Packaging Should Play a Pivotal Role in the Product Development Process

You may have the best product in the world, with state of the art features and a high brand value, all of which are considered to be key requisites for a successful sales conversion. But unless you have a proper packaging, especially one that protects the contents of the packages and allows the quality to be optimized, you would not be able to beat the competition in your respective industry / market. 

The intended use of packaging is to ensure longevity (in terms of shelf life of product) and to optimize quality. But there are other factors to consider, especially when it comes to packaging produce and other food items. If packaging were to be treated with care and involved in the product development process, then it would contribute towards sustainability and safety of the food items. Both of these factors are in fact major challenges in the food industry (fresh produce segment). 

In the case of fresh produce, temperature plays a key role in the designing of modified atmosphere packaging where the contents are packed in an environment that ensures long shelf life without any rotting or spoiling of the contents. This is an integral part of quality optimization when trying to come up with the right packaging solution for the contents. 

Similarly, the management of moisture in the packaging is an important obstacle that needs to be managed. Most of the packaging materials available today act as moisture barriers. This allows moisture to be either kept out completely or be retained inside the package without much transmission being allowed. Such conditions could become a problem if not checked in time. Due to the prevalence of such issues, special films are being developed which offer higher vapour and moisture transmission rates. 

All of these aspects clearly indicate that packaging should be considered as a technology platform rather than being thought of as a storage solution. Researchers are now focusing on nano-level schematics to ensure next-gen packaging solutions that could define a new future for the global business scenario. Traditional packaging methods have definitely provided a lot of convenience to the products, but it is time to leverage technology and come up with innovative packaging that provides more than mere protection and brand value to the products.