Who likes eating food such as cured meats or fish that has begun to dry out due to having been sat on the shelf for a long time, and the food has begun to look more than past its best? A typical example of this could be home smoked meats, which if left on a shelf overnight by morning will have dried out so much as to be un-sellable. Whilst they may still taste okay the texture of them will feel completely wrong to the person purchasing them to eat.
The above scenario can also apply to many other items such as smoked fish or cheeses. So what is the solution to this problem? Well you will be glad to know that the solution is relatively simple and comes in the form of vacuum packing. Now you may wish your items to be displayed in their natural state but the plain fact of it is if you have not sold them all by the end of the day you may well end up throwing the stock away. This will dent your profits considerably so whilst a vacuum packed item may not look quite so good it can actually be a necessity if you wish to maximise your profits. The good news is that small vacuum packing machines are available that have a minimal footprint enabling them to be squeezed onto the smallest of counters.
Typical vacuum packing machines come in two standard formats either ones that operate on a timer basis or ones that operate with a vacuum sensor. The advantage either one of these machines gives you is that they are both extremely fast to operate and a typical small item will be vacuumed in just a matter of seconds, yet adding a couple of days to its freshness instantly.
A basic timer operated machine will start at around £1200 mark and a sensor based machine will start at around the £2300 mark. In both cases the price of the machine goes up in proportion to the size of the vacuum unit itself so the larger the size of items that you wish to be vacuumed, the more you will pay for a vacuum machine in which to carry out the task.
A vacuum packing machine is something that I would highly recommend for any small business above any other machine that you might be considering buying. As by extending the shelf life of your products you immediately reduce wastage and thus increase your profits.
NATHANIEL BAILEY
