Ready Meal Production Line Manufacturers

Ready meal production lines — integration and process

A ready meal production line takes separately prepared food components (cooked protein, sauce, vegetables, starch base) and assembles them into a meal tray that is then sealed, chilled or frozen, and packed for retail or food service. The typical line elements are: component preparation areas (cooking kettles for sauces and gravies; meat cutting, marinating, and cooking; vegetable preparation and blanching — see the relevant category pages for these machines); filling and assembly (tray infeed conveyors; portion depositors for liquid components; portion depositors or manual placement for solid components; the assembly sequence is determined by the recipe); sealing (MAP sealing machines apply a controlled gas atmosphere and heat-seal a film lid to the tray); labelling; blast chilling (trays of sealed ready meals must be chilled rapidly from above 60°C cooking temperature to below 5°C before despatch — this is a critical food safety CCP); final inspection (metal detector, weight check); secondary packing; and cold store. Chilled ready meal production requires a strictly managed temperature-controlled production environment throughout.