IN Brief:
- Wardat Al Mashreq Food has installed an IMA Hassia S600 for processed cheese and cream products in 25ml and 50ml stick packs.
- The six-lane form-fill-seal machine is rated at 14,400–18,000 packs an hour and uses product-specific dosing for pasty dairy products.
- A second stick-pack machine has already been ordered for delivery in Q1 2027, increasing planned capacity for the new format.
IMA Dairy & Food has supplied Saudi Arabian producer Wardat Al Mashreq Food with a six-lane S600 packaging machine rated to produce between 14,400 and 18,000 processed-cheese and cream stick packs an hour. Wardat has already ordered a second machine for delivery during the first quarter of 2027.
The installed line produces 25ml and 50ml portions using a vertical form-fill-seal process developed for liquid and pasty food products. Flat film is divided into strips, formed into individual pack profiles, sealed along three sides, dosed with product, and closed to create the finished stick.
Wardat specified a paper-touch appearance for the packs alongside food-safety requirements and a requested shelf life of up to 12 months. The format is intended for applications including foodservice, hotels, cafés, fast-food outlets, transport, offices, and retail multipacks.
IMA says the stick format can use up to 50% less packaging material than some conventional processed-cheese formats, including triangles, squares, blocks, and tubs. The comparison depends on the precise alternative pack, but material use is one of the operating factors behind Wardat’s decision to adopt the format.
The machine’s rated speed also changes the economics of single portions. At 18,000 packs an hour, high unit counts can be produced from a relatively compact primary packaging format, although sustained commercial output depends on considerably more than the maximum mechanical rate quoted for the machine.
Processed cheese creates particular dosing requirements because the product is neither a free-flowing liquid nor a dry solid. Temperature, formulation, fat content, and solids affect viscosity, while the filler has to meter small portions consistently without contaminating the area in which the film seals are formed.
Six lanes spread the throughput
The S600 reaches its rated output by operating six lanes in parallel. Rather than pushing all product through one filling path at extreme speed, the machine divides film and dosing across repeating channels, allowing the combined pack count to rise while each lane performs the same forming, filling, and sealing sequence.
That architecture introduces its own control requirements. Dose weights have to remain consistent from lane to lane, film must track correctly through each forming section, sealing temperatures and pressure need to stay within operating limits, and individual cut positions have to remain aligned as the machine runs.
Minor losses become significant at the stated throughput. One percentage point of rejects at 18,000 packs an hour equates to 180 units, making seal failures, film misalignment, incomplete cuts, underweight portions, or product contamination of the sealing area commercially relevant even when the underlying failure rate appears small.
Food safety also depends heavily on sealing performance. A pack intended to provide up to 12 months of shelf life needs repeatable seal integrity, suitable barrier properties, and process conditions capable of controlling product contamination before closure. High line speed cannot compensate for failures in those areas.
Wardat’s paper-touch requirement concerns pack appearance rather than implying that the primary package itself is necessarily paper. The S600 uses flexible material formed from a reel, and the final film structure has to provide the mechanical, sealing, and barrier properties required for the cheese or cream product.
IMA’s material-reduction claim consequently needs to be judged across the complete packaging system. A lighter primary pack can reduce material demand, but recyclability, multilayer composition, secondary cartons, transport efficiency, product protection, and local waste infrastructure all influence the eventual environmental performance.
Secondary handling becomes another consideration at high output. Single sticks intended for retail may need to be collated into cartons or multipacks, while foodservice customers may require larger-count cases. Downstream equipment has to receive the six primary streams without becoming the limiting stage of the line.
Cleaning and changeovers will also determine practical efficiency. Wardat plans to use the equipment for processed cheese and cream products in two portion sizes, meaning operators need validated procedures for product transitions, film changes, format adjustment, and cleaning while keeping lost production time under control.
The order for a second machine suggests that the format is intended as more than an isolated market test. Adding another S600 in the first quarter of 2027 will increase available capacity and can provide operational flexibility, particularly if different products or formats are allocated between machines.
Wardat manufactures and packs a wider range of dairy and food products, so the new line sits within an established processing operation rather than functioning as a standalone packaging project. The value of the investment will ultimately depend on whether upstream production and downstream packing can keep the S600 supplied and cleared at rates close to its intended commercial throughput.
For IMA Hassia, the installation provides a reference application for vertical stick packaging in a viscous dairy product, using machinery more often associated with the broader liquid-to-pasty food category. The technical challenge is less the novelty of forming a stick pack than maintaining accurate filling and reliable seals across six lanes at high speed.
The second machine will provide the first indication of how quickly Wardat expects the format to scale. Rated output establishes the theoretical ceiling; reject levels, line utilisation, material consumption, changeover time, and shelf-life performance will determine how much of that capacity becomes dependable production.
