Bread Packaging Techniques and Trends

The bakery takes a significant share of the modern alimentary industry since consumers buy such food products daily. Dozens of manufacturers produce all sorts of bakery products, such as bread, pastries, cookies, white bread, cakes, etc. However, while the demand for bakery products is high, food is quite vulnerable to environmental influences. Bakery requires strict compliance with storage standards to guarantee freshness, preserve nutritional properties, and prevent premature spoilage.

The main concern of each bakery producer is to find a suitable wrapper for food. Proper bread packaging copes with multiple tasks, namely:

• retard enzymatic spoilage;
• maintain pastry freshness and quality;
• prevent mold growth and oxidation;
• communicate with consumers, informing them about the content;
• serve as a marketing tool to attract and retain customers.

The importance of selecting an appropriate wrapper for bread is explained by its protective properties. Thus, let’s consider the most popular types of packaging for bread and outline their features.

Ways to Pack Bread

Although the modern wrapper market offers a wide abundance of covers for food, the following types of packaging for bakery products are the most popular due to their high functionality and excellent protective properties:

1. Pouches. This type of cover comes as the most popular packaging for bread products. It embraces a wide range of solutions (bags, three- or four-seal pillows, etc.). The main benefits of this solution include high flexibility, perfect resistance to external impacts and environmental aggressors that can affect bakery freshness, compactness for transportation, and sustainability. Most types of pouches (especially the ones produced from mono-structures) are subject to recycling, which makes this category eco-friendly bread packaging.
2. Wicket Bags. This category encompasses elastic bags of different sizes and shapes, which allows for packing different types of bakeries, such as white bread, pastry, toast, etc. It’s the most common loaf of bread packaging. It can be sealed with plastic clips, zippers, or elastic tapes. Shapes differ in bottom types; there are square, round, or shapeless bags. Any type of marketing information can be applied to such wicket bags.
3. Rollstock packaging. This type of bread plastic packaging is suitable for the production of covers at an industrial scale. A long rollstock film comes as a cost-effective flexible solution for wrapping buns, cookies, pastries, or pitas. Rollstock features high customization properties so an individual design or logo can be applied perfectly.

Most bread packaging companies stick to using one of the mentioned covers to pack their products. The listed wrappers are enough to pack and store any type of baked food.

Current Trends in Bread Packaging

The packaging industry does not stand still. It is constantly developing since new technologies allow for introducing and integrating new tools and techniques. They help improve food protection, prolong freshness, and preserve taste and aroma. Currently, the following trends are observed in this market segment:

1. MAP (Modified atmosphere packaging). This technology implies replacing the air inside the slice bread packaging with a blend of nitrogen, carbon dioxide, or inert gas. This approach allows for reducing the amount of air inside wrappers to less than 1%, creating an unfavorable environment for microbial growth and maintaining an optimal climate for bread freshness preservation. Not that this technology does not affect food aroma, taste, or nutritional benefit.
2. Active packaging. According to this technology, special substances (essential oils, moisture absorbers, oxygen scavengers, antimicrobial agents, etc.) are added to bread packaging materials at the stage of wrapper production. By adding such supplements, manufacturers enhance product protection, “in-building” protecting chemicals into covers. Thus, the wrapper’s headspace is highly protected which preserves food and prolongs its shelf life.
3. Antimicrobial packaging. This technology implies incorporating antimicrobial agents at the stage of cover manufacturing. For instance, clove and cinnamon oils are added to biodegradable films for individually wrapped bread to provide antifungal activity and prevent microbial contamination and further bakery spoilage.
4. Ethanol emitters. Adding these substances to wrappers helps slow down mold growth and achieve an anti-staling effect. Due to the denaturalization of yeast and mold’s protein, antimicrobial protection is reinforced.

Thus, more and more producers tend to integrate new parts in bread packaging equipment to introduce new technologies and improve product shelf life.

Features for Packing Bread

A wide assortment of types of bread packaging allows for picking an appropriate solution for any food. The main peculiarities of bakery wrappers include:

1. Protective barrier. Covers must be resistant to environmental aggressors, such as oxygen, UV light, moisture, temperature, etc.
2. Easy open/close resealable zippers. Making wrappers more functional helps increase consumer loyalty and prolong bread freshness after the violation of shell integrity. Zippers provide excellent properties for multiple openings.
3. Round and square bottom gussets. Different types of bottoms allow for finding the best solution for packing toast, sliced bread, etc.
4. Twist tie, clips, and tape closure. These tools are widely used to close food and store products on store shelves. They are functional and convenient to use.
5. Vent holes. They are used to ensure the maintenance of the optimal climate inside packages.
6. Bakery bags with windows. This trick is mainly aimed at satisfying consumer demands regarding food preview and evaluation before making a purchase.
7. Custom printed bakery bags. This step is treated as a marketing tool to attract consumers and make your bakery outstanding on store shelves among dozens of competing products. It’s possible to apply custom logos and other marketing info.

The modern packaging industry offers a wide variety of formats and sizes to meet the demands of all pastry manufacturers. A lot of attention is currently paid to sustainable bread packaging since the issue of planet contamination is topical. Anyway, it’s possible to pick a suitable solution for any case and need.