"Your duck necks have grown white hair when they were shipped to Inner Mongolia!" When Lao Chen, the owner of a food factory in Sichuan, received a call from a distributor in Inner Mongolia last summer, he was so anxious that his mouth was bubbling. As a well-known stewed food brand in Hunan, their spicy duck necks and sauced duck have conquered the stomachs of locals with their authentic taste, but they have never been able to cross the Yangtze River-until October last year, our factory's vacuum packaging machine roared in the workshop, and this battle for freshness took a turn for the better.
Salesman Li's "Diagnosis Site"
The first time I went to a food factory workshop in Sichuan, I was shocked by the scene in front of me: more than 20 workers surrounded the operating table, frantically putting plastic bags on duck necks, and then heating them with a simple sealing machine. The packaged products were piled in the corner, and the sour smell of pepper mixed with spoiled oil could be smelled from a long distance away. "It's not that we don't want to change it, we tried three equipments and none of them worked!" Lao Chen complained in a hoarse voice, "The duck neck bones are sharp, and the bag will break when the ordinary vacuum machine is used; too much soup will leak the vacuum pump, and too little soup will make customers complain that it is dry."
The technician Xiao Wang who followed me opened the package of problematic products on the spot, pointed to the packaging bag that was leaking oil and said: "You see, this ordinary vacuum machine does not exhaust the air thoroughly, and the residual oxygen causes the oil to oxidize and smell rancid. Our vacuum packaging machine has a liquid buffer mode, and the pressure is adjusted in three stages when vacuuming-" Before he finished speaking, Lao Chen waved his hand to interrupt: "Don't do those empty things! Pull a machine tomorrow and we can wrap this pot of duck necks first!"
Three days of testing the machine to determine the outcome
Before dawn the next day, our factory's engineering vehicle drove into the factory area. Master installer Lao Zhou was holding a cigarette in his mouth, and while adjusting the equipment, he muttered: "This job has to be done by our vacuum packaging machine!" He deliberately chose a double-chamber alternating model. When the left chamber was vacuumed, the right side could be loaded synchronously, specifically for products with sharp corners such as duck necks and chicken feet.
On the day of trial production, the workshop was full of people. When the first batch of duck necks came out of the equipment, quality inspector Xiao Liu held the packaging bag to the light to check: "The bone tip did not pierce the membrane! The soup is locked at the bottom of the bag and does not flow!" What's more, the equipment automatically identifies the amount of soup in each bag. If there is more soup, the heat sealing time will be automatically extended, and if there is less soup, the vacuum degree will be strengthened. Lao Chen touched the warm packaging bag and smacked his lips: "This machine is more efficient than my wife wrapping zongzi!"
After-sales Xiao Wang's "unexpected harvest"
When he visited again three months later, the factory's workshop had changed a lot. The original packaging team of 20 people was reduced to 8 people, and six vacuum packaging machines were lined up to work, which could process 3 tons of marinated products every day. Lao Chen took me to the cold storage and pointed at the boxes piled to the ceiling, saying with emotion: "The shelf life of the product used to be only three days. Now with your equipment, it can be stored at room temperature for a week without any problem, and the cold chain transportation can last for half a year!"
What surprised him most was the market feedback. The orders from the north that he didn't dare to accept in the past are now sold to Heilongjiang through e-commerce. Dealer Lao Zhao smiled in the video: "Customers said that vacuum-packed duck necks are more flavorful than freshly caught ones. You locked the soup and chili oil into the meat cracks!"
Now when you walk into the food factory, you can still see our handwritten equipment operation formula on the wall of the workshop: "One draw, two press, three seal, lock the freshness and fragrance to go around the world". Lao Chen is discussing with us about adding a new spicy crayfish production line. He said that with the vacuum packaging machine, this time he wants to vacuum seal the freshness of Dongting Lake and send it to farther places.
