Nature's Way Foods | Preserving Freshness and Taste for Salad Kits

Lunch can be dull. But, through the exotic flavours of countries around the world, consumers are finding they can escape the same old lunchtime routine.

It was to meet this need that Nature’s Way Foods developed a new range of fresh and convenient pre-packaged salads. “We believe that Salad can tantalise the taste buds”, says Ciara Whitehead, Chief Commercial Officer at Natures Way Foods. “Our Brand ethos is about offering consumers excitement, flavour and a convenient nutritious meal solution. FLiNG is more than a bit on the side!”

Mixed ingredients pose a challenge

In the market of highly perishable produce, packaging has to do more than hold the product. It has to maintain an atmosphere that slows respiration and prevents spoiling. This is a challenge every supplier faces. But Nature’s Way Foods faced yet another.

Every pack of the new FLiNG salads combines fresh ingredients and garnishes to recreate the flavours of countries around the world. This mix of leaves, vegetables and garnishes can have vastly different respiration rates and might spoil at very different times.

The challenge for Nature’s Way Foods, then, was maintaining the freshness, preserving the nutritional values and increasing the shelf life of every pack. No matter the variety of the ingredients inside.

The Perfect Mix

Fortunately, a blend of innovative Amcor packaging technologies offered a solution. By applying the knowledge and experience of our expert food scientists, we worked with Nature’s Way Foods to develop packaging that is optimised to reduce spoilage and waste. It meant tailoring the level of micro-perforation of Amcor’s P-Plus solution to match the complex range of ingredients in a single pack of FLiNG salad, making considerations for sensitivity to oxygen and carbon dioxide and ensuring the right level of permeability in packaging. This last part was especially important. The wrong level of permeability can decrease shelf life through discolouration and loss or change of taste.

On The Shelves

With the packaging preserving FLiNG salads, it was time to hit the shelves. Nature’s Way Foods launched the premium meal kit salad with confidence that the consumer was always getting the freshest lunch. And, with superior organoleptics, this was ensured right to end of shelf life.

In the fresh food-to-go area of a supermarket, it’s common to see a hit and miss approach to laser perforation – and that can really damage a brand’s reputation and lose them repeat business. Nature’s Way Foods was not willing to take that risk. With expertise from Amcor and our food scientists, Nature’s Way Foods has been able to successfully launch FLiNG. The collaboration meant that there was exceptional confidence that the bespoke packaging will preserve taste and appearance for as long as it’s on the shelf.

P-Plus packaging solutions for fresh produce

Fully printed, laser-perforated packaging with Amcor’s P-Plus technology. Plus, an inside pattern applied with anti-mist to ensure product clarity without affecting the hermetic seal of the bag. Click HERE to learn more about Amcor's packaging options for fresh produce.

About Nature's Way Foods

Nature’s Way Foods is a UK-based specialist supplier of bagged salads, leafy salad bowls, coleslaw and potato salads, dressed salads and food-to-go products to major retailers and food service companies.