Launched just before last Christmas, we couldn’t have predicted just what an impact Estercook Roast-In-The-Bag packaging would have. Great-tasting, succulent whole chicken, ready to be roasted in the bag with a variety of delicious added-value flavours hit the chiller cabinets in Asda as part of their Butcher’s Selection range, with ovenable printed packaging produced by FFP. Since then, the growth of this packaging format has transformed the category.
Going back to that original brief, FFP worked closely with leading UK food company Faccenda Foods, who had been challenged by Asda to come up with a truly innovative packed product, and who worked closely throughout with FFP together with machinery manufacturers and ingredient suppliers to create the category-defining result.
The additional factor that has developed over the course of the year has been a public health focus, led by the Food Standards Agency, highlighting the importance of proper handling of raw meat, especially chicken, to avoid the spread of pathogenic bacteria such as campylobacter.
The Estercook high temperature packaging allows people to cook a delicious whole chicken, from scratch, without ever having to handle the raw bird. Many people also miss out on the benefits of cooking because theylack confidence in handling and storing raw food. FFP’s Estercook packaging remedies this by taking the handling and the waste out of the equation. People take a convenient pack home and place it directly into the oven, so they don’t come into contact with the food until it is fully cooked.
All components of Estercook packaging are fully tested and comply with national and international standards for temperature resistance. FFP go beyond the requirements of UK and European legislation, adding in further tests that provide an extra level of confidence in pack safety.
The pack is simply pierced once, placed into the oven and left to cook in one of seven complementary flavoured coatings, from spicy piri-piri to traditional sage and onion. The pack forms a chamber around the bird, keeping the inside of the oven clean and allowing the moisture and flavourings from the chicken to surround and permeate the flesh. The chicken skin will brown within the pack, and customers can choose to open the pack a fewminutes before the end of cooking if they want a crispy finish.
Since launch, the Simply Roast in the Bag pack has received a number of prestigious national and international awards, including a GoldAward in The Grocer’s Own Label Food and Drink Awards, a Highly Commended in The Marketing Society Awards, and one of the very few DuPont Packaging Awards, presented in the USA. To cap off an amazing year, in November 2014, Asda’s Butcher’s Selection Roast in the Bag Chicken was voted Plastic Flexible Packaging Pack of the Year in the UK Packaging Awards.
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