Insights

Packaging: Importance and Requirements

Tempo di lettura: 8 minuti

In this article we delve into the topic of packaging and in particular food packaging. We will address the importance and requirements for compliant packaging capable of ensuring proper preservation of goods. Finally, the currently applicable regulations and the importance of eco-sustainability and how sustainable packaging is created.

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Food packaging: Functionality and characteristics

The unit operations of packaging a food or beverage have a central role in its preparation and commercialization cycle.

The material in direct contact with the product is defined as primary packaging, and must fulfill various functions.

First of all, it must guarantee its safety, quality and integrity, maintaining the nutritional and organoleptic characteristics unchanged for as long as possible.

Furthermore, like secondary and tertiary packaging, which represent the progressively outer layers of the package, it must fulfill functions related to the product’s use by the consumer, guaranteeing practicality, safety in handling and convenience.

Moreover, packaging must fulfill logistical functions, ensuring rationalization, optimization and sustainability of the product life cycle.

And finally, it must represent the uniqueness and promotional image of the product for the commercial success of the product itself.

Packaging as a marketing tool

Not surprisingly, packaging is defined as the “silent seller” to emphasize its very important marketing function, especially in large commercial distribution. Today, in fact, increasingly, for the development of new packaging, companies also turn to communication and design agencies as the shape, color and appearance of packaging can contribute significantly to the product’s success.

However, it is necessary to also emphasize another equally important aspect of packaging design. The importance of the information that is included on packages and that is essential and of vital importance for the end consumer as well as to comply with current regulations (compliance, nutritional information, expiration dates, recipes, etc.).

The need to combine all these elements represents a considerable challenge in packaging creation today. It requires dynamism and continuous innovation capacity from the entire supply chain linked to process industry.

In recent decades, in fact, materials intended for primary packaging have evolved from covering an exclusively structural-functional role to possessing active-interactive properties due to the growing demand for factors such as:

Quality
Safety
Functionality
Practicality
Sustainability
Extended shelf-life.

The “Shelf Life”

In particular, the expression “shelf life” indicates the period of time that corresponds to the commercial life of a packaged food, which goes from the moment the packaged food product leaves the production line, until the last day considered useful for its best consumption.

The shelf life of a product does not necessarily correspond to its “real” life, since the loss of some characteristics (and in particular sensory ones) may equal the end of its marketability, but not necessarily the loss of fundamental commercial characteristics, hygienic-sanitary ones or, finally, nutritional efficacy.

Even microbiologically stable products, such as preserves and biscuits, have their shelf life based on sensory properties, and numerous fresh products, such as yogurt or pasta, following a relatively prolonged period, although microbiologically safe to consume, may be rejected due to alteration of some sensory attribute.

Material and Format in food packaging

The choice of material and format to use are strongly linked to the chemical-physical characteristics of the food matrix, the type of filling process and consequently the related operating parameters and the commercial sector for which the product is intended.

Food packaging material

Regarding the choice of material, scientific and industrial research today offers multiple possibilities.

Different types of material can be used, in some cases multi-layered, depending on the required barrier properties, the fragility of the product and/or packaging, the tearability, combining materials with complementary characteristics.

Packaging, representing the interface between the product and the external environment must provide various types of protection:

from mechanical stress
from oxygen and/or moisture ingress
from light and external temperature.

Furthermore, the material must have specific technological functions that make it “machinable”, i.e., resistant to thermal and mechanical stress during assembly, closure and sterilization of the package itself.

The material can be multilayer or monolayer.

In the first case, the material may consist of layers of different material and thickness. In the second, it will be composed of multiple layers of the same material with different thicknesses and characteristics obtained by varying the production process (extrusion, lamination, etc.).

Furthermore, it is possible to “enhance” the intrinsic characteristics of a packaging material through activation and functionalization processes by acquiring, for example, antibacterial properties, impermeability to specific substances, or simply unique aesthetic characteristics.

Material performance testing

The performance of packaging material is often evaluated through indirect measurements of variation in specific quality parameters of the packaged product. For example:

increase in moisture content
color variation
oxygen concentration in the headspace of packages or in the liquid matrix
variation in the concentration of gaseous or liquid chemical substances (which represent reagents and/or primary and secondary products of specific chemical or microbiological degradation reactions).

In this way, it is possible to detect any material welding defects or inter-intra molecular gaps that allow unwanted substances to penetrate and spread inside the package; or simply highlight inadequacy of a material in terms of formulation or thickness, in relation to the target packaging performance.

Regarding weld integrity assessment, for flexible materials intended for both solid and liquid food packaging, standardized procedures from ASTM International (American Society for Testing and Materials) are often adopted.

There are different types, depending on the technique and instrument used:

Pressure Test: the sealed package is inflated by introducing compressed air through a silicone rubber septum glued to the bag. The package is inflated until it opens or breaks. The septum is connected to software that processes the results.
Vacuum Test: the packaging is placed under reduced pressure conditions, which causes the package to inflate. Loss of package pressure implies weld integrity defects.

This technique can be conducted in an air depression chamber. The package, placed between two rigid flat surfaces, is put under pressure. Its evolution over time is recorded with appropriate software or simple visual evaluation: pressure reduction will be very rapid in case of defective welds and very slow if instead due to permeation through intact walls.

However, this technique does not allow understanding the exact spatial location of weld defects, but only allows establishing whether a package is defective or not.

The Vacuum Test can also be conducted by placing the package in a tank containing liquid (usually water). Thus, the escape of air bubbles from integrity defects can be observed. This test, also called Bubble Test, is one of the most widespread, as it allows evaluating the behavior of critical points of a package. It is possible, in fact, to identify the position and size of air bubbles escaping from each examined package with extreme precision.

