Why do high temperature retort pouches make us more confident about food?

High-temperature retort pouch is a composite plastic film bag that can be heat-treated, which has the advantages of both canning containers and plastic bags resistant to boiling water. The food can be left untouched in the bag, sterilized and heated at a high temperature (generally at 120 135), and then taken out and eaten. It has been proven to be an ideal packaging container for sale after more than ten years of use.

It is suitable for the packaging of meat and soy products, which is convenient, hygienic and practical, and can maintain the original flavor of food well, which is favored by consumers. In recent years, experimental studies have shown that the PVDC film can be directly laminated to make a composite film without any treatment by using the solvent-free composite method. The shape of the whole film will not be destroyed when the composite film is cooked at high temperature, and it will always be smooth and smooth, tightly combined and mixed into one, which can fully meet the needs of high-temperature cooking food packaging.

After the PVDC laminated composite high-temperature retort food packaging film made by this method was put on the market, it was affirmed by experts, proving that it is a food packaging film with high transparency, high barrier and high temperature retort resistance after the aluminum-plastic composite film, and its performance indicators have reached the international advanced level.

At present, the vast majority of retort bags in the world are manufactured by dry composite method, and a few can also be manufactured by solvent-free composite method or co-extrusion composite method. The quality of dry lamination is higher than that of solvent-free lamination, and the arrangement and combination of materials are also more reasonable and extensive than co-extrusion lamination, and the use is more assured. In China, at present, 100% of retort pouches are manufactured by dry compounding method, so we will only talk about the manufacturing process of dry compounding here.

The first is the selection of materials. Depending on the end use of the pouch, determine which substrates to use, how to combine them, and which inks and adhesives to use. The so-called end-use refers to the nature of the food to be packaged in the bag and the weight of the package.

After packaging, it is important to understand the end use of the bag by how high the temperature it needs to withstand so that the bag has a reasonable price-performance ratio. The second is to determine the process parameters. After determining the substrate and auxiliary materials, you can place an order for the workshop to produce.

As the technical management and operation personnel of the workshop production, we must strictly follow the requirements of the process sheet to receive and prepare materials, and do not make mistakes.

Then, in the specific operation, the process parameters of the process sheet should be followed, including the number of lines and the depth of the dot of the glue roller, the concentration of the operating glue, the temperature of each heating section of the drying channel, the size of the exhaust air volume of the blast quantum port, the level of the start-up speed, as well as the control of the unwinding tension, the drying channel tension, the winding tension, the surface temperature and the composite pressure of the composite steel roller, etc. Among the above process parameters, the glue amount requirement (generally 4 5g m2) and the residual solvent amount requirement (the national standard is less than 10mg m2, and the internal control of the enterprise is preferably less than 3mg m2) is the key to the internal quality of the retort pouch and must be taken seriously.

When it comes to food packaging, retort pouches have a number of unique advantages compared to metal canning containers and frozen food packaging bags:

Maintain the color, aroma, taste and shape of food. The retort pouch is thinner, which can meet the sterilization requirements in a short time, and preserves as much as possible the original color, aroma, taste and shape of the food.

Easy to use. The retort pouch can be opened conveniently and safely. When eating, put the food in boiling water with the bag and heat it for 5min to open and eat, or even eat it without heating.

It is convenient for storage and transportation. Retort pouches are lightweight, can be stacked and stored, and occupy a small space, and after packaging food, they occupy a smaller space than metal cans, which can make full use of storage and transportation space and save storage and transportation costs.

Save energy. Due to its thinner retort bag, it can reach the bacterial lethal temperature faster when heated, and the energy consumption is 30 to 40% less than that of iron cans.

Easy to sell. Retort pouches can be divided or combined according to market needs, customers can choose at will, in addition, because of the exquisite decoration, it also greatly increases the sales volume.

Long storage time. Retort pouch-packed food products do not need to be refrigerated or frozen, have a stable shelf life, and are comparable to metal cans, making them easy to sell and easy to use at home.

The manufacturing cost is lower. The composite film used to make the retort pouch is lower than that of the metal plate**, and its production process and the equipment required are much simpler, so the retort pouch** is lower.

Disadvantages of retort pouches:

Retort pouches also have their shortcomings, mainly due to the lack of high-speed filling equipment, which has a certain impact on mass production.

High temperature resistant retort bag, generally refers to can be more than 30 minutes, and can safely withstand more than 100 degrees of high temperature sterilization environment of plastic flexible packaging composite bag, this packaging bag from the perspective of transparency, because the aluminum foil is not transparent, so it can be divided into aluminum foil bags and non-aluminum foil bags two categories, generally speaking, the inner material of the high temperature retort bag is mainly RCPP, RCPP is divided into domestic and imported, domestic homopolymerization is the main, and imported RCPP is mainly blocked, homopolymerization high temperature resistance is significantly inferior to the block, It is impossible for the homopolymer to safely withstand the high temperature sterilization of 125-135 degrees, and after the high temperature, the homopolymer RCPP will be denatured, that is, the RCPP will be hard and brittle, while the block RCPP can still preserve the softness before sterilization.

