Honey packaging has a long history. As far back as ancient Egypt, people began to harvest honey by removing combs from wild hives and storing them in jars. Honey is still popular nowadays. The packaging is evolving over time to meet people’s needs. Like glass jars, plastic pouches and metal cans, they are the honey packaging types we often see. In modern life, honey packaging machines won’t be missed when you talk about honey packaging. I will give you a more detailed introduction to honey packaging in the following.
What is Honey Packaging?
Honey is harvested, extracted, refined and packaged before it reaches the store shelves. Packaging involves different machines and packaging materials that meet the requirements for long-term storage and transportation of honey products. Common honey packaging includes glass bottles, plastic bottles, sachets and tins. Below I will introduce you to the different packaging machines and packaging materials and types, so that you can make a suitable choice between them.
Types of Honey Packaging
Glass Jar
Glass jars are undoubtedly one of the most popular packaging for honey, and there is a wide range of them. The high transparency feature can show off the beautiful golden color of your honey, which is often the first impression people have of a honey product.
In addition to being visually appealing, glass jars also protect honey products well from gasses and moisture, prevent honey from quickly crystallizing due to water evaporation and reduce the chance of honey fermenting by preventing moisture from entering. Moreover, glass has no odor, ensuring the original flavor of the honey.
Common glass jars include traditional Muth Jars, Wide Mouth Jars and the flat, wider Queenline Jars.
Pouch
Honey pouches are lightweight and highly customizable, can be equipped with spouts, handles, etc. They take up little space and are easy to carry. They are made from plastic films, common materials are polyethylene, laminate, foils and PET. The pouches are strong, durable and puncture-resistant, making them less likely to be damaged during loading and transportation.
Stick Form
Honey stick packs and honey straws are both types of stick form honey packaging. Honey stick pack is in the shape of a long, thin tube and usually contains a single serving. It is small and convenient, suitable for carrying when you go out for travel or work. Honey straws are also long and thin, you can simply cut or tear open one end to squeeze out the honey. Perfect for quick additions to drinks or food. In cafes, teahouses or restaurants, honey straws can be offered to customers as a sweetener for easy addition to drinks or food.
Plastic Bottle
Compared to glass packaging, plastic packaging is lightweight, more durable, not easy to break, and has good flexibility. It can better protect honey products during shipment.
Honey Bear Packaging
It is a plastic bottle shaped like a cute little bear that is highly recognizable and particularly attractive to children.
Metal Canister
Metal canisters are sturdy and durable and a great choice for storage and transport. They have excellent barrier properties and protect honey from oxygen, moisture and light. They are usually made of tin, aluminum or steel.
Honey Packaging Box
It is often used as a gift box. The beautiful packaging not only attracts customers, but also provides added protection for the honey.
Types of Honey Packaging Machine
Honey filling machine
- Piston Filling Machine
The piston filling machine uses the movement of the piston to fill honey. It can fill products with various viscosities and is perfect for honey filling. It is also highly accurate and fast. You can choose a piston filling machine with multiple nozzles to increase production.
- Gravity Filling Machine
Gravity fillers, on the other hand, are best suited for lower viscosity honey. It uses the principle of gravity to allow the honey to flow in the direction of gravity for filling.
- Overflow Bottle Filling Machine
Overflow bottle filling machine has a reverse feeding process that avoids material wastage and spoilage.
Following the overflow principle, excess liquid is collected and transported back to the hopper for reuse. The overflow tube not only recovers excess liquid, but also prevents foaming or splashing during the filling process, ensuring the product quality.
Premade Pouch Packaging Machine
This type of machine packs honey in premade pouches. The fully automated premade pouch packaging machine works extremely fast. The pouches are transported via a conveyor system to the opening area, opened by opening bars and then transported to the filling area, where they are positioned under the filling nozzles and the honey is filled precisely into the pouches. Then sealed.
Stick Pack Packaging Machine
For packaging honey in stick packaging, the film rolls placed on the machine’s feeding roller form sticks. Honey from the hopper goes into sticks by the pressure created through pumps. Then sealed. And finally cut.
Jar or Bottle Packing Machine
These machines can fill and package bottles and jars of different sizes. They have filling nozzles with highly precise shut-off valves that stop when the flow reaches a predetermined value. The bottles or jars are moved through a conveyor belt and reach under the filling nozzles, the filling machine fills the container with honey through the nozzles. After the filling, they continue to be transported through the conveyor belt to reach the capping area for capping. Then transported again to reach the labeling area for labeling.
Capping Machine
Put it simply, a bottle capping machine is used to put and tighten caps into bottles. It can be categorized into manual, semi-automatic and fully automatic machines. The capping machines can handle screw caps, cork caps, and other caps. Capping protects honey from contamination. There are many types of capping machines, you can choose them according to your honey packaging types.
Induction Sealing Machine
Induction sealing is a non-contact process. It takes place after capping the honey containers. Capped bottles passing under the induction sealing machine by a conveyor. The sealing head produces an electromagnetic field. The electric current produced by the electromagnetic field transmits to the foil liner layer inside the cap, which rapidly heats up the liner. The hot foil in turn melts the polymer coating on the inner-seal. Then the bottle leaves the induction sealing machine. When the heat seal layer cools and solidifies, it firmly sticks to the mouth of the container, creating a strong seal. The induction sealing improves the shelf life of honey products and provides a tamper-evident seal.
Labeling Machine
Labeling machine can accurately stick labels onto your honey containers. While your honey containers move through the labeling station, the machine labels your container bodies. The label provides clear information about your honey product and helps to improve the shelf appeal.
Conclusion
If you want to packaging honey, you need to consider both the honey packaging type and the packaging machine. When you choose honey packaging, you can choose from packaging such as queenline jars, plastic bottles, and pouches. Choosing the right filling machine, capping machine, and labeling machine etc. are all important points you need to consider. If you want to know more about honey packaging solutions, please contact us.
