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Harpak-Ulma, a packaging solutions provider, has launched its Tight-Bag machine for poultry products. Tight-Bag technology, now available in North America, combines vertical bagging with a patented air extraction process to automate vacuum bagging for many food products. The Tight-Bag machine produces leakproof bags without perforations and includes HMI-adjustable air volume – a process that can facilitate up to 15% more bags per case for some products. Harpak-Ulma’s Tight-Bag solution for poultry products, branded as Tight-Chicken, combines automated product loading and vertical bagging to overcome manual-intensive processes commonly associated with fresh poultry bagging. The process includes forming film around the vertical tube, which delivers the product and produces specialised cross-sealing jaws combined with venturi air evacuation to seal each bag to the desired degree of air content. The machine can accommodate a variety of packaging films, including the breathable film used in some fresh, crust-chilled poultry applications. Hugh Crouch, Harpak-Ulma flow wrap manager, commented: “This is a night and day innovation for producers. Until now, packaging fresh poultry required two separate systems – one to open the premade bag to insert the product and one to extract air and seal the bag… Tight-Chicken executes the forming, sealing, and air extraction continuously, like an assembly line. The result is a more attractive and hygienically safe package and about four times the productivity factor over manual systems.”