Waves of the Future

Microwave cooking heats up with
new design and material solutions

By James Krouse

Glad's Simply Cooking microwave bags benefit from ZipnVent technology from Japan that enables flexible packaging to vent for steaming a variety of foods.

After years of heating coffee and making popcorn, the microwave may finally fulfill its potential as a primary cooking device in the kitchen. But consumers are demanding more of microwave meals. Beyond speed, they want convenience, health, and high quality. Package design is integral to filling this tall order.

Suppliers are also stepping up with new technologies that range from material engineered on a molecular level to the simple addition of handles to trays. These new materials combined with smart design can answer consumer needs for speed, health, and taste.

The steaming solution

Steaming has emerged as a prominent way of cooking in the microwave for a wide range of fresh and frozen products from vegetables to meats, poultry, and fish. The process is simple: microwave energy heats food and moisture within. This produces steam, which builds pressure. That pressure, along with the heated steam and microwave energy cooks products evenly and quickly.

The Simple Steps food trays by Cryovac Food Solutions have handles that stay cool during microwave cooking.

There are a various technologies created for this solution that involve venting steam in a controlled fashion. One is from HealthyFX, a Canadian film and bag supplier that uses micro pores to vent the steam while cooking.

"The micro pores on our film allow for venting in a clean, even, and controlled process," says Shirley Cox, owner of HealthyFX. "Also, the vents don't obscure graphics since they are integrated directly into the film." Cox sees microwave steaming transforming the microwave into a primary cooking device for healthy living.

"Steamed foods are a growing market because they are healthy and—in the microwave—easy to prepare," she says. "The market spans from fresh vegetables to frozen fish. Some vegetables, like squash or turnips, can be cooked dramatically more quickly in the microwave. Spaghetti squash, for example, could take 40 minutes in a conventional oven and only a few minutes in the microwave. In addition, steamed foods in the microwave retain far more nutrients even over steaming on the stovetop."

The HealthyFX microwaveable steam bags have micropores that expand and release steam during cooking.

ZipnVent shares Cox's enthusiasm for steamed microwave cooking. The company, based in Hong Kong, supplies a wide range of flexible packaging from lidding film to pillow bags to stand up pouches, and microwave packaging is a particular focus.

The company uses venting technology that it claims will not leak before, during, or after the microwaving process. In an email, the company representative emphasized the importance of not only venting steam, but controlling that venting process. If steam vents too quickly, products can become dry or they may not thoroughly cook. ZipnVent 's solution releases pressure from both sides of a zipper seal but won't leak during the cooking process.

In terms of working with designers and brand owners, all suppliers emphasized the importance of collaboration on microwave steam applications. Franck-Philippe N 'Dia, sales manager for ready meals at Amcor Flexibles, says that a successful application goes beyond choosing the right materials. Amcor offers a solution for microwave steaming that integrates valves directly into its film.

"We work with brand and design teams to learn about the product formulation, how consumers will use it and what their expectations are, " says N'Dia. "We can control the strength of valves, for example, which will affect how much time a product should be in the microwave and how it is cooked. Finding the perfect balance takes a close relationship with the design and development team."

Sealed Air's Cryovac Food Solutions sees convenience food as such an important growth market that it formed a ready meals unit two years ago. One of the company 's solutions under its Simple Steps product offering is a vacuum skin package. This package holds products and juices in place and vents from the side, containing excess liquids in the tray and reducing the chance for spillage.

"We employ package designers and food specialists internally to help us create a better product, " says Sean Brady, marketing director for ready meals for Cryovac Food Solutions. This is essential to working with brand and design teams to ensure our material answers market needs. There is a complex dynamic between food, packaging, the microwave, and the consumer. The more we understand that dynamic and work with brand teams, the more success we'll all have on store shelves and in consumer homes."

Other non-steamy solutions

The polar opposite of steaming is creating an environment where crisping can take place. This requires a high temperature surface in direct contact with the food product plus proper moisture venting. That surface usually comes in the form of a susceptor: a special multilayer metallized film typically laminated to paperboard. Robert Ziegler at Brandimation, the structural packaging design firm which conceived the Hot Pockets spiral-tear sleeve, explains that a susceptor is more than something that gets hot in the microwave:

"It is a controlled heating process so the film actually breaks down and stops heating at a certain point, " says Ziegler. "Susceptors are a way to generate substantial radiant heat at the product surface while ensuring that the packaging itself won 't burn. Because of the variability of microwaves, it's quite a complex problem to create something that is efficacious, safe and convenient for consumers. With proper structural design, you are able to deliver some amazing toasted products that most people don 't associate with the microwave."

The trick with microwave crisping packages is creating a high temperature surface that also vents moisture.

