Meat processors and food retailers can take advantage of a range of food netting products to innovate their packaging and enhance their brand image.

The innovation continues as Flavorseal works with food processors and retailers to use everything from knitted to extruded netting in new ways to create a competitive advantage.

New Patterns and New Textures

Flavorseal Netting Product Manager Lisa Vacco-Orlowski says an emerging trend in meat processing is the use of unique and innovative netting patterns that give deli and prepared meats a premium look.

“We have developed new and unconventional patterns to help differentiate our customers’ brands in the deli case, for example,” Vacco-Orlowski says. “These new patterns stand out from the traditional patterns and help companies create greater brand awareness for their products.”

These new and in some cases, exclusive, netting patterns are part of Flavorseal’s line of open weave knitted netting products. Besides offering a range of unique knitted netting patterns, Flavorseal experts work with clients to develop exclusive patterns aligned to a specific brand image, flavor, and texture.

“Our customers have used our exclusive netting designs to enhance their brand image. The patterns we create are different from anything else available,” Vacco-Orlowski explains. “In some cases, we’ve created these patterns on our own, while in other cases we work with our customers to create something specific for them.”

The unique patterns are made possible by the company’s netting expertise, as well as its proprietary, in-house manufacturing and design capabilities, which allow the blending of existing patterns and the development of new ones.

A Bundle of Benefits

Another way retailers and processors are using food netting to innovate their products is by bundling multiple products with decorative extruded plastic netting. This netting product, made in-house by Flavorseal, offers the performance of cardboard packaging with the product visibility, transparency and handling benefits only netting can provide. Netting may also be a more cost-effective option than boxes in many cases.

The decorative netting is available in an array of colors, and Flavorseal also has the capability to match colors that are part of the proprietary Pantone Matching System, Vacco-Orlowski points out.

“This means brands can select a specific netting color or match their netting color to their brand colors.”

Yet another benefit of decorative extruded netting is that processors can add unique features like specially shaped tags to be clipped onto netting, or handles that are made from the netting. The technique can further differentiate brand image in a functional, creative way.

Many Options

A relatively new addition to Flavorseal’s food netting line is Sure Release II netting, which combines tight weave netting with a premium release treatment. This results in a product that forms meats during cooking but will not cook into meats or stick to them when it’s removed. Available in a variety of smokes, the netting offers a custom look and appeal.

All of Flavorseal’s netting products are manufactured at their in-house knitting facility in Avon, Ohio. The range of products, which also includes Tight Weave and elastic netting products, offers a solution for every stage of the manufacturing process, from raw to processed to retail.

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