Food & Beverage Packaging Innovation

Report Overview

This report analyzes shifting and emerging trends in food and beverage packaging, focusing especially on new forms of packaging used by marketers, and consumer attitudes and behaviors regarding food and beverage packaging.

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Innovations covered include:

• convenience
• sustainability
• experience
• quality
• differentiation
• personalization
• e-commerce

Among specific technologies discussed are:

• bag-on-valve
• bag-in-box
• closures and fitments
• smart labels and active and intelligent packaging
• digital printing

Bag

A flexible packaging product that is enclosed on all but one side to form an opening that may or may not be sealed after filling. Bags can contain single-layer or multiple-layer (as many as nine layers) material structures as well as laminations that combine two or more material layers into a single sheet. Sacks are a type of bag, with the term usually referring to larger bags or heavy-duty bags such as shipping sacks. While some bags are produced from high barrier materials, the majority of bags are not designed for those protective applications.

Form-fill-seal (FFS)

Machinery that provides pouch production, filling, and sealing capabilities in a single piece of equipment. FFS machinery is available in vertical and horizontal configurations.

Modified atmosphere packaging (MAP)

A technology designed to extend the shelf life of a perishable item in its package. This technology involves slowing the spoilage mechanisms associated with various types of fresh foods by altering the package’s mixture of gases, with different proportions of gases and levels of permeability achieving different properties.

Pouch

A flexible packaging product that is made from a laminated structure (e.g., plastic film, foil, and/or paper) with heat-sealed edges of one-fourth to three-eighths inch wide. Pouches for lower value applications are also present in the industry; these products utilize single-layer materials that are heat-sealed in the same manner as laminated types. Pouches are further differentiated by their construction (e.g., flat or stand-up) and by performance and/or physical characteristics (e.g., shaped pouches, retort pouches, spouted pouches, and resealable pouches). Although identical in function to bags, pouches tend to provide barrier protection for their contents while bags do not, and bags tend to have a folded bottom and narrow or sidewelded side seals.