New System Doubles Shelf Life for Fresh Poultry

Teva-Off has succeeded in doubling its poultry product shelf life to eight days. This breakthrough in protecting poultry-product freshness and extending shelf life can influence the entire supply chain from manufacturer to consumer.

20/01/09 Teva-Off, Israel has launched fresh poultry with an eight-day shelf life. This surpasses all other fresh meat and poultry products available in the marketplace. For this dramatic paradigm shift in poultry shelf-life capacity, Teva-Off used proprietary packaging technology by fellow Israeli company Hefestus. This new invention helps the producer and the retailer cut product cost and number of returns significantly as a result of improving processes in the supply chain.

Meat and poultry products are highly sensitive to oxidation and, more importantly, rapidly decompose and suffer damage via bacteria. Shelf-life of such products is at most four days. Teva-Off has succeeded in doubling its poultry product shelf life to eight days. This breakthrough in protecting poultry-product freshness and extending shelf life can influence the entire supply chain from manufacturer to consumer. Short shelf life in meat and poultry products typically causes large amounts of returns and discards of expired products, while decreasing profit significantly.

"This is the first fresh poultry product with extended shelf life and we anticipate it will totally change consumer purchasing and cooking behavior," says Amnon Ariel, CEO of Teva-Off. "Most consumers buy fresh poultry with 3-4 days of shelf life, either cooking or freezing it on or near the day of purchase. Doubling shelf life provide consumers excellent opportunity to keep fresh poultry in the refrigerator and cook it at will, rather than wait for it to defrost or worse, have it spoil before they get to it."

Teva-Off developed the new product with Hefestus' proprietary packaging technology, Hera SLB(tm) (Shelf Life Booster). A high-quality applications laboratory performed shelf-life tests on a daily basis over a period of several months. Results showed Hefestus' advanced technology provided a maximum shelf life of 12 days or more for fresh poultry.

"SLB(tm) technology enables manufacturers to pack fresh meat and poultry with residual oxygen of less than 0.4% and extends shelf life up to 15 days in some cases," notes Oded Shtemer, CEO of Hefestus. "We anticipate a growing demand for Hera in 2009." Hera can pack fresh products with modified atmosphere (MAP) technology at a rate of 1,200 units per hour. "We chose to pack the new product with the Hera system based on two important parameters: extended product shelf life and impressive speed," notes Ariel.

Hefestus Ltd. offers a new worldwide patented method of sealing trays with modified atmosphere (MAP technology) SLB – Shelf Life Booster. This is claimed to be the best alternative for the vacuum packaging that was traditionally used in the food industry. It extends product shelf life without using synthetic preservatives or freezing, thus enabling storage and delivery of food products either at room temperature or chilled.

Traditionally, food processors use vacuum packages for their products, even though many food products such as processed meat, fish and ready meals tend to change their texture and appearance in vacuum, which causes the consumers to prefer fresh products instead.

“The ready meals trend fits the hectic life style of the Western consumer. Consumers seek foods that look and feel fresh and now we can help food manufacturers achieve this target easily,” explains Oded Shtemer, CEO of Hefestus. “We anticipate a dramatic increase in demand for our Shelf Life Booster equipment during 2008-2009.”

Hefestus's unique solution combines advantages for the food processors as well as for the consumers. It keeps the food product fresh, tasty and prevents rancidity. Hefestus' sealing machines provide the lowest oxygen levels of 0.5%, or less, for extended shelf life and are easy to operate and maintain.