Meat Packaging Patents: Top Companies & Filing Trends 2026
- 57.2% of all 421 records sit with just five assignees, and 71.5% with ten — this field is concentrated at the top with a long tail below it.
- Filing activity has cooled from a 2019 peak of 28 records a year to a documented -50% swing between 2021 and 2024.
- B32B layered products touch 44.2% of records, well ahead of container and food-preservation classes, showing where claim density is heaviest.
Filing growth compares 2021 (2 records) with 2024 (1) — a three-year span. 2024 is the most recent year we treat as complete: publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so 2025 onwards are still filling in and any growth rate that ends there would understate the field. Top-5 share is the combined record count of the five largest assignees divided by all 421 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
This landscape covers 421 published records filed against a search built around vacuum skin packaging, high-oxygen modified atmosphere, colour stability, drip loss, antimicrobial film and case-ready format claims layered onto core meat packaging and shelf-life-extension terms. The scope spans 2015 to the 2026 data cut-off, so the most recent one to two years are still filling in as publications catch up with filings. Records are drawn from receiving offices led by the United States (126), followed by Europe, Australia, WIPO and Canada, giving the set a genuinely multi-jurisdictional footprint rather than a single-market read.
Because a single record can carry claims spanning tray design, film chemistry and gas-atmosphere control together, the technology composition below is read by IPC subclass share of the full record set, not as a strict market breakdown. That structure matters for freedom-to-operate work: a filing that looks like a packaging-format patent on its face may also carry polymer-composition or coating claims that block a narrower route.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 421 records: how filing activity has moved year over year, and how the underlying technology splits across IPC subclasses.
A cooling filing curve since 2019
Annual filings rose to a peak of 28 records in 2019, then eased off; the documented move from 2 records in 2021 to 1 in 2024 is a -50% swing over that span. 2025 and 2026 figures are still incomplete because publication typically lags filing by roughly eighteen months, so those bars will fill in rather than signalling a further drop.
Layered products and containers dominate the class mix
B32B (layered products & laminates) appears on 44.2% of the 421 records, with B65D (containers & packaging) at 33.3% and A23L (foods & non-alcoholic beverages) at 29.2%. Because records can carry multiple IPC codes, these shares overlap rather than sum to 100%, and the pattern points to film and laminate structure as the most heavily claimed layer of the packaging stack, ahead of food-preservation chemistry itself.
Shares are the percentage of the 421 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Meat Packaging and Shelf Life Extension with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about meat packaging and shelf life extension and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaRepresentative filing and most-cited prior art
System and method for packaging meat products in low oxygen environment
A tray for packaging meat product at a centralized meat packaging facility and transporting the packaged meat product in a low oxygen environment to a retail point of sale. Trays according to certain embodiments have side walls terminating in a lip and a downturned flange, with a notch formed in the flange adjacent to a groove formed in the lip. The meat is placed in the tray at the centralized facility and sealed with a perforated film before being transported to the retail point of sale.Filed by Rock-Tenn Shared Services, LLC; published 2003-06-12 as US20030108643A1.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20030185948A1 | Packages and methods for processing food products | 245 |
| 2 | US20030170357A1 | Processing meat products responsive to customer orders | 196 |
| 3 | US7205016B2 | Packages and methods for processing food products | 173 |
| 4 | US6787245B1 | Sulfonated aliphatic-aromatic copolyesters and shaped articles produced therefrom | 172 |
| 5 | US5685128A | Method of packaging food products | 168 |
| 6 | US20030152679A1 | Continuous production and packaging of perishable goods in low oxygen environments | 139 |
| 7 | US20060246242A1 | Packaging articles, films and methods that promote or preserve the desirable color of meat | 135 |
| 8 | US20040146602A1 | Continuous production and packaging of perishable goods in low oxygen environments | 135 |
| 9 | US5427807A | Method of packaging food products | 128 |
| 10 | US20050171250A1 | Aliphatic-aromatic polyesters, and articles made therefrom | 118 |
Citation counts favour older filings simply because they have had more time to accumulate citations inside the searched corpus; treat this as a signal of influence on later filers rather than a measure of current relevance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Reading concentration, class density and citation weight together points to where claim space is occupied and where it is not.
The top of the field is tight
Five assignees hold 57.2% of the 421 records in scope, and the top ten hold 71.5%. That leaves a long tail of single- or low-filing entrants working around a small set of dominant portfolios, which is the pattern to expect when evaluating freedom to operate against the field leaders first.
Laminate structure is the busiest layer
B32B layered-products claims touch nearly half of all records, ahead of B65D containers (33.3%) and A23L food composition (29.2%). Anyone drafting around film or laminate structure should expect the densest prior art here, not in the food-preservation classes.
Filing pace has eased, not stopped
Filings dropped from 2 to 1 record between 2021 and 2024, following a 2019 peak of 28. That is a real slowdown among the establishing players, though 2025-2026 figures are still incomplete given typical publication lag.
Older packaging-process patents still anchor the field
The most-cited record in this set, on processing and packaging food products, carries 245 citations, with several other early-2000s filings close behind. High citation counts here reflect age and foundational process claims more than current commercial weight.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to meat packaging and shelf life extension, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who holds the field, and where the gate sits
A handful of assignees hold the majority share of records, with recent-year filing activity flat across the named leaders.
