This month’s Packaging Innovations show, which takes place at Birmingham’s Nationals Exhibition Centre (February 26 and 27), promises to introduce visitors to some exciting new developments in food and drink packaging. The show will include more than...
With the growing amount of data being generated for - and on - packaging lines, particularly around printers, readers, programmable logic controllers (PLCs), cameras and other peripherals, food and drink companies are realising the value of a direct link...
The Fresher for Longer (FFL) initiative – which brings together key industry bodies, environmental groups and politicians – is helping to forge a consensus on packaging’s role in reducing the UK’s high levels of food waste.
A peelable lidding film has been introduced for ready meals that removes the need for cardboard sleeves, while delivering cost savings and reducing packaging.
Gloucester-based tea packager Infusion GB is printing directly on to enveloped tea bags for the first time, following its investment in three Domino G220i thermal ink jet printers.
The installation of Ishida’s latest snacks packing solution - 18-head multi-head weighers and Atlas bagmakers with advanced Ishida integrated Total Packaging Systems (iTPS) software - at Kolak Snack Foods in London, is helping to nearly triple output...
The possibility of doubling up oxygen barrier in in-mould labels with the same barrier in the pot itself has enabled a Scandinavian seafood firm to move from metal packaging to ambient plastics, with a current shelf-life of two years potentially extendable...
The Food Manufacture Group is staging a free one-hour webinar at 11am on Thursday February 20 2014 to arm food and drink manufacturers with all the latest information about the Food Information Regulation (FIR).
Digital promotions driven by on-pack coding are providing brands with security, the ability to market test concepts and, when combined with mobile technology, even the option of reacting to where the code is being accessed.
For premium brands looking for a point of difference, Absolut Vodka has blazed a trail with a second range of unique bottles, providing pack-to-pack as well as brand-to-brand differentiation.
A film showing ‘A day in the life of a fish box’ – from port to plate – has proved a surprise hit on YouTube, according to its producers, the British Plastics Federation (BPF).
German packaging machinery specialist Krones has developed a blow moulder that can produce 81,000 polyethylene terephthalate (PET) beverage containers an hour, which are then filled with product and labelled in a single operation. The equipment is already...
Food and drink businesses should focus on continuous improvement, over-invest in consumer insight and view innovation as accountable at a profit and loss level to help safeguard innovation in a recession.
In May this year, Sealed Air announced the “immediate” launch of mycelium-based Mushroom Packaging cushioning in Europe. In October, it was still not commercially available in the UK. Some suspect that, despite the eco–and media–friendliness of its message,...
Cocoa waste could help make chocolate wrappers and other food packaging, thanks to a pioneering process devised by UK paper manufacturer James Cropper.
After a false start in the three years to 2010, it looks as if wine in pouches could be back for a second ‘bite of the grape’, with retailer Asda and brands Echo Falls and Arniston Bay championing the format.
Nestlé has triumphed over Cadbury in a UK Court of Appeal hearing challenging its application to trademark the shade of purple it uses for milk chocolate bar and drinking chocolate packaging.
Retailers and fresh produce processors can obliterate rubbish and extend the time packaged fruit can be displayed in shops by two days, according to research unveiled this week.
The UK’s only dedicated beverage carton recycling plant – capable of handling up to 40% (25,000t) of the cartons manufactured each year for the UK food and drink market – is opening today (September 3).
Pallet specialist CHEP is to lead a campaign to bring manufacturers and retailers into agreement on a standard pallet size, which it claims offers huge potential cost savings.
Action is underway to safeguard 500 jobs at a bottle making plant in Scotland after drinks giant Diageo announced plans to shift bottle supply for brands including Johnnie Walker and Smirnoff to other locations.
Packaging specialist Payne is launching a Facebook campaign to find out what people think about recloseable packs. It follows research that suggests a third of consumers would pay more for the convenience of being able to reseal certain types of packs.
The time being taken to prepare a positive 'Union' list of compounds permitted in active and intelligent (A&I) food packaging means the EU is lagging behind markets such as the US and Japan in commercialising antioxidant (AO) and antimicrobial...
Food packaging firm Discovery Foils has already attracted interest from potential buyers, despite 69 redundancies at the firm after it entered administration earlier this month.
The Courtauld Commitment 3 – which aims to further reduce the weight and carbon impact of household grocery and packaging waste – lacks ambition and the threat of a “government stick” to drive through the required changes, the food industry has been warned.
Austrian plastics converter Alpla Werke Alwin Lehner and renewable chemicals firm Avantium have made a joint agreement to develop polyethylene furanoate (PEF) bioplastic bottles.
Amcor Flexibles has launched a new sustainable thermoformable cellulose-based packaging product called Packpyrus. Its oxygen barrier makes it suitable for pre-sliced products such as meat or cheese.
The government has at last published its hybrid front-of-pack (FoP) nutritional labelling scheme, to widespread applause from health campaigners, major retailers and some manufacturers - although not all - that have supported it.
There is an unusually wide consensus across the recycling value chain that materials recovery facilities (MRFs) should be subject to mandatory, rather than voluntary, quality requirements and testing regimes when it comes to their sorted output streams.
A new specification for continental canned vegetable brand Bonduelle combines a nitrogen-dosed, pressurised steel food can with a 15% overall reduction in can weight, thanks to a significantly thinner wall, no requirement for beading, but also - critically...
The introduction of Ishida kit at a world-famous throat lozenge manufacturer has reduced product breakage during packing, as well as increasing throughput by 20% and minimising giveaway.
The EU’s Food Information for Consumers Regulation (FIC) is threatening to turn pack and label design processes on their head, experts have said, while implementation is slowed by incomplete provisions, divided UK responsibilities and the overlapping...
Sustainable packaging firm RAP has unveiled its new range of 'single serve' portion packs. This followed the launch of RapTray, which the firm claimed was the world's first hermetically sealed, modified atmosphere carton food tray.
Pouches and rigid plastics will account for over 90% of incremental demand for retortable packaging up to 2017, a report has predicted, but with metal and glass holding on to the bulk of their existing - and very substantial - business.
With the EU Timber Regulation (EUTR) coming into force this month, the UKvs two main forest certification schemes are taking different approaches to supporting compliance.
Sustainability and convenience will be key themes at Nicholl Food's Packaging stand at Pro2Pac 2013 (March 17-20), as the firm showcases its 'eco-friendly' hybrid format and further additions to its aluminium tray ranges.
New research suggests that, although glass packaging will face fierce competition from other materials over the next decade, it is already retaking ground lost in some categories and showing stubborn resistance in others.
A breakthrough in packaging for ambient ready meals that contain raw meat, vegetables and sauces is being claimed. It involves the use of a film technology that can extend shelf-life from eight weeks to up to 12 months.
