‘The T300 keeps our options open’

Kempenfoods, a new manufacturing company based in Eindhoven, has set its sights on success in fresh/chilled ready meals and meal components. “Chefs think up the tastiest dishes. We have the know-how and the equipment to enable their concepts to be produced on a large scale,” says the company manager. This summer, Kempenfoods purchased a new Multivac tray sealer.

Kempenfoods is a young company but, despite only having been established in May 2015, it is already busy with a range of manufacturing activities. At the end of June the company started making fresh chicory salads, and since September pre-packed stir-fry chicory has also been rolling off the production line. Both products are supplied to Belgian supermarkets. “We developed these products based on an idea by the owner of Kempenfoods, chicory trader Lathouwers & Co,” says company manager Joost Boumans. “Sales of unprocessed vegetables are decreasing. Consumers are increasingly opting for convenience products. Lathouwers wanted to launch a chicory product with added value, and we developed that idea further. Moreover, chicory is traditionally a winter product but chicory salad is a nice alternative in the summer. These two products together give traders a better year-round turnover.”

Tray sealer

In order to package the products, Kempenfoods purchased a tray sealer from Multivac. “I’ve had good experiences with Multivac in the past,” says Boumans. “The machines hardly ever suffer any problems, and I like the fact that the tools are affordable. So having opted for Multivac, you don’t get any nasty surprises if you later need to buy extra tools.” Kempenfoods first produced a number of samples for Lathouwers, and Multivac was happy to make a test machine available for that purpose: the T100. Lathouwers then asked for larger batches of samples so the T100 was exchanged for a tray sealer with more capacity: the semi-automatic T200. Now that the production has been scaled up, Kempenfoods uses the fully automatic T300. “We’re just using this machine in the interim,” says Boumans. “We’ve ordered a brand new T300 tray sealer which will be delivered in a few weeks’ time.”

‘In the future we want to work with ovenable trays’

Flexible

Boumans explains that the new machine is very flexible. “We want to be able to produce a wide variety of ready meals and meal components such as soups, sauces, vegetables, salads and combinations of items, such as meat in sauce. The T300 enables us to keep our options open.” Kempenfoods has purchased a machine that can cope with different types of trays from different suppliers. The tray sealer can also be used with trays made from different materials. “In the future we may want to work with ovenable trays, so we’ve factored that in already,” explains Boumans. Moreover, the machine is suitable for all kinds of packaging methods, such as vacuum packaging, modified atmosphere packaging (MAP), skin packs and FreshSAFE (film with microperforations to keep fruit and vegetables fresher for longer).

“For the foodservice sector we make a number of nice products that are also suitable for the retail channel,” continues Boumans. “Examples include whole chicory with ham and a cheese sauce or fresh soups, which we’re still currently producing in vacuum bags using a Multivac thermoformer we purchased previously. The T300 enables us to pack similar products on trays for attractive presentation in supermarkets.”

High culinary standard

Boumans will be further expanding Kempenfoods’ activities in the years ahead. His aim is for the company to be a serious market player three years from now. “We still see plenty of opportunities. Chefs think up the tastiest dishes, but they’re not able to produce those concepts in large volumes. At the same time there’s a growing demand for food that is easy to prepare yet is also of a high culinary standard. That’s a trend in both retail and foodservice. We have the know-how and the equipment for the large-scale production of such dishes.”

For example, Boumans sees numerous chances in the sous-vide preparation method, i.e. the food is heated while still in its vacuum packaging. The advantage of this cooking method is that it retains maximum flavour. Furthermore, the food has a long shelf life because no post-contamination can occur. “Sous-vide demands extra skill for ready meals though,” explains Boumans, “because different components have different cooking times, plus you don’t want the sauce to ruin the product or vice versa. We already produce a number of great sous-vide dishes for the foodservice sector. The method is less well-known among consumers, but I expect that we’ll also be able to launch some nice sous-vide products for the retail channel in the future.”

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