What is Vacuum Skin Packaging

VSP vacuum skin packaging is an innovative outstanding food packaging technology, which is used to seal food products over their entire surface on a thermoformed rigid tray or a pre-made skin pack tray using a special high-barrier/low-barrier flexible skin film. The VSP skin pack film tightly encapsulates the food products and looks like a second skin on the product.

The purpose of VSP vacuum skin packaging is to extend the shelf life of food products with the enhanced attractive presentation while minimizing the necessity for preservatives.

Vacuum Skin Packaging: Extended shelf-life; Attractive presentation

VSP vacuum skin packaging is very suitable for packaging, presentation, and storage of high-quality premium food products, including fresh meat products, fresh seafood products, ready meals, cheese products, and many more. The “second skin” can effectively preserve the freshness and extend the shelf-life of the food products, by eliminating almost all the air from the skin packs. Skin pack film also holds the food products firmly in the skin pack tray so that you never need to worry about leaks or purges.

Vacuum Skin Packaging Machine/Skin Pack Machine

Vacuum skin packaging machine is the equipment to achieve the objective of vacuum skin packaging, which is also widely known as skin pack machine. KANGBEITE vacuum skin packaging machines are available in a variety of designs, specifications, and configurations to meet the needs of vacuum skin packaging of numerous food products, from meat to seafood, poultry, ready meals, durians, etc. We are proud to provide the best equipment in the industry and are committed to continuously improve the skin pack machines to their perfection.

How does vacuum skin packaging machine work

VSP vacuum ksin packaging uses heat and vacuum to pull the transparent and flexible top skin film tight to the product and seal it to the trays (pre-made or thermoformed). All atmosphere is removed from inside the package and the product is held in place within this “second skin”.

To learn more about our vacuum skin packaging machines and acquire a skin pack solution for your product, please contact us.

KANGBEITE PACKAGING offers various types of vacuum skin packaging machines that are differentiated by automation grade and output:

1. Bench type semi-auto vacuum packaging machine uses premade trays: Sealing film auto run & trimmed to fit the trays; Product manually filled to premade trays; Trays manually placed to moulds.  
2. Inline automatic vacuum skin packaging machine use premade trays: Sealing film auto run & trimmed to fit the trays; Product manually or automatically filled to premade trays; Trays manually or automatically placed to the moulds.
3. Thermoforming automatic vacuum skin packaging machine: Trays formed by rigid forming (lower) film automatically; Product manually or automatically filled to formed trays.

Customers can easily find their right machines as per budget plan, production output, labor-saving requirement, etc.

Advantages and Benefits of Vacuum Skin Packaging

6 reasons to use VSP vacuum skin packaging in your food packing strategy

Enjoy the benefits of vacuum skin packaging

VSP is resistant to freezer burn, uses less packaging material and the materials commonly have a better environmental footprint, because some VSP materials contain significant percentages of recycled content. VSP vacuum skin packaging also reduces the need for MAP gasses such as Tri-Gas blends to achieve desired shelf life. VSP offers flexibility in retail presentation and can be hung vertically like bags or pouches. There are a wide variety of labeling options and customization of materials. For example, forming trays in line at the processor level can be done in colored/tinted materials, offering marketers compelling branding options. Since VSP vacuum skin packaging was invented and applied in food packaging, the technology has been evolved which makes it more viable and versatile from time to time. With new skin pack technologies, skin pack machines, and modern materials, VSP is becoming one of the most common packaging options for the food and retail sectors. The advantages and benefits of vacuum skin packaging lie in the below points:

1. Shelf-life extension.

Vacuum skin packaging removes almost all the air from the package, keeps the food from exposure to oxygen, thereby inhibit microbial growth and prevent oxidation, prevent food spoilage, prolong shelf-life, maintain the fragrance, color, and nutritional value of packaged products. The shelf life of the VSP package is nearly double that of a traditional MAP package, and about four times longer than a stretch-wrapped product.

