• Monitor and indicate the condition of the pack contents;
• Remotely signal information such as product identity;
• Store and provide information on product history and origins;
• Assist in the use of the product;
• Indicate evidence of tampering or product diversion;
• Provide promotional and marketing aids on the pack;
• Interface with other intelligent technologies to ensure optimal product use and conversion;
• Assist in reducing costs and increasing product sales through improved stock and supply chain management.

• The ability to monitor and indicate the condition of the pack contents;
• Remotely signal information, such as product identity;
• Store and provide information on product history and origins;
• Assist in the use of the product such as information on dose, or history of use in the case of drugs;
• Indicate evidence of tampering or product diversion;
• Provide promotional and marketing aids on the pack;
• Interface with other intelligent technologies to ensure optimal product use and conversion;
• Assist in reducing costs and increasing product sales through improved stock and supply chain management.

• Falling cost of RFID technologies - including smart active labels (SAL) and electromagnetic ID (EMID);
• Full commercialisation of non-electronic diagnostics;
• Improved retailer confidence through pilot-scale evaluations;
• Consumer demand for diagnostic packaging, notably freshness indicators;
• Legislation on traceability of food;
• Legislation on cold chain management;
• Retailer differentiation increasingly on service and quality and not on price;
• Enhanced functionality (speech on product displays etc.) providing for higher levels of product information, promoting and packaging novelty.
  

• Saves lives - tamper evidence, sterilisation indicators, freshness indicators etc.;
• Prevents illness - time-temperature indicators (TTI), detection of pathogens etc.;
• Increases sales - open merchandising, lowered risk of stock-outs etc.;
• Reduces costs - less shrinkage, lower labour costs, less error in stock counts, less waste etc.;
• Refreshes merchandising - changing text/colours, 'talking' promotions, on-product displays etc.;
• Enhances brands - battery testers, timers on products, liaison with other intelligent technologies, e.g. refrigerators, microwave ovens etc.
  

Applications in food and beverage packaging

Food producers and processors are increasingly seeking extra merchandising and safety features. Brand owners are looking for ways to differentiate their product from those of their competitors, and even creating sub-brands to emphasise the attraction of a brand to a targeted consumer group. Retailers require longer shelf life and improved methods of quality control for the management of perishable goods, and consumers trust the supply chain to be safe, and look for improved information on freshness and shelf life. Combinations of intelligent and active packaging systems in the same product can address these issues.

Smart packaging and intelligent packaging technologies are being integrated to provide for extended performance with a variety of indicators and technologies. For example, intelligent technologies may be used to monitor and indicate oxygen levels in packs that incorporate oxygen-scavenging technologies to ensure product freshness. Equally, anti-theft devices may be incorporated into the same intelligent technologies to provide multi-functionality for the pack.

Market growth for food and drink

The evolution of intelligent retail packaging technologies in the food and drink sectors will represent a critical element within overall growth in intelligent retail packaging, forecast by Pira to account for 25 per cent of overall growth in intelligent retail packaging between 2002-08.

Following steady growth in the initial period, the rate of growth of intelligent retail packaging in the food and drink sector is forecast to accelerate from 2005 as a result of the positive effect of legislation on the traceability of food products through the supply chain in the EU and US, and by the demographic and social changes driving the increase in fresh and chilled products and the demands from consumers for more information on freshness.

Negative effects that can slow the acceptance of technologies are the need for immediate food contact approval for many diagnostic technologies aimed at demonstrating pack freshness, and for confidence in diagnostic technologies and their relationship to product quality. Both of these will require lengthy evaluation programmes.

A key factor in the food sector will be the availability of technologies for flexible packaging conversion. Inks and coatings need to be capable of high-speed printing/conversion by available gravure and flexographic means, as well as satisfying performance criteria.

In the course of a survey on intelligent retail packaging conducted by Pira International, converters indicated an increased interest in funding R&D programmes for intelligent retail technologies, but these programmes must compete with developments in active packaging, barrier packaging, the production of more cost-effective, thinner flexible packaging, and the substitution of existing rigid and semi-rigid pack formats with flexible packaging.

