Packaging Industry Trends – Part III

Consumers are requesting – and getting – more user-friendly packaging. Packaging experts have developed a plastic/aluminum product that will allow consumers to take frozen foods and microwave them in the same container. The special aluminum assists in browning the food similar to regular ovens. Other plastics combine with unique glues to allow unsealing the product, removing some of it and re-sealing it closed.

In another area of matching consumer demand, some manufacturers are putting their products in smaller portions. This is especially in demand for the growing senior population that does not want the large portions.

Safety of packaging can be noted with the advent of such new inventions as a capsule carton that cannot be opened unless both sides are squeezed in at the small buttons on the side at the same time, a process that a child would not be able to do.

Traceability is now taking hold world-wide in the pharmaceutical and nutriceutical industries in an effort to stem the tide of counterfeit products. Researchers have developed a data ‘chip’ inclusive of an antenna that can be ‘welded’ into the film that is adhered to a container/bottle. This allows the product to be traced from inception through purchase by consumer. These ‘electronic labels’ can be used for multiple purposes including shipping, stocking, inventory and if the store is equipped with shopping carts that have a small computer attached, the computer can ‘read’ the code as the item is placed in the cart and give the consumer a running total on the price of the item in the cart as well as send the signal to the cash register upon checkout without having to remove the item from the cart.

We are on the verge of some amazing changes to the way we package and purchased our products. If you know of something new, share it with us. We all enjoy learning about new technologies that are changing our lives.

he author, Marge Bonura, is the Director of Sales & Marketing for New England Machinery, Inc. (NEM). NEM is a leading packaging machinery manufacturer of bottle unscramblers, cappers, orienters, retorquers, lidders, pluggers, pump sorter/placers, scoop feeders, hopper elevators and much more. The company has been in business since 1974 selling to the food, beverage, pharmaceutical, personal care, chemical, household products, automotive and other industries. For more information on NEM, visit their website at www.neminc.com.