Economical heat shrink packaging for hard sugar blocks

[katmike]

I was looking to see if anyone has some suggestions for such a product? I have a Food Saver, which is a vacuum sealer and heat seals on end of a bag that the item is placed in. It just doesn't look attractive like something I would want to sell.

I am envisioning a heat shrink "bag" slightly larger than the block. I assume I'd then heat seal the open end and apply heat to shrink the bag to hopefully fit real snug and look nice. Anyone have any luck with this type of food grade product? Not wanting to spend $$$ when I might make <50 blocks at the most per year.

[Sugarmaker]

Packaging is important for your product. Maybe vacuum seal then place in a nice, right sized, box with your sugarhouse label on it? I did not know there was much market for the sugar blocks? How big are they and what is your process to make them? Do you have a mold? How are your customers using the maple sugar blocks?
Regards,
Chris

[katmike]

True there may not be much of a market for them, thus the reasoning to try and do it economically if they don't sell well.

Based on internet searches of this type of product, I am not introducing anything new here as these are sold as "traditional maple sugar", etc..... and the methods for making hard maple sugar is to boil to around 260 and pour into a mold. The customer would then grate off what they need.

I don't have a mold yet so not sure what the best size would be but online searches seem to be in the 8oz to 16oz range, so I would do similar.

[jimsudz]

I am also considering making and packaging maple sugar blocks to sell.I just purchased a sugar block mold board from D&G. The mold is made of a board and 35 2 sided ss trays that you put on divider sides and then clamp tight with wedges. The molds are 250g, must not be a big mover because i got the whole package for about 60% off. I plan on using the 4 oz cellophane bag that you use to package molded maple sugar. I would prefer a shrink wrap bag,but haven't found one yet.

[katmike]

Found a company called Doug Care Equipment that sells 4"x6" food grade polyolefin shrink bags for $11.50/500 count. Uline has them also but almost double the price. 4x6 is the smallest size I found... a bit large for what I need but I suppose you could trim off what you don't need. Just wondering if this would shrink "attractively" over a block of sugar.