The number of layers of high-temperature retort pouches is mainly determined according to the customer's packaging and sterilization formula, PET RCPP, NY RCPP, PET NY RCPP, and pet ny al RCPP said by enthusiastic netizens downstairs are more common composite structures.

In addition to paying attention to the film material, the other inks and composite adhesives are also very important in the production and manufacturing of high-temperature retort pouches, which need to be coordinated well to finally produce high-quality high-temperature retort pouches.

The so-called high-temperature cooking refers to the processing technology of food sterilization under 121 145 high temperature steam pressure. High-temperature retort pouch, also known as soft canning, is a very ideal packaging container due to its small size, light weight, convenient to eat and the advantages of canning containers and boiling water-resistant plastic bags, which was first developed by the U.S. Army Natick Research Institute. Retort pouches are mainly used in the meat products industry, experts, due to the next few or years of bagged meat food in China will grow at a rate of 20 per year, and the sales volume of high-temperature retort pouches will also grow rapidly at an annual growth rate of 15 per year, which shows that the market prospects for high-temperature coarse retort bags are very broad.

According to different requirements, there are four main types of retort bags: 1. Low-temperature retort pouch: io0 C resistant (retort for 40min); 2 Medium Temperature Retort Pouch:

Resistant to 121 (cooking 40rain); 3. High temperature retort bag: 135 (retort for 30min); 4 UHT retort pouch: 145 (steam for a few minutes).

In the production and processing of meat products, there are always two cooking processes, namely high-temperature and high-pressure sterilization and low-temperature and atmospheric pressure sterilization. Due to the low heating temperature, the fiber of the meat is not destroyed, so the taste is fresh and tender, and various nutrients are well preserved. However, because it only kills pathogenic bacteria, there are still a large number of spoilage bacteria, which not only have a short shelf life, but also easily cause losses in the field of circulation. High-temperature sterilized meat products due to the high heating temperature and excessive contraction of meat fiber, the taste is not as good as low-temperature sterilized products, but because it kills all bacteria, eliminates the internal causes of spoilage, can greatly extend the shelf life.

If high-temperature sterilized meat products are made of high barrier packaging materials, they not only have a long shelf life when stored at room temperature, but also are very convenient for transportation, storage and sales, which are very suitable for the consumption needs of modern society. Therefore, vigorously developing the production of Bubi meat products that are shelf-stable at room temperature is an important product development direction of the meat industry. The packaging industry conforms to this development trend, makes a difference, and innovates, which can not only meet the needs of the food industry, but also win a broad market for itself.

It is understood that the earliest packaging that can store meat at room temperature is canned food, which is an iron can made of tinplate, and later used glass bottles as outer packaging. Both tinplate and glass bottles have high temperature retort resistance and high barrier properties, so the shelf life of canned food can reach more than 2 years. However, because tinplate cans and glass bottles are rigid packaging containers, large in volume and heavy in mass, the chemical corrosion resistance of tinplate is not good, especially when loaded into acidic food, metal ions are easy to precipitate, which affects the flavor of food.

In the 60s of the twentieth century, the United States invented an aluminum-plastic composite film in order to solve the packaging of aerospace food, which was used to package meat food, which could be stored and released at room temperature through high temperature and high pressure sterilization, and the shelf life was more than 1 year. The function of aluminum-plastic composite film is similar to that of canned food boxes, which is soft and lightweight, hence the name soft cans. At present, when storing meat products with a long shelf life at room temperature, such as using rigid packaging containers, tinplate cans and glass bottles are still used; If flexible packaging is used, almost all of them are made of aluminum-plastic composite film.

Aluminum-plastic composite film is a laminated composite multi-layer film, generally three layers, and the typical structure is the surface layer of adhesive, aluminum foil, adhesive, and heat sealing layer (CPP). The advantages of this packaging film are that it has a beautiful appearance, good mechanical properties, high barrier properties, high temperature cooking resistance, excellent hygiene, and is light and soft, so it is widely used in the packaging of various foods. However, there are also some defects, such as the texture of aluminum foil is hard and brittle, and the softness is not very good compared to plastic film.

Good mechanical properties, high strength, soft, can adapt to the needs of various packaging machinery, bag making machines, heat sealing machines; Good heat resistance, cooking at 121 temperature for 40min, the size of the packaging film and bag is stable, no deformation, no delamination, no cracking at the heat seal; It has high barrier properties, oxygen permeability is less than 30cm3, RH50%, water vapor permeability is less than 5g, RH90%; Excellent food hygiene, does not contain harmful substances to people, will not produce harmful substances after high temperature cooking, long-term contact with food, stable chemical properties, will not react with various ingredients in food, and generate harmful substances to the human body; Good product display, highly transparent, the surface can be printed in color. However, there will be many problems in actual production, and the most common quality problems are wrinkled bags, broken bags, air leakage and peculiar smell after cooking: There are generally three manifestations of bag wrinkles, that is, horizontal or longitudinal or irregular wrinkles on the packaging substrate; The composite layer is wrinkled and has poor flatness; The packaging substrate shrinks, and the shrinking composite layer separates from other composite layers and appears as a stripe.

Broken bags are divided into two types: direct swelling and wrinkling and rupture.