Life-Saving Packaging
August 2004
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Food CPCs are taking a serious look at smart packaging, exploring inventive ways to protect their products and consumers.
FOOD-BORNE ILLNESSES cause more than upset stomachs. According to the Center for Disease Control, food poisoning results in more than 325,000 hospitalizations and 5,200 deaths in the United States each year. Worldwide, the World Health Organization reports that 3.2 million children under the age of five die of food-poisoning-related illnesses annually.
The statistics are grim, but there's hope. Beyond better food-handling methods, packaging is becoming another avenue for food companies to better protect their consumers from the hidden dangers of organisms such as Salmonella, E. coli, and Campylobacter.
Smart packaging can do many things that most food packaging can't. It can inhibit the growth of bacteria and even fight pathogens in food packages, and indicate to consumers when a food is unsafe to eat. And that's just the beginning of many benefits that have attracted significant interest from food companies.
Different advantages exist for converters. Not only does smart packaging provide a significant opportunity for converters to offer higher-value products to their customers, most smart packaging is also designed to be run on standard equipment through standard processes—no need for special coating machines or presses.
A smart packaging boom
Smart packaging is poised for eye-opening growth, according to a study called Biomonitoring Systems for Packaging, conducted by Packaging Strategies and BRG Townsend Inc. The study predicts U.S. production of biomonitoring systems—mechanisms at the heart of smart packaging—to increase to 555 million units valued at $76 million by 2007. According to the study, this rise will be driven by five systems: temperature abuse indicators, gas-scavenging/ absorbing labels, breathable film, food quality indicators, and antimicrobial systems.
Everyone from private companies to government agencies such as the Food and Drug Administration are at work inventing and refining these smart packaging technologies, looking to make the U.S. food supply safer. packagePRINTING caught up with three innovators to get more information on their smart packaging additions.
Keeping it fresh
Fresh-cut produce is a booming market segment. What started as bagged pre-cut lettuce for McDonald's in the mid-'80s has turned into a $12 billion market, representing about 14 percent of the total fresh produce market, according to Mike Bosky, market manager at AET Films.
While it seems easy enough to throw pre-cut fruits and vegetables in a bag or plastic carton for the market, there's a whole science behind maximizing the freshness and safety of fresh-cut produce. Depending on several variables—the type of produce, how the produce has been cut, and the storage temperature—produce packages need to be capable of controlling the amount of oxygen and carbon dioxide that enters and exits. That's exactly what AET Films' HOTR®-2 film was designed to do.
FOOD-BORNE ILLNESSES cause more than upset stomachs. According to the Center for Disease Control, food poisoning results in more than 325,000 hospitalizations and 5,200 deaths in the United States each year. Worldwide, the World Health Organization reports that 3.2 million children under the age of five die of food-poisoning-related illnesses annually.
The statistics are grim, but there's hope. Beyond better food-handling methods, packaging is becoming another avenue for food companies to better protect their consumers from the hidden dangers of organisms such as Salmonella, E. coli, and Campylobacter.
Smart packaging can do many things that most food packaging can't. It can inhibit the growth of bacteria and even fight pathogens in food packages, and indicate to consumers when a food is unsafe to eat. And that's just the beginning of many benefits that have attracted significant interest from food companies.
Different advantages exist for converters. Not only does smart packaging provide a significant opportunity for converters to offer higher-value products to their customers, most smart packaging is also designed to be run on standard equipment through standard processes—no need for special coating machines or presses.
A smart packaging boom
Smart packaging is poised for eye-opening growth, according to a study called Biomonitoring Systems for Packaging, conducted by Packaging Strategies and BRG Townsend Inc. The study predicts U.S. production of biomonitoring systems—mechanisms at the heart of smart packaging—to increase to 555 million units valued at $76 million by 2007. According to the study, this rise will be driven by five systems: temperature abuse indicators, gas-scavenging/ absorbing labels, breathable film, food quality indicators, and antimicrobial systems.
Everyone from private companies to government agencies such as the Food and Drug Administration are at work inventing and refining these smart packaging technologies, looking to make the U.S. food supply safer. packagePRINTING caught up with three innovators to get more information on their smart packaging additions.
Keeping it fresh
Fresh-cut produce is a booming market segment. What started as bagged pre-cut lettuce for McDonald's in the mid-'80s has turned into a $12 billion market, representing about 14 percent of the total fresh produce market, according to Mike Bosky, market manager at AET Films.
While it seems easy enough to throw pre-cut fruits and vegetables in a bag or plastic carton for the market, there's a whole science behind maximizing the freshness and safety of fresh-cut produce. Depending on several variables—the type of produce, how the produce has been cut, and the storage temperature—produce packages need to be capable of controlling the amount of oxygen and carbon dioxide that enters and exits. That's exactly what AET Films' HOTR®-2 film was designed to do.
Companies Mentioned:
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