Frozen food banding holds a pack closed without a heat tunnel anywhere on the line. That is the whole argument in one sentence. Shrink wrapping a frozen product means passing it through heat, which either softens the surface of what you have just frozen or forces you to build the tunnel far enough down the line to compensate.

A band is applied and sealed cold, in place, in one motion. The product goes from the freezer to the band to the case without warming, so nothing thaws at the edges and refreezes with ice crystals on it.

Film bands are the usual choice here because they hold their seal at low temperature and are not affected by the frost that forms on a pack coming out of a blast freezer. Paper bands work on secondary packs and outer bundles that do not sit against the frozen surface directly.

The band carries the cooking instructions, the weight, the batch and the use-by date, printed inline. For frozen multipacks it also replaces the shrink film that would otherwise hold two or three packs together, which is a large material saving on a product that is already sold in bulk.

Frozen lines often share a machine with ready meal packs and seafood portions.