Wornick Co-Manufacturing

(Cincinnati, OH) August 15, 2011 – Wornick Foods, a leading manufacturer of convenience foods and customized meal solutions, provides innovative and sustainable packaging solutions in several flexible formats that are highly attractive on the grocery store shelf while reducing shipping weight and landfill waste versus traditional glass jars, metal cans or bag-in-box methods.

Wornick has a long history of devising flexible packaging with features such as microwavability, easy open/tear, "eat in" portability and self-venting technologies. Co-manufacturing and leading consumer product goods companies rely on Wornick Foods to design, develop and deliver flexible packaging that re-energizes or extends their product offerings while at the same time reduces the product’s carbon footprint.

“The flexible packaging industry is continuing to grow due to increasing demand from consumers and companies for convenient and more environmentally friendly packaged food products,” said John Kowalchik, Executive Vice President of Wornick Foods. “At Wornick, we have brought many innovative flexible packages to the market through our in-house packaging experts and their focus on light-weighting our containers and pouches to meet our sustainability objectives.” One aspect of Wornick Foods’ sustainable practices is recycling at the facility. All excess trim and packaging from the manufacturing process is recycled.

Wornick Foods utilizes BPA-free plastic films to create pouches and trays that require less paper packaging and corrugated cardboard for shipping. These individual, shelf-ready food products weigh less, are less bulky than traditional bag in a box, cans or glass and allow more units to be packaged per box and pallet. Energy usage and raw materials are reduced for production of the packaging, the individual unit and pallet weigh less for shipping and the carbon footprint of the product is minimized.

Many Wornick Foods products are shipped in containers that will easily become point-of-purchase displays on the retail or grocery floor, further reducing the use of paper and corrugate. The retail ready display is environmentally friendly and further minimizes the carbon footprint of the food products.

Wornick Foods’ co-manufactured food products are shelf-ready, meaning they do not need to be heated or refrigerated. The pouch and tray formats utilized by Wornick Foods allow food to be more portable and eaten directly from the container – eliminating the consumer’s need to wash dishes or bowls after use and reduce energy consumption.

“Wornick Foods partners with the leading consumer products goods companies to bring the brands and foods that consumers love to the shelf,” added Kowalchik. “Our packaging and engineering experts are continuously exploring new films and methods to achieve highly attractive and more sustainable packaging and shipping formats.” 

Wornick Foods has built a reputation with and is relied upon by widely recognized brands and grocery chains to manufacture products consumers love and trust. Our focus on "Design, Develop, Deliver" ensures we can provide everything a brand or consumer package goods company needs to launch innovative, high quality frozen and shelf safe™ foods in convenience driven packaging. Our team is ready to work with yours and we have the resources to do as much as you need us to.

Last year a large, national restaurant chain came to us with a concept for a new, Mexican style line of entrée’s that they wanted to launch very quickly. The Wornick Foods team of experts jumped into action.

The customer came with an idea – not a developed recipe, which we also accommodate. The first step in the Wornick process is to design – our professional chefs worked with the chefs at the restaurant chain’s headquarters to finalize the meal’s ingredients and formulation. At the same time, our packaging experts worked with the co-pack manager to ensure that once the recipe and process was finalized, appropriate specifications for the primary and secondary package along with shipper were established.

The next step in the process – develop – ensures that your food tastes the same when it arrives at the restaurant as it did on the stove-top. Wornick’s experts in food science and technology work closely with our professional chefs to ensure your food tastes great while our thermal processing specialists make certain that it is safe – whether it’s shelf stable or frozen. At Wornick, a fully integrated development and delivery team is assigned to you, ensuring both quality and consistency in the production of your custom products and packaging.

The final stage is deliver – we meet our customer’s expectations throughout every step of the process. We know it’s not just about great food but the bottom line, our procurement and supply chain managers are professionals and will get the best price possible. Wornick’s customers rely on us to get the product to the restaurant and in the consumer's hands.

At Wornick Foods, we’re comfortable working under tight deadlines and we’re ready to invest in your product. The Mexican style entrée’s were taken from an idea to the production line and the restaurant’s tables within 16 weeks – at Wornick we move food forward to meet our customer’s goals.