Modern life can be hard and draining. Sometimes after a long day at the office, the last thing anyone wants to do is go to the grocery store, figure out a meal plan for the night, and cook their food. This consumer mindset has created a lot of opportunities and driven much innovation, including meal delivery services like GrubHub, a rising popularity of frozen meals and convenience foods, and the emergence of innovative meal preparation services like Blue Apron, Hello Fresh, Home Chef, and many others.
Recipe delivery services like those listed above allow consumers to cook their own food without worrying about shopping, preparation, or ingredients. Shipping each ingredient pre-prepared and packed with ice in a box with simple, step-by-step instructions, these recipe-in-a-box delivery services allow consumers to handcraft delicious meals for a low price, and with utmost convenience.
Curiosity got the better of the team here at TGW and we started thinking – it would be interesting to take a look at all of the places where our products fit in with this new, innovative meal-delivery service. Here are just a few of the touch points where our industrial knives play a part in allowing consumers to put their meals on “autopilot”.
Food Processing Knives
From the first step, every ingredient in the box has to be cut. From julienned peppers to diced onions and cubed chicken, high-quality food processing knives are front-and-center when it comes to these meal preparation companies. Blue Apron is on pace to do nearly $1 Billion in sales for 2017. That means there’s a ton (literally!) of food that needs to be properly processed as part of their supply chain. The organizations these companies pull in to help process their ready-to-make meals need to ensure they are using high-quality knives that provide a consistently clean cut.
Our specialized food processing knives are the best in the business and can be coated with USDA-approved coatings for non-stick capabilities and long wear, making them appropriate for all food manufacturing and processing needs.
Vacuum Packaging
From smoky pork burgers to honey-glazed salmon, these items needs to be kept as fresh as possible for consumers. Vacuum packaging is essential for keeping ingredients fresh in these boxed meals. TGW International specializes in industrial knives used for vacuum-packing and roll-stock equipment.
Our products are available in a huge variety of designs, such as standard OEM tooth designs that include perforated, serrated, and EZ-open profiles for sealed packages as well as circular slitters both with and without notches for perforating and slitting, corner die punches, and piercing blades.
Best of all, each of our products can be upgraded with specialized coatings and materials for maximum longevity.
Tag and Label Cutting Knives
Presentation is everything. All of the ingredients you receive in your meal are clearly labeled so you know what they are and with which recipe it goes. Those labels are printed and then cut to spec so it fits on the plastic bag, baggie, bottle, or shrink wrapped protein. TGW provides a huge variety of Pressroom, Bindery & Mailroom, Finishing, and Tag & Label machinery, making us an industry leader for tags and labels. Our tag and label cutting knives are available in multiple finishes, steels, and coatings for high-performance machines, and provide maximum wear resistance, quality, and dust control.
Our knives all boast tremendous burr-resistance and a consistent hardness that makes them appropriate for all of tag and label cutting needs.
Our products include:
- Inlaid Carbide Circular and Straight Knives
- Slitter Holders and Top Slitters
- Rotary/Fixed Cutoff Knives
Paper Cutters For Recipes
As part of their meal plan subscription, Blue Apron will provide an individual with 3 recipes per week. This helps you to know what to do with those fresh ingredients just delivered to your doorstep. Each recipe in a box must be cut, folded, and perfectly prepared to meet the company’s and consumer’s requirements. Even on this heavier duty stock, brand image is at stake. If this thing is frayed or has pieces hanging from it, what does that say for the food you’re about to cook and consume? The high-quality industrial knives provided by TGW allow for a high quality, consistent paper product. TGW provides exceptional knives to the paper and paperboard industry.
Corrugated Cardboard For Boxes
Blue Apron alone ships 8 million boxed meals every month. Corrugated boxes are used in a variety of packaging applications and these guys are no different. Meals come neatly packaged in a cardboard box lined with ice packs to keep the contents fresh for a few hours. TGW provides extremely durable and high-quality knives and equipment used in the corrugated cardboard industry (by the way, we also make the knives that can cut the plastic that makes the ice packs). A sampling of our products includes:
- Bottom slitters
- Circular slitters
- Razor slitters and blades
- Serrated sheeter knives
- Z cut off blades
In conclusion…
Even Blue Apron meals couldn’t be possible without industrial knives like those manufactured by TGW, which goes to show how important industrial machine knives are in everyday life. Look around – if it’s cut, we likely make a knife for it.
Whether you’re processing food, cutting cardboard, printing or manufacturing labels, or even vacuum-sealing ingredients, the high-quality knives of TGW are there hidden in plain sight, helping critical day-to-day operations and allowing consumer trends like Blue Apron “meal-in-a-box” companies to flourish.