Name: ÉLITER Packaging Machinery
Address: ÉLITER Packaging Machinery, No.1088 Jingye Rd, Economic Development Zone, Ruian, Wenzhou,Zhejiang, 325200, CN
Telephone: +86 139 588 12103

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Nicholas Appert
Inventor of Canning Process

When you are enjoying the Fabada Asturiana packed in a can and bought from la Plaza de Día nearby your home, something may not occur to your mind:

when the French confectioner and inventor

Nicholas Appert (1749-1841)

invented the canning process to conserve all kinds of food substances in containers, he and people at his time may have never imagined that in modern years canned food could reach to be so popular all over the world.

In this article, we talk about cardboard sleeves commonly applied to canned food as their secondary packaging, and how packaging automation works to pack canned food in cardboard sleeves.

Topics: canned food, cardboard sleeve packaging, packaging machines

Questions to answer

Why are canned foods so popular?
Why cardboard sleeves are used for canned foods as secondary packaging?
What are the packaging machines that pack canned foods in cardboard sleeves?

What are Canned Foods and Why they are Popular?

Canned foods come in a wide variety with which consumers can make the choice as what they like, among which some of the most popular ones may be:

Fruits: Canned peaches, canned Mandarin, canned oranges
Vegetables: Canned tomatoes, canned beans, canned mushrooms, canned corn
Grains: canned pasta
Protein: Canned tuna, canned sardine, canned kidney beans

A study has shown that almost 99% of Americans have at their disposal canned foods in their kitchens with average storage of 26 cans. And when it comes to canned vegetables, as much as 65% of Americans have at home canned corn, following which are canned beans and canned tomatoes.

Looking into why canned foods are so popular we will notice that it is all about affordability, convenience, and a wide range of choices.

Canned foods have a similar level of nutrition to fresh and frozen foods

The selection of materials for canning is always picky. They are frequently and must be harvested and processed for canning at the best time of their ripeness. The industrial automation process also carries a rigid selection during the process to kick out all unqualified and bad materials. In terms of quality, they are all well-selected.

Seasonal choices are available all over the year with canning

Canned foods offer year-round options for all seasonal fruits and vegetables. Such a feature makes it possible that consumers to get access to all that they want over the year.

Canned foods are convenient and affordable

Canned food can save you time with meal preparation. You don’t need to hunt throughout the market, prepare the raw material, cook and then clean the smeared and spilled out materials all over the kitchen… Preparing meals with canned food also save money now that fresh foods are frequently more expensive than canned foods which are produced in large quantity.

Why Cardboard Sleeve for Canned Food Packaging?

Canned food can either be or be without secondary packaging.

When canned foods are sold in individual packaging, secondary packaging becomes unnecessary though some companies will still apply cardboard sleeves.

Single Tin Can 1x in Sleeve Packaging

When in a retail situation where canned foods are sold in a multipack, they are usually packed in cardboard sleeves with apertures or rims that secure the packaging by supporting the round fringe of the cans.

1x3 tin cans with sleeve packaging

Secondary packaging with canned foods has been a controversial topic in the long term. Despite the fact that secondary packaging adds more space for display and improves the branding and marketing performance of the products, the use of an extra layer of packaging, which is unnecessary in the case of canned foods, leads to more packaging waste.

Till today, there are two options for canned foods in multipack:

plastics: Shrink wrap the multipack package with plastics
cardboard sleeve: wrap the multipacks around with carton sleeves

The reason that companies prefer cardboard sleeves is that they are more sustainable. And following the trend of plastic replacement, companies are now shifting from plastics to cardboard sleeve.

Mark Shaw, business leader at Westrock indicates that sustainable packaging is impacting businesses all along their activities from supply chain to brand management and companies must review the use of traditional plastic packaging and shrink wrapping when it comes to canned foods in multipacks because plastics now is not in compliance with world’s concerns around sustainability.

Packaging Machines for Canned Foods in Cardboard Sleeve

Both cartoner and sleever can handle the cardboard sleeve packaging for canned foods.

Cartoner: Cartoners when used for canned food are basically of end-load pattern and load the cans from the horizontal open end of pre-glued sleeves. A problem with cartoner when packing canned foods in cardboard sleeves is that the end-loading pattern is not easy for cans to be inserted into the packaging. That is to say, at the top and bottom, the round fringe of cans is wider than the inner space of cardboard sleeves now that they are to be secure by the rim.
Sleeever: When it is to multipack packaging, sleever is better than cartoner to pack canned foods give the flat blank wrapping pattern

You can find the differences between cartoner and sleever in our another blog.