What are ready to cook foods? List out the requirements of packaging ready-to-cook foods

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WHAT ARE READY TO COOK FOODS.
LIST OUT THE REQUIREMENTS OF PACKAGING
READY-TO- COOK FOODS
An Academic presentation by Dr. Nancy Agens,
Head, Technical Operations, FoodResearchLab
Group www.foodresearchlab.com Email
info_at_foodresearchlab.com
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Today's Discussion
OUTLINE
In-Brief Ready-to-cook foods Requirements for
Packaging Ready-to-Cook Foods Conclusion
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In-Brief

• Is cooking the biggest challenge for today's
  generation? Of course, it's true.
• The food product development industries formulate
  a new product in food
• industries know as RTC (ready-to-cook) foods to
  overcome this situation, The RTC foods have
  become an alternation for home-cooked foods.
• However, there are many challenges faced during
  the production and
• packaging of these foods. Food research lab helps
  you to know the various requirements in food
  packaging of RTC foods.

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Ready-to- cook foods
Convenience is a crucial driver in the growing
market for fresh ready-to-cook meals with high
nutrient content for n ew Product d evelopment
in food.
Customers lack their time during their busy weeks
in cooking. This food contains raw ingredients
with precut, seasoned and mixed, that are
ready-made, high-quality meals. These can go
directly from the cold fridge into the oven which
is perfect for hungry-time consumers. Ready-to-c
ook meals serve customers meals with the taste of
homemade foods.
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Requirements for Packaging Ready-to-Cook
LOW MOISTURE CONTENT FOOD
Moisturize 1 to 5 with Equilibrium Relative
Humidity (ERH) 18-20.
Foods
As they have low moisture and ERH, the tendency
to absorb moisture from the surroundings and
turn soggy, losing their crisp and taste.
1. Depending on their Primary Moisture Content,
One most important factor is the moisture vapour
transmission rate (MVTR) for the packaging
materials going to use for food production.
Contd..
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MVTR values should be less than 1 gm /m2 / 24
hours MEDIUM-MOISTURE CONTENT FOOD The Moisture
content should be 6 to 20 ERH up to
65 Barrier property (MVTR) requirement for this
food is less rigid. For longer Shelf life,
microbiological spoilage is more critical. Usage
of preservatives should be frequent.
Contd..
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HIGH-MOISTURE CONTENT FOOD Moisture content
is 20 to 60 ERH is about 85 Examples Bakery
products- cake, bread Freshly baked products
like bread and cake, The ERH is higher than the
ambient ERH frequently. Plastic materials such
as low-density polyethene (LDPE) that are
permeable to water vapour helps in packaging
these products for the short shelf life of food
usually.
Contd..
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Microbial spoilage is the best consideration for
longer s helf life using t echnological food
development. These products undergo
sterilization and packaging in sealed containers
such as cans, retort and aseptic packs with the
help of, food recipe development. The Medium and
high moisture food is susceptible to the
microbial decomposition and demands adequate
processing methods, before their packaging and
preservation.
Contd..
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OXYGEN /AIR PERMEABILITY Ready-To-Cook food
consists of typically fat and other ingredients
that can be oxidized. Suppose oxygen/ air is
allowed to come in contact with the packaged
food. Oxidative degradation of fat occurs, and
many other oxidative changes take place. It
causes rancidity, flavourlessness and the
discolouration in the food. Packaging material
for high fat should contain low oxygen
permeability with recipe development consultants.
Contd..
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NITROGEN PERMEABILITY The f ood packaging is
usually taking place in an inert atmosphere of
Nitrogen (N2) to protect the food from
oxygen/moisture. The N2 permeability of the
package must be low to prevent its escape into
the atmosphere for food industrial development.
Contd..
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GREASE RESISTANCE PROPERTIES A variety of RTC
food has edible oil and fat as their
ingredients. Grease/oil during storage must not
produce adverse effects during the packaging
material used for these products, as fat may ooze
out. HDPE and LDPE are affected by grease and
are not suitable for packing fatty
products. Polyester films, cellophane,
polypropylene, ionomer films etc. are ideal for
such beneficial purposes.
Contd..
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Flavour and essential oils provide the
organoleptic qualities of much RTC food as they
are volatile substances. Hence gas permeability
of the packaging material must be very low to
prevent flavour loss in food. It is also
necessary to stop the entry of the outer oxygen
and air, that may cause oxidative changes in the
flavour.
Contd..
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Contd..
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SENSITIVITY OF LIGHT Light accelerates and
creates an oxidative change linked with the
flavours in food. Use of Opaque packaging
materials such as cans and aluminium foil offers
the best protection from sunlight. Metallised
polyester and pigmented plastics give complete
satisfaction. Few films are opaque to visible
light but allow U.V. light to penetrate in f ood
product development.
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2. Depending on their Significant Ingredients,
the Blends Fall under Four Groups
Cereal-based ingredients
Legumes based ingredients
Fat rich ingredients Spice enriched ingredients
Contd..
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CEREAL-BASED INGREDIENTS The first category,
cereal-based ingredients consisting of mixes for
idli, dosa that is mainly sensitive to moisture
pick up and need protection against this. They
generally have moisture content around 8-10 and
become soft. Polyolefin plastic pouches of 37 to
75m thickness, which provides 3-4 months shelf
life prefer for packaging purposes.
Contd..
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LEGUMES BASED INGREDIENTS The Legume or pulses
based mixes comprise vada, khara sev, bonda, etc.
have packaging requirements identical to those of
cereal-based blends, but posses lower
permissible moisture pickup. It requires
packaging material consists of good water vapour
impermeability. LDPE and P.P. pouches will offer
1½ to 3 months of storage life under
high temperature/R.H. conditions, that would
correspond to 5 to 6 months in average
temperatures.
Contd..
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FAT RICH INGREDIENTS The instant mixes of
Jamun, cake, etc. that have high-fat source and
milk solids, suscepts to rancidity and make
interactions with oxygen and water vapour. The
CPP pouches of 200 grams weight give a shorter
shelf life around 2-3 months, adequate for local
marketing. However, for longer shelf life and
export purposes, HD-LDPE films will better suits
for protection and attraction purposes.
Contd..
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SPICE ENRICHED INGREDIENTS Spice enriched mixes
such as rasam, sambar, soup, bisibelebath are
suspects to aroma loss, oxidative deterioration
changes. The functional ones based on
cellophane/P.E., plain or metallized PET/PE, and
co-extruded films with polyamide core layer
provide longer shelf life will be more. The
innermost layer of HD-LDPE coextruded film
ethylene-acrylic acid copolymer provides the
required properties and good heat sealability.
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Conclusion
Food research lab lists and guide the f ood
production c ompanies to do the best packaging of
RTC foods with the help of this blog. The
packaging is an essential part before marketing
the food, and it is c hallenging to all the food
development i ndustries.
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