Changing and increasingly individual lifestyles, especially in big cities, are also changing our eating habits. There are no longer "housewives" at home serving up the delicious dishes of Turkish cuisine. Economic conditions are drawing homemakers into the business world as well.
So, will we have to do without the flavours we are used to and love? Of course not. There is an industry that works tirelessly to give back to society many of the things modern life has taken from us: Technology…
People living in big cities, exhausted when they get home from work, no longer have the energy or the time to cook. The "West", which reached this point years before us, has tried to solve this problem with ready-meal packs. In our country, however, the ready-meal market still faces difficulties. Because the ready-meal solutions offered to consumers so far do not fully meet our expectations of flavour. Turkish society, accustomed to at least three hot dishes at the table — soup, a main course, rice or pasta, and salad — shies away on hearing the words "ready meal".
Although we adopted the ready-meal concept from the West, at VOLVAC we are working on new ready-meal techniques that meet society's expectations without breaking away from our traditional flavours. In doing so, we aim to bring the flavours of traditional Turkish cuisine not only to the domestic market but also to the world market. In this context, we collaborate with many national and international companies.
For perishable ready-to-eat/ready-to-use foods, product safety through combinations of minimal processing and storage under controlled heating/cooling conditions is of great importance to prevent the growth of pathogenic organisms and ensure microbial safety.
Minimally processed foods are produced using a range of modern technologies that aim to change the food as little as possible while providing sufficient shelf life from producer to consumer. Food products containing little or no preservatives and subjected to mild heat treatment to retain a freshly cooked taste are creating a whole new concept in ready-food consumption.
Our industrial food sector has been undergoing serious change in recent years due to both global influences and the dynamics of the domestic market. Naturally, we must not forget the reactions of increasingly informed end consumers if we are to analyse today's and tomorrow's picture well.
The raw materials of our industrial food sector — seeds, fertilisers, pesticides, feed, etc. — are imported, and when we add expensive fuel and electricity costs, we have hardly any alternative for our food industry other than value-added production. We can gain advantages with very good packaging, but doing business with a single parameter in a market with intense unfair competition is not easy at all.
At this stage, we need many new technology applications in terms of preparation, processing and packaging. With these applications, which are becoming widespread especially in Europe, we are opening the door to a whole new world in the ready-food industry…
In fact, we now need to gather all the work done so far to meet market demands, sit down at the table and approach it with a new understanding…
When the right technologies are chosen, we need no chemical preservatives in any of our processes or packaging. Heat treatment alone, combined with vacuum, MAP or active packaging, can be sufficient. Of course, our raw material growing potential and production capacity, the existing infrastructure and accurate market information must be analysed and handled by professional teams.
Current technological developments can be applied quickly as long as they meet consumer expectations. Today's consumers' demand for industrial production that is high-quality, safe, nutritious, easily available, quick to prepare and free of environmental impact is the main driver in updating our projects.
Please do not hesitate to call our office for any additional information or technical assistance.
Every model of VOLVAC Packaging and Food Machines is suitable for packaging all kinds of ready meals.