Technologies

Diagnostic packaging

The food sector is a key driver of diagnostic packaging materials and, to a lesser extent, radio frequency identification devices (RFIDs).

The main interest in diagnostic packaging on the part of the food industry and retailers will revolve around freshness and doneness indicators, and for time-temperature indicators in the chill/cold food chain. There will be a potential for increases in laminar electronics associated with concepts such as on-carton displays of freshness as trialled by Arla Foods and others.

RFID applications will be limited by cost - consider the revenue implications of adding a tag to a carbonated soft drink retailing over one billion servings per day, even at e0.01 per unit - and by technology. There are issues to be cleared on the readability of lower cost, passive RFIDs through liquids and metal, and also in the presence of granular materials such as rice. These will preclude the concept of single scanning of baskets of purchases, and will require single-item scanning as with barcodes today. Developments in SAL technologies provide low-cost tags and labels that can be read through metals and liquids, and these may hold the key to applications in medium/higher-cost food and drink products.

EAS and EMID technologies will be used for higher-value drinks as tags or as covert technologies to assist in product identification and authentication.

Freshness indicators

Fresh products, especially meat and produce, are the key traffic drivers in retail food stores. Overall sales of chilled products are developing because of their freshness, quality and natural value to an increasingly health-aware population. Food safety, freshness and quality are increasingly on the agenda of retailers and manufacturers because of recent food crises (e.g. mad cow disease, foot-and-mouth) and because of more demanding and educated consumers.

Legislation on food traceability to be introduced by the EU and US authorities, and the interest in supply chain management created by the development of RFID, puts pressure on retailers and manufacturers to review practices in cold chain management.

Price wars between retailers have further pressurised margins through the value chain, and enabling technologies for improvements in the supply chain must be low-cost and effective at all levels. Leaving aside price competition, retailers and manufacturers are looking for means of differentiating products, and of providing superior service and quality.

What retailers/consumers want

The overall conclusion from the study (see Monoprix case study) and the use of freshness indicators on produce are summarised as:

• Consumers want and expect a form of freshness indicator and are prepared to pay a modest premium for the service;
• Consumers appreciate the benefits of freshness indicators and perceive them as a food safety device capable of improving quality and freshness;
• Freshness indicators are 'intelligent use-by dates'.

The benefits for food producers/ processors, retailers and consumers of using temperature-time indicator labels at item level to demonstrate product freshness are:

• They are an 'intelligent use-by date' that responds to actual storage conditions and not assumed storage conditions;
• As they are placed on each individual packet, all the heat exposure from time of packing to the time of use in the consumer home is captured;
• They are easily viewed and understood by food process operatives, retail store staff and by consumers in the home.

For consumers:

• They improve customer satisfaction because they provide evidence of freshness - an important and sensitive issue;
• They provide visual evidence of safe and correct management of product throughout the supply cold chain;
• They provide the consumer with a device to monitor food quality at home.

For retailers:

• TTI labels as freshness indicators visually demonstrate to customers the investments made to control the cold chain;
• They demonstrate a commitment to quality and freshness;
• They open a new channel for communication of product information with customers;
• They modify behaviour and attitudes within the store to promote better handling, resulting in lower waste and spoilage;
• They improve stock rotation practices with less focus on theoretical sell-by dates, and more focus on products with shorter shelf life through supply chain damage or deficiencies.

For the food processor/brand owner:

• Allows the manufacturer to assure the final user that the product characteristics have been maintained (taste, odour, colour etc.) and are as the consumer expects;
• Avoids the product being eaten within the theoretical use-by period with less than optimal characteristics because of breaks in the cold supply chain;
• Represents a new method to demonstrate the importance and relevance of freshness to the retailer/consumer.

Outlook

The applications for intelligent packaging in marketing and brand promotion will become widespread. The ability to produce low-cost disposable electronics capable of providing images and text that moves or changes colour on cartons and packages is available through the development of smaller and flatter electronics and battery technologies. Adding this type of functionality to diagnostic technologies, such as freshness indicators, could provide a product as highly desired by consumers for its packaging as its contents.

This article contains research from the report The Future of Packaging in China. For further information, please contact: Mr Rav Lally Tel: +44 (0)1372 802271 Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it