the fruit and vegetable sector too. Laminated materials are slowly being phased out and replaced by mono-film, preferably as thin as possible. Our lidding films, conical salad bags, vegetable bags, and lettuce wraps are all mono-film. Lettuce and certain vegetables being offered in plastic packaging are also environmentally beneficial."

Transparent cover sheet for cucumbers

"I like visiting different supermarkets' fresh produce aisles, and when I see loose, unpackaged lettuce in a crate, there are invariably leaves lying everywhere. That's not aesthetically pleasing or hygienic. It undoubtedly sells less well, which ultimately leads to food waste. And that's what's bad for the environment," Laurenz concludes.