Additional tests

Additional tests are performed to ensure there is no overall and specific migration from packaging to food and/or transfer of substances considered harmful to health in order to establish that the material is suitable for food contact (MOCA).

These aspects are prescribed by EC regulations 1935/2004 and EC 2003/2006. Based on the cited regulations, in case there is no specific European legislation, member states can establish national measures. Furthermore, it is worth noting that there are distinct regulations for specific categories of materials, such as polymeric materials, cellulose-based, metal-based and glass.

Additional direct tests are performed on packaging to determine the Oxygen Transmission Rate (OTR), Water Vapor Transmission Rate (WVTR) and thus evaluate the material’s permeability to oxygen and water vapor.

Calorimetric and dynamic mechanical analysis is performed to evaluate the viscoelastic properties of materials and more generally their suitability for use in thermomechanical packaging processes.

Alongside these tests, Peel or Seal tests are performed to evaluate any defects in the coupling phase between different layers of composite or homogeneous material and more generally to measure the force necessary to unseal two coupled material layers (base web and lid).

To verify and evaluate mechanical resistance performance, the material and/or package can be subjected to so-called impact and puncture tests, depending on whether the material surface exposed to orthogonal stress is more extensive or punctual.

Sustainable packaging

Alongside the tests mentioned as examples, it is important to emphasize that there are specific protocols and regulations depending on the type of material, to certify its recyclability and where possible its compostability.

The search for more sustainable and efficient packaging is today the central theme for the entire packaging industry and, in general, for companies that produce so-called “fast moving consumer goods” or consumer goods. In particular, for companies operating in the food sector, thanks to the growing awareness and sensitivity that has developed from public opinion and legislative and surveillance bodies (European and global), regarding environmental sustainability, fight against pollution, recyclability and resource optimization.

The design of packages using recyclable materials seems to be the backbone of innovation and eco-sustainability in the packaging sector. Industries are pushing hard in this direction and international policies strongly encourage this through various forms of incentives.

This translates into an “evolution” of food packaging: we have moved from non-recyclable materials destined for landfill to those that, while not being recyclable, can be incinerated to produce energy.

Today, we are moving towards packaging that is recyclable, and then towards packaging that uses recycled materials. In this case, currently regulations do not allow the use of recycled materials in food contact applications: this last step represents a particular challenge for the food packaging sector.

European regulations

Europe with Directive 94/62/EC has recognized the “fundamental social and economic function” of packaging and its value as a product capable, if well designed and managed throughout its life cycle, of reducing waste and preventing other goods from becoming waste before even reaching the final consumer.

With the objective of valorizing materials and transforming packaging waste into a resource, Europe has always focused on prevention and proper packaging management once they become waste.

For this reason, since 1994, it has established important recycling objectives, increased in 2004, and which are still under discussion today within a broader process of revision of community directives on “better use of resources, environmental protection and waste management”, summarized under the term “Circular Economy Package”.

The European Commission published, in January 2018, a European strategy for plastics in the circular economy. The strategy establishes the following objectives:

All plastic packaging in the EU must be reusable or recyclable economically by 2030;
Recycling of over 50% of plastic waste generated in Europe by 2030;
Four-fold increase in sorting and recycling capacity and improved separate collection by 2030;
Four-fold increase in demand for recycled plastics, supported by a consolidated market;
Greater use of innovative materials and alternative raw materials (e.g. non-fossil fuels) for plastic production;
Greater use of circular solutions to promote plastic waste prevention, such as reverse logistics for packaging and alternatives to single-use plastic;
A “drastic” reduction in plastic losses to the environment;
A leading role for the EU in the global context of plastic waste management and pollution.

Furthermore, with the objective of reducing the environmental impact of some types of single-use plastics, in May 2018 the Commission proposed a legislative initiative on single-use plastics. The adopted measures include:

An EU-wide ban on single-use plastic cotton swabs, straws, plates and cutlery (with exemptions until 2023), beverage stirrers, balloon sticks, oxo-degradable plastic and expanded polystyrene food containers and cups;
Obligation for EU countries to adopt measures to achieve a 25% reduction in consumption of food containers and beverage cups;
Obligation for EU countries to reduce post-consumer waste from tobacco product filters containing plastic by 50% by 2025 and 80% by 2030;
Extended producer responsibility (EPR) schemes that include cleanup costs and awareness measures;
Harmonized standards and an extended producer responsibility (EPR) scheme for fishing gear, as well as a 50% collection target and a 15% recycling target for fishing gear by 2025;
Obligation to separately collect 90% of beverage containers and ensure they are made from 35% recycled content by 2025;
Obligation to prevent the use of hazardous chemicals in the composition of sanitary articles;
Obligation to label products to inform consumers about the presence of chemicals of concern in some single-use plastic products.

Conclusions

I.T.P. srl is a company that has always been at the forefront in the development of sustainable packaging. We have been collaborating for years with national and international companies for the realization and optimization of processes to produce them. In an upcoming article we will talk, in fact, about a packaging case study. The hope and, above all, our objective, is to raise awareness among companies that still today do not exploit research and technology to create and adopt sustainable packaging in their supply chains. To achieve this goal, for some years, we have also been providing technical and financial support to companies that wish to submit applications to take advantage of the many incentives and economic benefits that Italy and Europe promote. In this way, the application process is accelerated and errors are avoided. If you wish to learn more, we invite you to visit the following pages or contact us: