Cheese Portioning - contd...

In general, the cheese portion packaging machines can be divided into the following types.

§ Over wrapping

§ Chamber

§ Automatic form – fill – seal

§ Skin packaging and

§ Miscellaneous

Over-wrapping machines

• These machines merely over-wrap the cheese portion with a plastics film e.g. saran or any polypropylene laminate and the estimated shelf life of the product is up to 3 weeks. The object of packaging the cheese by this method is to provide the customer with a fresh look appearance to the cheese.

• The main characteristics of the machines is their ability to wrap a variety of cheese portions and the sequence of operations is as follows

• The cheese portion is placed in a specially designed pocket on the in-feed chain which carries it to the exact position for wrapping.

• The packaging material is drawn from a reel to the correct length required and the length is automatically adjusted to ensure accuracy of wrapping even if the product size varies by ± 5%.

• The die sets in the wrapping chamber are specifically designed to provide an exact cut and an attractive fold on the package.

• These machines can handle a wide range of packaging materials and some models are equipped with heat sealing and heat-shrink devices to obtain a tight final pack.