Why 3-A Certified VFFS Baggers Are the Safe Choice for Cheese

Reliable Cheese Packaging Solutions You Can Trust

Triangle was founded in 1923 but we have been providing cheese packaging solutions such as hygienic vertical baggers to the cheese industry since 1975. We’ve invested in solving the problems that matter most to cheese producers, including seal integrity, hygienic design and gas flush performance which we’ll discuss shortly. 

Triangle is not for everyone. I just want to be clear about that. While we ‘can’ package candy or potato chips, sanitary design is our focus. That intentional focus for harsh applications began in 2005. We received our first 3-A certification in 2010. Every design decision we make — from frame welds to jaw cooling to forming tube craftsmanship — is made with food safety and operational reliability in mind.

Sanitary design is our specialty. It’s what we do best. It’s what our customers trust and rely on.  

If you need your cheese packaging solutions to be hosed down, with chemicals, and then perform for 3 shifts, every day, for decades - then Triangle is for you.  

Key Takeaways

In this article, you'll learn:

• How Triangle addresses common cheese bagging challenges

• Why full-machine 3-A certification matters 

• Why seal quality poses special challenges for cheese packagers

• Why cheese packagers trust Triangle 

3-A Certified VFFS Baggers Address Key Cheese Packaging Challenges

While there are many concerns that cheese producers approach us with, there are (4) key challenges that our 3-A certified VFFS baggers help solve.  

Seal integrity

Cheese is unforgiving. It molds quickly once exposed. It retains heat during packaging. Shredded products often require flow agents that get into seal areas. This can cause leakers and contamination. Moisture and fat content vary dramatically between product types. Each of those variables must be managed at the machine level.  

For applications that require even tighter seal integrity, our 3-A certified VFFS baggers offer ultrasonic sealing as an option. Ultrasonics seal through product contamination in the jaw area more effectively than traditional heat seal systems. The long-term potential to deliver consistent hermetic seals, even with fine shreds and powder residue in the seal zone, is significant.

Hygienic design

A machine built for potato chips or cereal, retrofitted with a stainless forming tube, does not become a sanitary cheese packaging solution. The rest of the frame–the welds, the joints, the surfaces–still harbor bacteria if it wasn't designed to meet sanitary standards from the ground up. That gap in hygienic design is where Triangle has staked its ground.

There are few industries where the stakes around equipment selection are as high as they are in cheese. Get it wrong, and you're not just dealing with downtime. You're dealing with mold, recalls and a reputation that can follow you across an industry. Get it right, and you've got a 3-A certified VFFS bagger that protects your product, your consumers and your bottom line for decades.  

Gas flush 

Traditionally, gas flush has been seen as more successful, or deemed so by the industry, on horizontal machines for retail packages. We're actively developing a new gas flush system for our vertical bagger, which takes a more scientific approach to modified atmosphere packaging. Most lines I visit just run a gas tube down the forming tube and hope for good residual oxygen numbers. We're looking at laminar versus turbulent flow characteristics, nozzle geometry and gas conveyance to deliver reliable low-oxygen environments without compromising seal quality.  

Labor gaps

Yes, labor is still a challenge across the cheese packaging industry, as well as just about every other segment. A 3-A certified VFFS bagger that a less experienced operator can run reliably and clean quickly is genuinely valuable. And that’s something we think about in our design work–not just how well a machine performs, but how easy it is to operate and maintain day-to-day. 

So What Exactly Is Triangle’s 3-A Certified VFFS Bagger?

Our model XM intermittent motion machine is our go-to 3-A certified VFFS bagger. We often pair that with a multihead weigher for a complete cheese weighing and bagging system. We offer our own inline multihead weigher but also work with several other weighing partners. Yamato offers a 3-A weighing solution and we receive a number of requests to integrate with their technology.  

The Triangle XM’s weld quality, rugged frame construction, accessible design and sloped surfaces provide the ideal 3-A certified VFFS bagger that cheese plants and their inspectors demand. 

