The food and beverage packaging industry is one that is ever evolving and expanding with the increasingly demanding needs of the consumer. Luckily the industry is a fast-evolving and technologically focused one that is evolving at a similar rate to that of the need. Looking forward to 2021, we take a look into a few of the trends that are forecasted to be at the forefront of food and beverage packaging in the next five years.
Recent years have seen a great increase in the need for convenience food and drinks, with people working longer hours and fitting more activities into their days you can see why. All this food needs to be wrapped in convenient packaging, which currently is mainly shrink wrapping, sealed food tray packaging, folding carton packaging and corrugated case and tray packaging.
These options offer the best protection for the product from tampering, protection from damage and other needs that the individual product may have. Often these products may even need a combination of different types of packaging such as beer and carbonated drinks packaging.
Leading into the next trend, whereby manufacturers are utilising the glass bottles once again to offer a recyclable option to consumers. This is particularly prevalent in the alcoholic beverage industry and particularly in multi-pack drinks where there is still a need for a second form of packaging to bind them together and offer a second layer of protection.
Alongside this rising convenience trend is the want for these to be available at low prices, which leaves packaging manufacturers searching for cheaper solutions to packaging so not to falter on the quality of the product inside. This is why a lot of packaging is made of shrink wrap plastic, with low costs of the product and low operational costs of this particular form of food packaging equipment, it is a great alternative, which is accessible to both large organisations as well as smaller businesses.
The final trend being mentioned in this forecast for 2021 is that of the eco-friendly nature, however, there is not currently an eco-friendly, biodegradable shrink wrap option available and sometimes cardboard is not the right product for the job. As an alternative, companies, such as ourselves, provide the thinnest shrink wrap plastic packaging, using the least amount of product without compromising on the strength. We hope that in the near future this will be something that is possible and offer a revolutionary change to the packaging industry!
Image: lyzadanger under Creative Commons
