Bakery products are soft, warm, and full of moisture, and every one of those properties is a problem for a packaging machine. A bag that works perfectly for biscuits will turn a loaf of bread into a soggy, mouldy disappointment within four days.
The machine matters less than the film and the timing. Get those two right and almost everything else follows.
Bread is warm when you bag it
A loaf leaving the oven has a core temperature around 90 degrees, and even after a cooling conveyor it is often still 30 to 40 degrees at the bagger. Seal it at that temperature and the moisture inside the crumb starts evaporating into the bag, condenses on the cool film, and runs down to the bottom.
Two things follow. First, cool properly before bagging, to below 30 degrees core if your process allows. Second, accept that some condensation will happen anyway and choose a film that can breathe.
Perforation and breathability
Micro-perforated film lets moisture escape at a controlled rate while keeping the product clean. The hole size and density matter: too few and you get condensation, too many and the bread dries out and goes hard.
Typical bakery film runs 30 to 60 micron, with a perforation pattern chosen for the product’s moisture loss rate. Ask the film supplier what the WVTR (water vapour transmission rate) is, and ask them what they recommend for your specific product and shelf life. Then test it: pack ten loaves, store them at your worst realistic condition, and open one every day for a week.
For tortillas and pita, the calculation changes, because those products stale by drying rather than by moulding, and a barrier film with a small amount of perforation often works better than a fully breathable one.
Crumb on the seal
Breadcrumbs are the bakery equivalent of sand in a gearbox. They sit on the jaw, they burn, and they hold the seal open by a fraction of a millimetre.
Three fixes: a crumb brush or air knife before the jaws, a jaw coating that releases residue, and a cleaning routine at every break rather than every shift. On a high-speed line, a small extraction hood over the sealing area also helps, because it removes the airborne crumb before it lands.
Format by product
| Product | Format | Machine |
|---|---|---|
| Sliced loaf | Side gusset bag with clip or seal | VFFS with gusset, or a dedicated bread bagger |
| Buns and rolls, 6-pack | Flow wrap or bag | Flow wrapper with gentle infeed |
| Tortillas, stacked | Flow wrap, often with a count | Flow wrapper with stack counter |
| Pita and flatbread | Flow wrap or bag with perforation | Flow wrapper |
| Artisan loaf | Paper bag, often manual | Manual or semi-auto |
| Cakes and pastries | Flow wrap with a tray | Flow wrapper with tray infeed |
Sliced bread is the volume product, and the bag is the constraint: a gusset bag with a clip closure is cheap and fast, but it offers no barrier and a short shelf life. A sealed gusset bag with perforation gives you a week or more, at the cost of a slower machine and a more expensive film.
Soft product, gentle handling
Bread does not survive being dropped. On a flow wrapper, the infeed should place the product onto the film rather than let it fall, and the end sealers should close with controlled pressure rather than a snap.
This is one of the few applications where a servo wrapper earns its price on product quality alone, because you can slow the jaw at contact and keep the loaf from being compressed. On a mechanical machine, look for a soft-seal option and a lower drop height.
Gas flush, and when it is a waste of money
For a product with a two-day shelf life sold the same day, flushing is pointless. For a packaged bread going into a supermarket with a seven-day code, a nitrogen flush with a low-oxygen film can add days, but it will not save a product that was bagged warm and wet.
The order of operations matters: cool, then perforate appropriately, then consider gas. Doing it in the other order is how bakeries end up with fogged film and mould anyway.
Speeds and expectations
A flow wrapper on buns runs 60 to 120 packs a minute. A bread bagger on sliced loaves runs 30 to 50 bags a minute depending on the clipping system. If you are planning a line, size the bagger to your oven output minus the cooling time, because the cooling conveyor is usually the real bottleneck.
And plan the crumb. A bakery line without a crumb management plan will be cleaning jaws all day and still shipping leakers. For the film side of the decision, our guide to film and machine compatibility covers sealing layers and perforation options.
Frequently asked questions
Why does my bread go mouldy in three days?
Usually because it was bagged warm, which puts free water inside the bag. Cool it first, then check whether the film is too much of a barrier for the moisture load.
Do I need perforated film?
For a short shelf life, yes, and it is cheap. For a longer code with gas flush, you need a barrier film with a controlled perforation pattern, which is a different product.
Can I bag bread on a standard VFFS?
Yes, with a gusset former and gentle handling. The limitation is usually the bag style and the closure, not the machine.
How do I stop crumbs on the seal?
Brush or air knife before the jaws, jaw coating, and cleaning every break. On very crumbly products, an extraction hood over the sealing zone is the difference between 1 percent and 5 percent leakers.
Related reading: flow wrappers for bakery products and film and machine compatibility.