Extended shelf-life leads to minimized food waste and money-saving. Vacuum skin packaging also helps to prevent food safety issues by protects against food spoilage, leakage, and contamination.

2. Minimized Preservatives

The end consumers are becoming more health-conscious, thus more food processors are responding to consumer requests by using fewer preservatives. If you want your packaging and product to appeal to the health-conscious customer, VSP vacuum skin packaging is the perfect way to deliver on that promise without having to sacrifice the product shelf-life.

3. Prevent Freezer Burns

More and more processors are using VSP vacuum skin packaging to market their products fresh. However, for consumers who freeze their purchases, VSP all but eliminates freezer burn. Unlike foam trays or modified atmosphere packaging, vacuum skin packaging prevents freezer burn at its source. VSP adheres to the product tightly, preventing freezer burn from accumulating.

4. No Liquid Migration

The ability to contain liquids is another important advantage of VSP vacuum skin packaging. While the tray/lid and foam tray overwrap styles packages allow purge to migrate within the packages, vacuum skin packaging prevents liquid migration. This means food producers can include sauces and soups into packages without having them transfer between food components and purge (blood, juices, added solutions) from the meat that does not flow around the package. Purge is a significant contributor to spoilage bacteria growth which causes the reduction of shelf life.

VSP vacuum skin packaging of ready to eat meals with soup, no worries of liquid migration

5. Powerful brand building helper

VSP vacuum skin packaging is neat and compact, with the least printings, marks, and labels. The high-clarity, glossy, flexible soft skin pack film tightly seals the product to present the product in a vivid 3D appearance and also ensures product colors very well shown to customers. All these benefits make VSP vacuum skin packages the most visually attractive packs to customers in shops/supermarkets.

As we have mentioned above, VSP vacuum skin packaging helps extend food shelf-life with minimum loss of food fragrance, color and nutrition, thereby consumers can enjoy the food taste and texture as expected without degrade their feelings.

Vacuum skin package features leak-proof, easy to open, freezer-ready, thus offers conveniences to consumers with benefits as such reducing prepare time, eliminating the need to repackage the meat to be freezer ready, or directly microwavable.

Perfect vacuum skin packaging guarantees satisfied customers, satisfied customers will surely add credits to your products and brand name.

6. Logistics benefits

In vacuum skin packaging, the bottom tray is rigid, while the top skin pack film is soft. Reliable and durable rigid trays can support and protect the food products during shipping, storage, and display ensures that consumers receive an attractive product and no damages are incurred in transit.

VSP pack also uses less space in transportation and storage. In retailing sector, the volume that vacuum skin package saves can reduce truckloads at an average of 12% every year.

Vacuum skin packaging material

There are several types of vacuum skin packaging that use different material combinations: Pre-made rigid trays and skin pack film; Thermoforming film for rigid tray forming and skin pack film; Paperboard and skin pack film.Vacuum skin packaging is specifically distinguished by the use of thin, transparent plastic film, also known as skin pack film, over skin pack trays composed of strong, durable, leak-proof materials (usually PP, CPET). Skin pack film, largely composed of polyethylene or polyvinyl chloride (PVC), adheres differently to varying substrate materials, so it is important to understand the physical properties of the different tray materials in order to choose the best option for your product. Please do understand that KANGBEITE Packaging doesn’t supply any skin pack material. We only produce skin pack machines.

• Skin Pack Film: Skin pack films should be transparent, soft, durable, and flexible enough to package products of various shapes and sizes
• CPET Skin Pack Trays: Crystalline polyethylene terephthalate (CPET) trays are durable, heat-resistant, and microwave-safe, making them ideal for ready-to-eat VSP packaging.
• PP Skin Pack Trays: Polypropylene (PP) skin trays are more flexible than CPET trays and are usually used for packaging fresh and pre-cooked foods.
• Paperboard: Laminated paperboard is increasing in popularity with VSP applications as it allows for better merchandising and presentation. Also, it reduces the amount of plastic used in the process. It is especially popular for cheeses, fish, and other meats.