5 Reasons Why Packaging Is Important for Food Safety
Packaging plays the most crucial role in ensuring food safety. Food safety is highly critical to maintain the wellbeing and health of consumers. Packaging endures shipping, material handling, and storage of the packaged food. If food packaging integrity is not well maintained and tested, food safety can compromise a lot. Packaging protects the food from external elements, contamination, heat, physical damage, and much more. Thus, proper packaging keeps your food products as safe as possible. With the rise of snacking, it has become even more important for food manufacturing companies to ensure the packaging integrity of their snack packs for the sake of food safety. Let’s explore the reasons why right food packaging is crucial to ensure food safety.
1. Protects the Food from Contamination:
Locally or globally manufactured and grown food products are at risk of contamination from pollutants and bacteria. Moreover, food products that undergo shipping or storage for an extended period are even at higher risk of contamination. That’s one of the major reasons why the right packaging and testing packaging integrity is important. Food manufacturers should take quality control measures in their food packaging applications by using package leak detectors like FlexPak and seal integrity testers. Faulty packaging not only impacts the quality and integrity of the food product but also affects the health of the consumers. Therefore, packaging should completely lock out air and contaminants. Food businesses follow very strict guidelines to ensure food safety procedures are followed, and packaging plays a huge role in making sure food stays fresh.
2. Improves the Shelf Life of the Product:
The fact is that correct packaging significantly increases the shelf life of the food product. Poor and faculty packaging leads to shorter shelf life that, in turn, causes food health problems. Most people assume that preserving food products at low temperatures will improve their shelf life. However, this fact is partially correct. The food inside the package will still decompose if it is exposed to oxygen. That is why the right packaging integrity should be ensured to prevent the food’s exposure to air completely. Thus, the right packaging is key to preserving food safely for a longer time period.
3. Protects Food from Physical Damage:
The integrity of your food product can be compromised by physical damage even if it is properly sealed and protected from contaminants. That is why sturdy packaging is important to protect food products from physical damages caused during material handling, shipping, and warehousing. Boxes, strong plastic wrapping, or crates protect food products from physical damages that can be caused by shocks and traumas during transit or distribution.
4. Maintains the Freshness of the Food Items:
The innovation in food packaging technology has made it possible to send the food products grown in the West Coast to the Deep South for consumption. This means freshness and quality of the food products can be preserved by the right packaging. Thus, modern packaging technology has enabled food manufacturers and processors to supply fresh food products to the end consumers. This incredible packaging technology has not only revolutionized the way food was preserved but has also set new quality standards that consumers expect from international food manufacturers. No matter which part of the world a food product is sourced from, consumers can enjoy fresh food if it is preserved in the right packaging under the right circumstances.
5. Helps Prevent Tampering:
In order to ensure food safety, the packaging should be made tamper-resistant. The tampered food product is unsafe for health. Packaging can be utilized to prevent the tampering issue. This means food packaging should include tamper indications. The food manufacturers should use tamper-evident labels on the packaging that indicate if the package has tampered with. This includes printed features, special packaging membranes, breakaway closures, and other graphics and product features that change due to tampering. Thus, with the right food packaging, deliberate tampering can be indicated and prevented.
No matter which part of the world a food product is sourced from, consumers can enjoy fresh food if it is preserved in the right packaging under the right circumstances. Inecta has developed a food and beverage ERP software that can help track all parts of the supply chain to keep food safe and fresh for consumers.
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Pick a product, any product. Almost anything you can think of for purchase will arrive at a shop or your front door in some form of packaging, with additional layers added to transport and delivery.
The type and purpose of this packaging can vary wildly – from simple cardboard to an elaborate presentation gift box with laser-cut foam inlays – but there are several elements that will have been considered during the design of every type of packaging to ensure that they meet the increasingly high standards expected from consumers, manufacturers, logistics and shops.
The following six functions of product packaging are key to ensuring that goods are protected and presented to the highest standards in their journey from production to customer:
To protect products from damage
Depending on the product it is carrying, packaging is vital for protection during transit.
Additional protection might be needed for delicate items, which could require either a more rigid container or foam padding to minimise movement.
Egg crate packaging foam is a great example of this. Created from open cell polyurethane foam, the convoluted surface consisting of continuous peaks and troughs can keep even the most unusually shaped goods static and secure. As well as being lightweight and cost-effective, egg crate foams are available in a wide range of grades, densities and shapes.
To provide key information
Packaging contains large amounts of important information, from ingredients to usage instructions and indicators of safety and quality standards. These elements should be considered during the packaging’s development to make sure that key information is presented in a clear and accessible way.
With more than 20 years of experience, we are not just manufacturers. We collaborate with our clients to solve problems and realise their concepts through the design and development of foam products.
To contain multiple items
Products that consist of multiple pieces or components, for example photography equipment, will need to be both secured and accessible in its packaging. This type of packaging will likely use polyurethane and polyethylene (PE) foam inserts to protect their contents.
Foam inserts can serve a dual purpose of protecting goods while also presenting them effectively. From cameras in flight cases to a box for delicate jewellery, foam inserts can help to secure delicate items and keep them looking great.
To promote the product
Alongside storage and protection, effective presentation of the product is a very important function of packaging. The combination of visual branding, such as colours and logos, and product display, such as the inclusion of a clear window on the box lid, can make a significant contribution to attracting consumer interest by highlighting the quality of the products.
Giving the consumer visibility of the actual product can help to encourage sales and build customer confidence. To complement this, brand colours on packaging can help to convey a sense of luxury. By bonding fabrics to the foam before cutting, Technical Foam Services can provide fabric faced foam inserts in any colour to help enhance brand recognition, without compromising on quality and the protective properties of the material.
To improve storage effectiveness
The design of packaging can have a significant effect for storage. Unnecessary weight and size can mean that fewer products can be stored at any point and could potentially result in items being damaged in transit.
Packaging which has been designed to be stackable, compact and to not add excessive weight can allow for a larger inventory in a smaller space, while also making the transportation and delivery more cost effective.
To consider environmental impact
Environmental consideration is an increasingly vital topic as moves to dramatically reduce the level of single-use plastic in products continue. Modern packaging must be efficient, secure and attractive, while also avoiding unnecessary waste. Examples of this can be seen in creative solutions, such as recyclable packaging that does not require metal or plastic fastenings.
Creative methods for re-using elements of packaging can help to minimise the volume of materials going to waste. Many of the engineered foam parts we produce are in flexible polyurethane, polyethylene – both of which can be recycled, with polyurethane foam being used to create chipfoam.
Technical Foam Services have a commitment to minimising the environmental impact of the foam conversion process and were the first UK foam converter to achieve three ISO standards – including ISO 1400 for our dedication to protecting our environment for the long-term.
At TFS, we specialise in the manufacture of foams for delicate and high-value products and can create bespoke packaging foam solution for products of all sizes.
Combining both safety and visual appeal means we are confident that our packaging foams will present your products and brand in the best possible way.
Click here to find out more about packaging foam or contact us with enquiries and for more information on the services we offer.
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