How to Improve Feed Freshness with Savvy Packaging Equipment Selection

When it comes to preserving animal feed freshness, packaging materials matter, but the equipment behind the packaging is just as critical. For animal feed operations managers, the right bag filling, sealing and palletizing systems can directly influence how long feed stays safe, nutritious, and market-ready.

In this post, we’ll offer equipment-specific advice to help you extend shelf life, reduce spoilage, and enhance feed freshness from the moment it’s bagged to when it’s delivered to your customers. Here are five tips to get you started:

1. Balance speed with precision
2. Invest in advanced sealing technology
3. Use bag deflation systems to prevent oxidation
4. Choose palletizing systems designed to protect product integrity
5. Automate quality control to catch issues early

Throughout this post, we’ll also highlight a couple of key BW Flexible Systems solutions that are uniquely suited to address the nuances of ensuring feed freshness. Let’s dig in!

Who We Are

BW Flexible Systems helps animal feed producers safeguard product integrity while modernizing their operations with flexible bag filling, sealing and palletizing solutions. Our automated Thiele bagging and SYMACH palletizing solutions are known for their efficiency, versatility, precision, and ease of operability. We offer our clients training, service and a lifetime of support for every solution sold.

5 Equipment-Driven Strategies for Extending Feed Shelf Life

Balancing Speed with Precision

High-speed production is essential for meeting customer demand, but speed without precision is a losing formula. By prioritizing both speed and precision, you can reduce instances of overfilling, underfilling and seal inconsistencies – all of which can compromise feed freshness and shelf life. Whereas machines like the Thiele UltraStar Bag Filling System are ideal for high-throughput environments (offering speeds up to 38 bags per minute), a solution like the Thiele OmniStar Bag Filling System could be a stronger fit for sensitive or high-value formulations, thanks to its servo-driven precision and automatic bag rejection.

Investing in Advanced Sealing Technology

Sealing is your first line of defense against oxygen and moisture. A weak seal can lead to microbial growth, nutrient loss and product recalls. Advanced sealing, however, can protect your product and brands, strengthening customer trust and protecting your bottom line. The UltraStar supports both heat and ultrasonic sealing, giving you flexibility based on your feed type and packaging material. The OmniStar offers integral sealing for poly, paper, and polywoven bags, ensuring tight, consistent closures.

Using Bag Deflation Systems to Prevent Oxidation

Trapped air inside sealed bags can accelerate spoilage, especially in high-fat or oil-rich feeds. Less air means less oxidation, fewer clumps, and longer-lasting feed. The OmniStar and UltraStar systems both feature a bag deflation system, which removes excess air before sealing, helping maintain freshness and improving pallet stability.

Choosing Palletizing Systems Designed to Protect Product Integrity

Once your feed is bagged, how it’s stacked matters. Poor stacking can crush bags, break seals, and introduce contaminants. Precision palletizing, on the other hand, preserves the protective barrier you’ve worked hard to create. BW Flexible Systems’ SYMACH Mach Series Palletizers use a unique manipulator to gently position each bag, minimizing damage and ensuring consistent stacking patterns. Optional stacking cages prevent bags from shifting or overhanging during transit.

Automating Quality Control to Catch Issues Early

Automation ensures only properly sealed, accurately filled bags make it to your customers, reducing waste and boosting confidence. Modern systems like the OmniStar and UltraStar bagging systems come equipped with automation features that reduce human error and improve consistency:

• Automatic bag rejection for under/overfilled bags
• Integrated bag monitoring
• Barcode-driven changeovers
• Remote diagnostics and fault tracking

3 Bagging & Palletizing Solutions That Support Feed Shelf Life

Once you’ve identified the shelf-life challenges in your feed packaging process, the next step is selecting the right equipment to solve them. BW Flexible Systems offers a portfolio of automated, operator-friendly bagging and palletizing solutions designed to help animal feed producers preserve product integrity, reduce spoilage, and meet customer expectations. Whether you’re running a high-capacity facility or scaling up a regional operation, we can recommend solutions to fit your needs, including:

• Thiele UltraStar Bagging Solutions
  The UltraStar series delivers the precision and efficiency required by today’s feed producers. With speeds up to 38 bags per minute and support for heat and ultrasonic sealing, UltraStar systems help maintain tight seals and consistent fill weights, two critical factors in extending shelf life. Its user-friendly interface and streamlined design reduce downtime and simplify maintenance, making it a smart choice for mid-sized operations looking to boost throughput without sacrificing quality.
• Thiele OmniStar Bagging Solutions
  OmniStar systems offer versatile, high-performance bagging for a wide range of feed types and packaging formats. With servo-driven control, automatic bag rejection, and integrated bag deflation, OmniStar helps reduce oxidation and ensure accurate fills. Its adaptability to poly, polywoven, and paper bags makes it ideal for producers managing multiple product lines or transitioning between formulations. The system’s automation features also support consistent quality and reduced manual intervention.
• SYMACH Mach Series Palletizing Solutions
  Mach Series palletizers are engineered to protect product integrity through precision stacking. Their unique manipulator gently positions each bag, minimizing damage and maintaining seal integrity during palletization. These systems accommodate various bag types and stacking patterns, helping producers maintain stable, contamination-resistant loads. Optional features like stacking cages and hybrid multi-heads further enhance flexibility and performance across different packaging configurations.

Lifetime Support That Protects Your Investment

At BW Flexible Systems, our commitment to feed freshness doesn’t end with the equipment – it continues through every stage of your operation. We offer comprehensive training and lifetime support to ensure your team gets the most from your UltraStar, OmniStar, and Mach Series systems. From onboarding and operator education to ongoing technical assistance and expert guidance, we’re here to help you maintain optimal performance, reduce downtime, and preserve product integrity for the long haul.

Learn More

Did you find this content useful? To discover more insights, tools, and solutions tailored for animal feed producers, visit our Animal Feed Packaging Solutions page.