Cans are another upcoming if unexpected technology for the microwave. Ball unveiled a microwaveable can that it calls Fusion-Tek in 2006. Fusion-Tek is a hybrid package with steel sides and a plastic top. While microwaves cannot pass through steel, the plastic ends make it possible to cook food inside.

Crown Holdings says that a successful microwave can all depends on its design. "Crown has focused its design on a shallow, bowl-shaped container," says Daniel Abromowicz, president, Crown Packaging Technology Inc. "The wide opening offered by this shape allows the microwave energy to pass through the open end of the container. The quality of foods microwaved in metal containers can be superior to that from plastic containers, as there is no overheating or drying of foods around the edges of the metal container."

Perception is everything

So while technology and proper packaging design is able to deliver a quality, healthy meal, the biggest hurdle may be the history of microwave cooking itself. Most consumers associate microwave cooking with frozen TV dinners, snacks, or popcorn. Design has to overcome this challenge.

In the refrigerated section, letting food speak for itself may be the best option. For the most part, consumers associate fresh vegetables and unprocessed, unfrozen meat to be good things. Graphics printed on the package can also help.

"We use a 10-color rotogravure process to print our graphics," says Shirley Cox from HealthyFX. "This gives designers a photo quality print to work with so they can really represent the freshness of the product inside and also give consumers an idea of what the product will look like when they cook it in the microwave. It raises expectations for the entire product category —and that's a good thing."

Steve Young, who is the CEO of Bistro Fresh, a company that has built a significant part of its business on healthy ready meals for the microwave, sees an opportunity in how he differentiates his products with packaging. "We use images of the food cooked and plated to emphasize that this is a quality meal meant to be prepared and served," says Young. "We really push the fact that all of our products have no preservatives, less sodium, and are nutritionally balanced. That is true in our marketing and retail strategy. " Young's business is growing as it finds more and more retailers such as Whole Foods taking interest.

Defining convenience

As far as being the significant trend for packaging, food (and, in fact, all consumer goods) convenience is definitely it. Defining it, however, is more difficult. "Convenience is used in a very vague way, but defining what it means to consumers as they use the microwave is essential to understanding the market, " says Simon Gainey of Competitive Innovation LLC. "For food, it isn't enough that something can be microwaved. Sure, that takes less time, but consumers want packaging that goes a step further and looks at multiple aspects of preparing a meal."

In a presentation at the Package Design 07 conference, Gainey broke down the analysis of convenience from a survey of Lean Cuisine's panini sandwich into nine distinct factors: 1) the number of steps involved; 2) time consumed; 3) intuitiveness of the design; 4) preparation mess; 5) clean-up; 6) mistake tolerance; 7) skill level required; 8) consistency; and 9) whether or not the process is implement free.

In other words, the fact that microwaves speed the cooking process doesn't necessarily define convenience. A whole array of factors, including how packages communicate with consumers through design can impact perception of just how easy a product is to use (Gainey's presentation can be downloaded at www.competitiveinnovation.com.).

To this point, package designers and suppliers have added a number of features that take consumer convenience to new levels. The elimination of the knife or fork piercing that is so familiar to many microwave users is first on the list. The use of venting technologies, along with the cooking benefits they bring, also eliminates the need for creating a vent with a sharp object by the consumer.

Some companies have taken convenience still further adding handles that do not heat substantially during microwave cooking, making it much it easier to remove the product from the microwave. For example, Cryovac's Simple Steps trays have handles that don't heat at the same rate as the product or the rest of the tray. Even pouches can be shaped to form a handle and pouring spout.

"Pouch shaping is not only a visual effect; it also impacts how the consumer uses a product and defines the brand in the marketplace around convenience, " says Amcor's N'Dia. "Our customers have worked with us on a wide variety of pouch shapes, including one that looks and feels like a pitcher. It is heated in the microwave and the consumer can actually grip a handle and pour the product out without fear of burning their fingers on the hot pouch."

Looking readily ahead

In the end, the success of convenience is ultimately determined by consumers. The market for ready meals is growing. According to Cryovac Food Solutions, its ready meals business has seen double-digit growth per year for over three years, indicating that the trend is there to be exploited.

The biggest sea change in the future is beginning now as consumers are migrating toward the microwave as a viable means of cooking. As a generation grows up with meals that are of good quality and nutritious, the sector for microwave packaging will move from a niche market to the mainstream. For designers this means considering not only how packaging impacts the marketing, storage, and transportation of food —but also its preparation.

Considering that microwaves have been in our homes since the 1970s, a steep growth in microwave ready foods today seems to be based on lifestyle trends. A fad in technology may see short-term success, but today's healthy lifestyle trends appear to be more poised for long-term growth. Using microwavable packaging technologies to exploit this emerging trend could make a brand heat up in a very short time.