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Don’t beat yourself up transporting food. Metro Comes out Swingin' with New Mightylite...Ultra-Lightweight Insulated Pan Carriers

“This is too heavy!”
“I can’t carry this thing!”

These cries for help are undoubtedly a familiar sound for anyone who’s ever worked in catering or school foodservice. While the kitchen staff is hard at work providing appetizing and nutritious meals, transporting many pans of food to satellite or off-site locations is often a challenging task. Food safety is critical, so maintaining safe temperatures while transporting hot and cold food is key. Historically, traditional polymer-molded, urethane foam-filled insulated pan carriers have been the best tool for the job.

Why change what’s worked for so long?

While the traditional insulated pan carrier does a good job keeping hot food hot and cold food cold, they are extremely heavy and cumbersome to lift and carry. Smaller traditional pan carriers weigh 25 pounds empty. Add 40 pounds of food and that’s 65 pounds when fully loaded! According to the National Institute of Occupational Safety & Health (NIOSH), the maximum safe lifting weight under perfect conditions is 51 pounds. Depending on the person, “difficult to lift” can easily become “dangerous to lift.”

Insulated pan carriers are one of the most frequently used food transport items and as such, receive heavy, abusive daily use. The hinges and latches are two of the least durable components found on the traditional style insulated pan carriers and are often the first part to fail, resulting in the need for replacement. Unfortunately, a broken hinge or latch can lead to temperature loss, compromising the safety of the food it is supposed to protect.

In addition to being heavy, difficult to lift, and prone to damage, traditional insulated pan carriers are also one of the more expensive handheld transport product investments. Many foodservice professionals use retail-grade insulated bags and coolers as a lower cost alternative to get the job done. Many were calling out for a better solution. Fortunately, the product development team at Metro was there to answer that call.

Metro set out with the goal of creating a solution that would provide the value and performance that caterers and school nutritionists have been demanding. They needed a pan carrier that keeps food safe, is durable, easy-to-clean, more affordable, and most important of all lighter and easier to carry. Countless hours of research and development culminated in Metro’s latest product innovation, the new line of Mightylite Insulated Pan Carriers.

Enter Mightylite.

Created with the user in mind, the new Mightylite improves upon the shortcomings of traditional pan carriers with its innovative design. Weighing in at a remarkably light 9 pounds, Mightylite is an impressive 60% lighter than the traditional polymer-molded, urethane foam-filled models. Metro was able to achieve a lower overall weight without compromising strength, durability or performance by utilizing expanded polypropylene (EPP). EPP is a highly versatile, advanced polymer foam material that has been used for many years in a number of different industries. EPP was the perfect material of choice for Metro when creating Mightylite due to a number of different properties.

These qualities allowed Metro to deliver an extremely durable insulated pan carrier that can keep hot and cold food safe for over 5 hours. Mightylite also features a built-in door seal that never needs to be replaced along with an unbreakable elastomer travel latch for maximum durability.

A top priority for Metro when designing Mightylite was to create the most ergonomically-friendly pan carrier available. Eight convenient, integrated handles make it perfect for lifting, carrying, and moving in any situation. The multitude of handles and 9-pound design ensures that food can be safely and easily transported by anyone… in any situation.

More competitively priced than traditional pan carriers and featuring a bonus wire caddy with every carrier, Mightylite is the new must-have hot and cold food transport item for any operator that has been struggling with old, heavy insulated pan carriers. A few workflow-optimizing accessories are also available. A thermal partition eliminates empty space in less than full carriers or separates hot and cold food. A heavy-duty dolly (with strap included) conveniently allows you to stack and transport multiple carriers while also doubling to accommodate standard size milk crates. The dolly can even be stored on top of a carrier for more efficient, convenient storage during transport or inside your facility while not in use. To get a closer look at Mightylite, contact your Metro Representative for a hands-on demonstration.

What material is Mightylite?

EPP (Expanded Polypropylene)

From the bumper on a family sedan to the structural insulation in an HVAC system, EPP products are used all around us on a daily basis to improve the way things have always been made in the past. A unique blend of properties made EPP the clear choice for Metro when they developed Mightylite.

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