Armed with a tabletop Sharp Carousel Convention oven, racks of clubstore-purchased uncooked pork ribs and some dry-rub, Sealed Air demonstrated the cook-from-raw capabilities of its new Cryovac Oven Ease Ovenable Bag at the Worldwide Food Expo (WWFE) 2009 .
Ribs were cooked in the Oven Ease bags for one hour at 400 deg using no additional liquids for tenderization. The multilayer bags enabled moisture to be retained during roasting, which also helped the dry rub seasoning's flavors penetrate the meat. When the ribs were fully cooked, Kari Dawson, Sealed Air Corp.'s director of marketing strategic programs in North America, cut open the bags, showed booth visitors how the trays remained clean during entire roasting process and proceeded to cut the ribs using a plastic fork and knife.
Comments such as Anderson''s are welcomed by Don Smith, marketing director for Sealed Air's Cryovac ovenable products. "We think the perfect application for this is ribs," said Smith. "But it also is a big opportunity for roasts and other meats that a lot of consumers don't know how to cook."
Available in widths from 8 to 16 in., the Oven Ease bag allows pre-seasoned items to be cooked inside the same material it is packaged in, reducing prep-time, clean-up time and, in some cases, cooking time. The high-clarity bags can be use for cook-from-raw or reheat applications.
Designed to run on a meat packager's existing rotary chamber systems, the bags enable entry into the value-added markets with minimal capital investments. This enables meat packagers to take a commodity product and transform it to a valued-added convenience item.
Noting a potential market for Oven Ease packaged products, Karen Nichols, Sealed Air interactive marketing manager for Cryovac Food Solutions remarked that a busy parent, who might feel guilty when having to rely on take-out or prepackaged meals, could use a Oven Ease packaged product to help cook a dinner "from scratch" without the complex cooking and cleanup routines that can take away from time with the kids.
