Extended shelf life, tamper evidence and fast production speeds are among the benefits that a major sauce manufacturer has gained through induction heat sealing.

Mendes Gonçalves, one of Portugal’s largest sauce producers, started using induction sealing 10 years ago to meet the required regulations of the food industry.

Carlos Prino, Industrial Projects Director at Mendes, explained:

“An induction seal is the standard in our market and ensures we meet the required food regulations, which is why we moved to induction sealing a decade ago.

“We also knew that by adding an induction seal to our products, we could maintain the high quality and have an extended shelf life, which is particularly important for the products we export to places like Africa.”

Another crucial benefit that Mendes gained by moving to induction sealing was tamper evidence.

Mr Prino said:

“Induction sealing is a very simple process that provides our products with added security and assurance in the form of tamper evidence.

“If a consumer opens the product and sees that it is already open, they know not to use it.

“Tamper evidence is very important to us in the food industry.”

Mendes’ production facility in Golegã is currently home to five Enercon sealers, which are responsible for sealing 3,000 bottles per hour and 120,000 bottles a day.

Among the products that are sealed is the well-known brand Paladin, which includes mayonnaise, ketchup, mustard, BBQ and salad sauces in container sizes of 75ml to 1kg.

Speaking about the equipment, Mr Prino said:

“Out of all the induction sealing machines we have tried, Enercon is our preferred choice.

“The machines are stronger, more efficient and can be easily integrated into production lines to maintain fast production speeds.

“We are also able to change the sealing heads very easily, which allows us to seal different sized products without losing production time.

“Enercon’s machines are also the only induction sealers we can use to seal our gourmet culinary sauces because of the different style cap.”

Part of the Paladin range uses a pointed cap, known as a conical cap, which enables a more precise application of the sauce.

However, because the foil is recessed from the top of the cap, it can be more difficult to achieve a perfect seal. To enable such containers to be sealed, Enercon’s machines are fitted with unique sealing heads designed to focus the sealing energy directly to the foil’s position.

“It is very easy to seal with an Enercon machine,” said Mr Prino.

“When we wanted to start sealing the product we sent samples to Enercon to identify what would be the best configuration and now we are able to seal them quickly and easily.

“We always have good support from Enercon and their Portuguese distributor Afinomaq and we know that if we have any questions, we will get all the support we need.”

To find out more about Mendes Gonçalves visit, or to find out more about Enercon visit.