One filer sets the pace
The leading assignee holds 93 of the 421 records, well ahead of fifth place at 21 and tenth place at 10. That gap between first and fifth is itself informative: this is not an evenly spread field, and the leader's claim set is the first one to check before drafting a new filing.
Established filers have gone quiet recently
Recent-year momentum data shows several of the historically largest assignees with zero filings in the latest year tracked. That is consistent with the broader -50% slowdown documented between 2021 and 2024, and suggests the core claim territory these firms built out may now be considered settled by its owners.
Co-filing is limited but pointed
Only ten co-assignee pairs appear in this dataset, with the strongest pairings linking a research body to a packaging manufacturer and a coatings lab to a systems partner. That is a small number relative to 421 records, meaning most filings here are solo efforts rather than joint ventures.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Cryovac Inc | 0 | — |
| E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co | 0 | — |
| Curwood Inc | 0 | — |
| ExxonMobil Chemical Patents Inc | 0 | — |
| The Provost, Fellows, Foundation Scholars and the other Members of Board of the College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin | 0 | — |
| W.R. Grace & Co | 0 | — |
| SAFEFRESH TECH | 0 | — |
| Coating Systems Laboratories Inc | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to a concentrated field with a cooling filing curve; these are the practical next steps for teams acting on it.
Check freedom to operate against the leader first
With one assignee holding 93 of 421 records and the top five holding 57.2%, any new filing in packaging format or film laminate structure should be checked against the leading portfolios before anywhere else.
Run a freedom-to-operate scan in EurekaWatch the under-claimed branches
Antimicrobial film carriers, case-ready gas-flush validation and colour-stability sensing sit below the dense B32B and B65D classes, and may offer narrower but clearer filing routes.
Explore white space in EurekaTrack whether the slowdown holds
The -50% swing from 2021 to 2024 is documented, but 2025-2026 data is still incomplete due to publication lag; revisit the trend once those years settle.
Set a filing-trend alert in EurekaCommon questions on this landscape
The dataset ranks 100 companies by record count, with a single leader holding 93 of the 421 records in scope, fifth place at 21 and tenth place at 10. The top five assignees combined hold 57.2% of all records, and the top ten hold 71.5%, which means the field is concentrated among a small set of established packaging and materials companies rather than spread evenly. Anyone entering this space should map their intended claims against those leading portfolios first, since they cover the majority of prior art density.
No, not on the documented figures. Filings peaked at 28 records in 2019 and the tracked growth figure shows a -50% swing between 2021 and 2024, with several of the historically largest assignees recording zero filings in the most recent year tracked. That said, 2025 and 2026 figures are still incomplete because publication typically lags filing by around eighteen months, so the most recent bars will rise somewhat as more records are published.
B32B, covering layered products and laminates, appears on 44.2% of the 421 records in scope, making it the single densest IPC subclass in this landscape. B65D containers and packaging follows at 33.3%, and A23L foods and non-alcoholic beverages at 29.2%, with food preservation itself (A23B) at 23.5%. Because a single record can carry more than one IPC code, these shares overlap, but the pattern is consistent: film and laminate structure carry more claim density than the underlying food-preservation chemistry.
US20030108643A1, assigned to Rock-Tenn Shared Services, describes a tray system for packaging meat at a centralized facility and transporting it in a low-oxygen environment to retail, with specific tray geometry involving a lip, downturned flange, notch and groove, sealed with a perforated film. It is a structural and process claim around centralized low-oxygen tray packaging rather than a film-chemistry or antimicrobial claim, so it is most relevant to anyone designing tray geometry or centralized case-ready distribution workflows. It does not, on the evidence available, extend into coating chemistry, colour-stability sensing or biopolymer laminate claims, which sit in different parts of this landscape.
The comparatively thin filing density sits in branches like antimicrobial film carriers, case-ready gas-flush validation, colour-stability sensor integration, drip-loss absorbent pad chemistry and biopolymer laminate barriers, none of which show the same concentration as the core B32B laminate and B65D container classes. These branches sit adjacent to heavily claimed territory rather than being disconnected from it, so a workable first claim usually needs to be drafted narrowly enough to avoid the dominant portfolios while still addressing a real shelf-life or food-safety function. Co-assignee data also shows only ten collaborative filing pairs across the whole dataset, suggesting joint development in these adjacent areas remains limited.
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Disclaimer. This page is generated from Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent and scientific-literature records, and is provided for general information and reference only.
Patent data carries inherent limitations: recent filings (typically the most recent 18–24 months) are under-counted due to standard publication lag; counts may be reported at either a patent-family or a patent-record basis and are not always directly comparable; classification, applicant-name, and citation data may contain errors, duplicates, or omissions; and the underlying search query defines and constrains the scope shown. As a result, the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
Nothing on this page constitutes an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate, or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial, investment, or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Any patent, commercial, or strategic decision should be verified independently and reviewed with qualified patent, legal, and domain professionals. Patsnap makes no warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy, completeness, or fitness for any particular purpose of the information presented.
Machine translation. Assignee and organisation names originally recorded in Chinese, Japanese or Korean have been rendered into English by an AI translation step so that the tables stay readable. These renderings are best-effort and may not match a company’s registered English name; the original name is what the underlying patent record carries, and it is what any Eureka query launched from this page uses.