Role of packaging in the liquid industry

liquid industry

Packaging is basically a method used to protect products from damage and outside influences along with the purpose to provide consumers with ingredient and nutritional information. However, with growing competition and continuous technological innovations the packaging industry has seen the revolution and gone beyond just containing, protecting and preserving products. Now, the concept is changed to promotion and branding while providing several visceral cues that affect consumers perception of the product and influence their behaviour.

Liquid Packaging Market

Packaging plays an important role in any industry or any product such as electronics, food, cosmetics etc. But if it’s a liquid industry the design, blend with the coated material, acts as a safeguard to ensure that no liquid should leak during transportation and your product reaches in optimal condition to the user. The important points to be remembered for packaging in liquid industry are;

Determine the Composition and Adhesive Compatibility

Before finalising the packaging for your liquid product don’t forget to do the product compatibility test to determine if you need a coextruded sealant layer, special film adhesive or any extra layer to ensure that the film doesn’t react after the package is filled. Also, pay attention to the film, ink and adhesive component to make sure the best quality product is used to meet product’s shelf-life requirements.

Right Packaging Design is important

Decide the packaging keeping in mind the product weight, composition, dispensing needs, filling process and your customers’ expectations. Size is important, don’t forget to allow correct head space volume. If the package is incorrectly sized, the seals may creep under the strain of expansion. The products must travel in all type of climates, and different climate affects the product differently.

Drop test is a mandate

In case of liquid packaging, drop tests or shipping tests should be done throughout the production process. It will reveal if there are any leakage, weak lamination bonds, weak seals, miss-registered seal impressions or any defects in package geometry.

The rise in importance of packaging and increasing focus of the key players on innovations and technological advancements are considered as major factors affecting the growth of liquid packaging market. Also, the rise of bio-based polymers took the liquid packaging to the next level and more growth is expected in near future. The role of packaging in liquid industries is critical, lets understand its criticality.

Product Protection

The basic function of packaging is to provide protection to the product from outside influences and damage. In terms of liquid industries which includes the risk of leakage, it becomes more crucial and required extra attention.

Packaging provides protection from 3 major sources of external influences: chemical, biological, and physical. Chemical protection reduces the changes done by environmental influences such as exposure to air/gases (specially oxygen), moisture or light. Lot of players are available in the market for packaging but select a good packaging industry to save your liquid products from contamination and wastage.

Preserving

Preserving of food is vital to keep them in a good condition for long durations and packaging machinery offers additional security in numerous ways.  The most important, a secure seal protects product from the outside atmosphere and oxygen, which can be harmful for products. Nitrogen purge systems are used to replace oxygen in a container because for some products its very harmful and it is a necessity to preserve the life of product while preserving its colour, taste and texture. 

Convenience

Packaging provides convenience in transportation of products from one place to another place. In a broader way, it also provides ease of access, handling, and disposal while minimizing the effort to prepare and serve foods. Oven-safe trays, microwavable packaging, boil-in bags etc helps consumers to cook the meal without any extra preparation. New packaging system supply ease of opening, reseal options, and special dispensing features. These convenience features add value as well as competitive edge to the products.

Product Identification:

Every product is packed in special sized, coloured and shaped container to keep them different from their competitor’s product. So, packaging is an important source that serves as an identification of the product.

Product Promotion:

Package is the first thing that strikes in customer’s mind, it’s the face of your product. The only product exposure consumers experience before the purchase is its packaging. Therefore, distinctive or innovative packaging can surely boost the sales in present competitive environment. Packing material in the house constantly reminds a consumer about the product and in a way acts as a passive salesman. Along with these important marketing features, it also provides basic information to the consumers such as nutritional value, ingredient declaration, net weight, and manufacturer information along with the cooking instructions, brand identification, and pricing.

Easy tracing

All the food manufacturing firms integrate unique codes on the package labels of their products which allows them to track their products throughout the distribution process. Codes are available in different formats such as barcodes, electronic radio frequency identification etc or it can be a simple code that can be read manually or by machine to make the tracing easy.

Liquid Packaging Reduce Costs & Waste

If the packaging is done properly for liquid products, it saves lots of cost and reduces the wastage.  The packaging increases life span of foods, thereby prolonging their usability and reducing total waste. Remember, only high performing products for liquid packaging can help in keeping the product fresh while protecting the contents during transportation as well as daily use. Because packaging of liquid products or semi-solid food is more crucial and requires resistance to flex cracking, toughness and seal veracity. That’s why you should be extra careful to save it from any type of damage as well as leakage. Globally the liquid packaging market is extremely competitive with a huge number of players focusing on the development of new products and innovations for providing a better packaging experience.

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