Why Does Having 3-A Certified Cheese Packaging Solutions Matter?

Over the years, 3-A SSI shifted from certifying entire baggers or other cheese packaging solutions to focusing specifically on food-contact parts. The forming tube of a vertical bagger is really the only part of the machine that comes in contact with the product. We have seen other vertical bagger suppliers claiming that their forming tubes are also “3-A” or “adhere to 3-A standards”. While other forming tubes might be made out of stainless steel, its hygienic design that really matters. At the end of the day, no other vertical bagger manufacturers can truly claim anything regarding 3-A.  

Triangle is the only VFFS bagger manufacturer in the world whose entire machine, not just the forming tube, is 3-A Certified. And the keyword there is “certified”. And the folks at 3-A will verify that statement. Our frame welds have quarter-inch radii instead of sharp right angles. Our rollers are die-filled, laser-welded stainless steel with no bearings that can trap contamination. We specify R12 mirror finishes on surfaces, not just the R4 minimum that regulations require. These aren't marketing details, though. They're the features that determine whether your cheese packaging solution can actually be cleaned to a food-safe standard every single day.

For Wisconsin cheese producers, this also matters from a compliance standpoint. Wisconsin Department of Agriculture inspectors can reject equipment that doesn't meet sanitary standards*. That's real organizational risk. Having a fully sanitary machine, not just a certified forming tube on a machine that wasn't built for this environment, gives your team, your inspectors and frankly your customers the confidence that contamination risk has been engineered out, not just papered over. 

What Does the Future Hold for Triangle’s Cheese Packaging Solutions?

The cheese market is growing steadily, with projections indicating a CAGR of 5.85% from 2026 to 2034**. Cheese prices are at elevated levels (over $4 a pound in some categories as of the date of this article), which increases raw material costs for the large segment of the market that buys and shreds rather than manufactures cheese.

Higher input costs will continue to put direct pressure on operational efficiency: less downtime, better throughput, longer shelf life, easier-to-run equipment. Our cheese packaging solutions will need to continue to evolve and be simpler to operate, able to run multiple film materials and be flexible to manage various product characteristics.

Our R&D team is going to continue to address seal integrity issues with advanced sealing technology options.  

I also see growing interest in stand-up pouches and more retail-oriented pack formats from cheese producers who have traditionally focused on institutional bags. That's an area we're actively developing with several customers. And liquid cheese fill in bags is a category we're just beginning to address.  

There's real opportunity there to expand the scope of our cheese packaging solutions. 

How Partnering With Triangle Extends Beyond Our 3-A Certified VFFS Baggers

Get it done, right. That’s our mindset. We stand behind our 3-A certified VFFS baggers and look to build trusted partnerships for decades and generations.

Family values  

The cheese industry is largely family-owned and operates on long-term relationships with earned trust. Similarly, Triangle is a fourth-generation family company that operates the same way. About 80% of our business comes from repeat customers–that tells you something real about how we operate.

We never sunset serial numbers  

You’ll find Triangle machines still performing in the field from the 1960s. We'll manufacture parts for any piece of equipment we've ever built. That's a meaningful commitment in an industry where other manufacturers stop supporting machines after ten years.

Chicago-based parts and service  

That matters more than it might sound. Roughly 70% of the world's cheese companies are headquartered in Wisconsin. Green Bay to Chicago is about three hours. Parts for your 3-A certified VFFS bagger can ship overnight–often same day, given our proximity to O'Hare airport. Our 24 field service technicians are among the most experienced in this industry. When something isn't right, we get there and we make it right. That proximity and follow-through provides real value to our cheese customers.  

Our long-term support sets us apart from others. That's what we bring to the table, and it's the foundation of every partnership we build. 

How can we help with your cheese bagging challenges?

Contact us via the form below.

SOURCES CITED/ADDITIONAL READING: 
*https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/code/admin_code/atcp/055/65/iii/32/4/a 
**https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/cheese-market-104293