The companies making closure equipment for bread bags are keeping their eyes on serving bakeries into the future with smart machinery with more sustainable equipment.

Kwik Lok manufactures equipment that can be managed through a tablet or smartphone, helping bakeries strapped for workers.

“I know that hiring and maintaining workforce is a major challenge for bakeries so automation really helps them because there are so many roles that need to be covered, and if we can help with our automated machines, then they can put their people on things that only people can do,” said Karen Reed, global director of marketing and communications, Kwik Lok. 

Burford Corp., a Middleby Bakery company, is looking at improved data collection for machinery, although they’ve been doing it for years.

“We want to get to the next level where we use data more effectively for our customers, allowing them to easily integrate the data into their own platform or provide them a local plant-level solution,” said Clay Miller, president, Burford. “The goal is to allow our customers to monitor wear parts and the performance of the machine. This gives them the ability to replace parts when it’s convenient for them instead of after it breaks. There will be an opportunity to incorporate AI technology in the very near future, and the data is the foundation that must already be in place.”

Finding more sustainable solutions is also an ongoing challenge.

“We don’t produce the twist tie, but we work alongside several companies that do so we can try to test and validate both sides of it: how it performs on the product and how it performs in the machine,” Miller said.

Kwik Lok offers a portfolio of products made of paper or polypropylene.

“We want to build closures that keep food fresh and safe so that we don’t have food waste, which is a huge environmental and social issue,” Reed said. “We are also working to make our closures out of materials that can be part of a circular economy.”

A key area of interest is incorporating recycled content in bread bags, said Veronica Ataya, director, marketing and innovation, St. Johns Packaging. 

The company partnered with Bimbo Bakeries USA to develop the first polyethylene bread bag in North America made with post-
 consumer recycled polyethylene content.

“These bags offer an improved carbon footprint without compromising performance,” Ataya said.

Richard Hobson, chief executive officer at We Seal, pointed out that one spool of resealable tape contains more than 27,000 closures.

“This represents a huge labor saving in addition to reduced downtime as changeover of the consumable is only needed every seven to eight hours when running at the highest speeds,” he said. 

Many European bakeries have switched to the clip band, which is a double-wire band that folds over itself to close bread bags.

“There is some cost savings with it,” said Bob Bezanilla, North American sales representative for Schutte Bagclosures.

This article is an excerpt from the May 2024 issue of Baking & Snack. To read the entire feature on Sliced Bread Packaging, click here.