Dry products have a reputation for being the easy end of packaging, and anyone who has run them knows better. Muesli separates on the way to the filler. Granola clusters break, and a broken cluster is a cheaper product in the customer’s hand. Dried fruit sticks to everything it touches.
The specification here is not about viscosity. It is about how your product doses, how gently it is handled, and what it leaves behind at the seal.
Dry products we pack
| Product | What your line has to handle |
|---|---|
| Muesli and mixed cereal | A blend that has to stay blended all the way into the pack |
| Granola and clusters | Gentle handling, so the product arrives whole |
| Dried fruit | Sticky, clumping product dosed to an accurate weight |
| Nuts, seeds and toppings | Oil-rich product that needs the right seal to stay fresh |
| Portion and snack packs | Small fill weights, where accuracy matters most |
What makes these lines work
A mix that stays mixed
Flakes, raisins and nuts do not stay blended through a hopper on their own. Heavy pieces settle, light pieces ride, and the pack at the end of a run can look different from the one at the start. Ask how the machine keeps the mix representative, and ask for weights checked late in a run.
Gentle handling beats slow running
Breakage comes from how far product falls and how many times it is handed over, not from how fast the line runs. Count the transfer points between your hopper and the finished pack — that number tells you more about breakage than any machine rating.
A seal area that stays clear
Fines and sugar dust settle exactly where the film needs to bond. It is the dry equivalent of sauce on a tray rim and it produces the same result: packs that look sealed and are not. Ask what keeps that area clear, and ask to see it after a long run rather than in the first five minutes.
Sticky and free-flowing are two different jobs
A machine demonstrated on cereal flakes tells you very little about how it will handle dates or sultanas. If you run both, say so early and insist the trial covers the difficult one. That is the run worth watching.
The right class for your pack
Bags, pouches and portion packs formed from film on the machine run on form fill and seal at 100–300 units per minute, which is also where modified atmosphere is published — worth having for oil-rich product. Bought-in cups and tubs, for breakfast pots and snack portions, run on cup fill and seal at up to 120 cups per minute. Where dry product goes into a bought-in tray as part of a larger pack, tray sealing applies.
Before you brief a supplier
Your pack size and fill weight, whether the product is fragile, sticky or free-flowing, and your smallest pack — because that is where accuracy is hardest to hold. Those get you a useful answer quickly.