The worst thing that can happen is that you have a product that you want to sell, and then, the product gets damaged. It became especially troublesome with heat, and items that melt instantly. There are a lot of confectioners that worry about packaging their chocolates with shrink wrapping. This is because shrink wrapping does require some heat to melt these, so it’s a concern that is founded.
But there are different ways to prevent this, and luckily, you can use chocolate with shrink wrapping, without melting.
Before you start this, here’s a few things that you want to consider.
Type of Film
Different films used to shrink wrap items do require a variety of exposure, and heat settings.
Polyolefin and PVC are the two most common types, and when it comes to food, you’ve got to use polyolefin if there’s direct contact.
Most of the time, when it comes to PVC, you need to get the temperature around 250-270 degrees. This is usually done in less than five or so seconds of heat when they’re in the tunnel.
With 75 gauge polyolefin wrapping, you do need to crank this up to about 350, or around 300 for the seal, but again, it’s there for less than 5 seconds, so they should be fine.
Thickness of Film
Another thing that you need to keep in mind is the film thickness. It’s normally around 75 gauge, and this is the best for wrapping different chocolates and other products.
This is usually required due to the nature of these bigger products, and the stress of the transport after they’re packaged. Many times, people will wrap pounds of chocolates, and they need a shrink film that’s thicker.
You also need to factor in as well as how many times they’ll handle these products after the packaging is done. If there’s more chance of them being handled, use something thicker. Usually, thicker types of shrink film do require a longer level of heat exposure.
Type of Element for Heating
Finally you do need to figure out the right heating element as well, as you want to seal this in a way where the product gets sealed, without the melting process occurring.
You want to make sure that it shrinks it down, and be careful, so that it doesn’t create product damage.
Usually, this is a rarity for shrink tunnels, because thick types of film usually don’t need to be around heat for a while.
Heat guns are where the damage happens, because while they’re good for lower levels of output, if you keep them in one specific location, it can cause some damage. Not to mention, in order for this to make a seal, the gun needs to be on it for up to a minute, so you should be mindful of that.
There are videos however that show a lot of the impacts of heat sealing, and how long it would take for something to melt within a shrink film. You should watch these before you start, so that you can figure out if you need to be mindful of the heat shrinking, or if you are fine with the current setup that you have currently, since it can play a part in the overall impact of this.
Shrink wrapping chocolate can be a bit of a challenge for confectioners, but the beauty of heat sealing is that there is always a chance that you can create a lasting seal. Here, we went over some of the things to keep in mind, and what to make sure you’re abreast of when choosing the correct sealing.
