‘Space-Age’ QR codes, on-pack features and edible packaging

ConfectioneryNews hosted the live session, chaired by Jenny Eagle, senior editor, processing and packaging, WRBM (William Reed Business Media) with panellists, Andrew Streeter, director, CPS International and Innovatus, and Andreas Leitze, sales director, Bosch, in partnership with trade fair organisers Koelnmesse.

More on-pack features

When talking about what packaging trends consumers can expect to see in the next five years, Streeter, said the quality will lift and the flexible industry will expand its presence in the confectionery sector.

“We are going to see more fun packaging on the market but I am hoping to see more on-pack features, such as easy open, single-handed, it’s not very consumer friendly at present, but I don’t think it will happen immediately​,” he said.

“We face a big challenge because it’s easy to spend money on packaging, with extra material etc but the real trick is to take the material you’ve got and to do something structural with it, that protects and contains the pack​.”

As an example, Streeter said the Japanese are experts in this area, and use processes such as laser-etching, or they take a flow wrap and make it reclosable so you can peel one end off, take the product out and eat it, then put the wrapper back on.

“The Japanese design reclosable material with the same substrate that wrapped the bar in the first place, which is all down to the machinery and material development  but not spending more money​,” he added.

'Push the value up, keep the price down'

“We’ve got to push the value up while keeping the price down and in Europe, we haven’t got there yet​.”

Leitze, agreed and said the challenge as a machine supplier, is to make more out of the same packaging material while maintaining the same time, efficiency and cost level of the technology.

“A good example is a Doy Zip machine, where you have a standard material such as a vertical flow pack which comes with ‘zip’ features​,” he said.

“Edible packaging is a nice dream but we have to protect the product, we don’t see this happening in food so much in the future​.”

Streeter believes manufacturers will introduce bar codes that are naked to the visible eye because they take up lots of room on the pack.

“We will see more hidden coding on the pack, we know its technically possible now. It will be more ‘Space-Age’ in design and we can expect this to become a reality in five years​,” he added.

“It is possible, but we need more investment to put that into place​,” said Leitze.