CMActive's Torus Pak was a stand-out contender in the Food magazine awards' Packaging Design category this year.
In all traditional meal trays, the base is a solid integrated part of the container, but the Torus Pak has a unique flexible base with a folded pulling tab, enabling the meal to be presented on a porcelain plate exactly the way it's intended.
After removing the packaging, the meal will appear freshly cooked, as if plated by the chef and all traces of industrial production will be erased. As the top film will not be removed during the transfer of the meal, the Torus Pak also has an important safety element as no hot steam will burn the user's fingers.
CMActive imports and distributes the Torus Pak in Australia and upon claiming the Packaging Design award, a company representative told Food magazine "It's probably a world first. It's the first time ever that a piece of packaging allows you to actually plate and present a meal, whereas traditionally, if you had any form of foodservice packaging, and you want to eat off a plate you have to take the meal out of the packaging and put it onto the plate, which is usually in reverse to how it went in. So it might look nice in the packaging but by the time you've finished [plating] it looks like a dog's breakfast.
"But with Torus Pak, the base of the product removes so the meal drops straight through and however it looks in the pack is how it ends up on the plate.
"You can maintain the chef's integrity right throughout, so I think the Torus Pak has some great labour saving and cost saving benefits for the foodservice industry. We pay a lot for labour [in Australia] and there's labour shortages in foodservice so if you can simplify that, extend shelf life and improve product safety as well, then I think the Torus Pak has some great opportunities," he said.
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