Ready meals are traditionally made for 1 - 2 people. To make the use of packaging worth it I want to tailor my range for 2 people to cook the meal. This would be good with a healthy meal range as couples often encourage and spur each other on to eat better. Alternatively if 1 person buys the meal then they can cook the meal for themselves and have the leftovers the next day.
I need to allow space for 2 portions of meat (for meals including meat), enough space for accompanying potatoes/pasta/noodles etc, veg and sauces/spices. Therefore my cardboard box will need to be a bit bigger than traditional ready meals.
Materials
Cardboard box
Foil sachets/pouches
Hello Fresh uses big cardboard packing boxes to transport ingredients in, however since my meals will only be tailored for 2 people the box will have to be far smaller, yet still big enough to fit in ingredients/ spices for the meal.
I also need to consider that my box will be at a lower price point to a Hello Fresh box - the boxes are about £35 although they do average out at £5 per meal. I will need to market my ready meals to match this or alternatively a bit lower. I may need to design my box to reflect this and keep costs of materials down.
Longevity
One of the biggest considerations in packaging food, specifically fresh ingredients, is how to keep the food fresh and chilled for extended periods of time.
Meat
I was struggling to find a method that would allow raw meats to keep fresher in ready meals - since the box is cardboard. As well as the insulation - I thought that meat could be packaged in "doypacks" - a mixture of plastic and aluminium foil in a bag/sachet form. The sachet is hermatically sealed using heat.
This stops juices from the meat contaminating the rest of the box.
Alternatively the meat could be portioned into plastic trays and covered in a film - however the film could get pierced during transit and I want to keep the chicken fresh for longest. This could also go for vaccuum packed meat. However the aluminium foil sealed bag can have a design printed onto it so I think I will use that for meats.
Insulation
I think the ready meals will only be displayed 1 - 2 days in a chilled shelving unit, however if needed to keep extra chilled there are a few options to keep the contents cool.
Woolcool
Woolcool is an insulating material - consisting of sheep wool liners packaged inside of recyclable plastic - degradable polyethylene liner. The wool absorbs any condensation whilst keeping the ingredients chilled. Maintains fresh ingredients below 5 degrees for at least 24 hours, lasts up to 72 hours.
This method is more environmentally sustainable -
- Since 2009, many thousands of tonnes of non-biodegradable plastic packaging waste has been saved from landfill by UK customers switching to Woolcool.
- Just in the last year alone, Woolcool has prevented the equivalent of 75 Olympic sized swimming pools full of polystyrene from going to landfill.
However with this option you will still need an ice pack - blocks of dry ice could be used but this would make the boxes heavy - bad for transport.
Gel packs can be used to keep the contents of the meal chilled. My concern about this method though is the impact the gel will have on the environment after it has been disposed. Hello Fresh uses environmentally friendly gel to keep their boxes chilled however their boxes are not kept in a chilled environment at the supermarket.
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