The food service industry has many ways to use plastics for cutlery, packaging, and containers. It’s safe, proven, and cost-effective to do the job. Are you adding a new product to your portfolio in the food service industry? You may want to add plastic molding as an option for your new product. These 5 benefits should help sway your decision:
Food Safety is Critical
The food industry is very regulated, so your food-grade containers must be proven to be safe. Food-grade containers are chemically resistant and leakproof. They provide an effective way to contain a liquid, gel, or solid without worry of leaking or contamination before the customer can use the product. They are durable for safe transport whether that is by air, rail, or truck.
Plastic Molding is Efficient
Plastic molding is one of the most efficient methods to create a food-grade container or cutlery. It can be scaled down to produce just a few parts or go in the opposite direction to create millions of items. Each product can hold tight tolerances from the first pieces through the last, and each won’t have a large amount of waste that must be sent to landfill. Another benefit is the tooling doesn’t need to be significantly changed to create a new iteration of your product.
Plastics are Easily Customized
If you walk through the aisle at a local store, you’ll see containers of various shapes, sizes, and colors. Plastics offer more options than you realize. Plastics offer an efficient process that can be simply changed to create a new variation through a color addition, a secondary operation of labeling or painting, or a secondary molding process. Secondary molding can add color variations or a different texture and feel to the product.
Beyond visual changes to increase appeal of your containers, plastic molding can use resin variations to vary material properties. Your product can keep its shape but add rigidity for increased strength, more flexibility to prevent damage during transportation, or environmental resistance for long-term storage. Varying the resin can change strength and durability easily ad make your product versatile for anything food-related to be kept safe.
Plastic is Flexible When Others Aren’t
One of the best qualities of plastic molded products is their flexibility. Not just flexible for customization, but the tangible quality of being able to bend without breaking. Resin can be formulated to offer extreme flexibility without fear of puncture or breaking while being transported or stored. Plastics can be extremely thin to save cost, increased in thickness to provide more durability, and the physical design can change shape to offer more or less strength overall or in critical design areas on the parts. Think of food trays and utensils that can be heat-resistant and made stronger with a simple design change to add a rib or wall thickness. Screw-on caps can be lightweight, shatterproof, and still stay sealed under extreme conditions from chemical exposure, humidity, or temperature fluctuations.
Plastics are Sustainable
If one word were to be at the forefront of food packaging it would be “sustainable”. Consumers are tired of duplicate packaging that goes directly to the landfill after use. ‘Single-use’ has become a dirty phrase in consumer products, so plastics are transforming into more sustainable products through engineered resins. Bio-resins are becoming a larger part of plastic molding as they are recyclable and biodegradable to prevent clogging up landfills for generations.
Choosing the perfect resin for a food industry product should include discussion points on the function, environment, quantity, and recycling of your product to ensure the best resin is chosen. Plastic offers many benefits over competitor materials, and resins can oftentimes be combined to create a hybrid resin with the best properties available. SEA-LECT Plastics has an elite team that produces world-class prototypes and products, and we have decades of experience with plastic injection molding. We can offer support to determine what type of mold you need, what resins to choose, and how to best invest in your future. Give us a call at (425) 339-0288 or email us at mattp@sealectplastics.com. We’ll help to determine the best manufacturing options for your next project. In the end, the materials and processes chosen will benefit your product design. Many resins and packaging options are completely recyclable, and for those that aren’t, there are still further options to investigate to ensure they can be of further use.
Matthias Poischbeg was born and raised in Hamburg, Germany. Matt moved to Everett, Wash., after finishing his bachelor’s degree in business in 1995 to work for Sea-Dog Corporation, a manufacturer, and distributor of marine and rigging hardware established in 1923.
In 1999, Matt took over the reins at Sea-Lect Plastics Corporation, a sister company of Sea-Dog and a manufacturer of plastic injection molded products with an in-house tool & die shop. Matthias Poischbeg is also a contributor to Grit Daily.