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interpack 2023 - Food

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Andrea Morandini in EcoeFISHent lab

Image: AIMPLAS

NEW!

24.09.2024

AIMPLAS Working to Develop Valuable Packaging Applications From Fish-Processing Waste

AIMPLAS, a Valencia, Spain-based research and technology center, is participating in a European project designed to develop an eco-friendly barrier coating for food packaging from fish gelatin as well as cosmetics packaging from waste fishing nets.
Hand and cup

Image: Woodly Oy

23.09.2024

Woodly – made of wood, looks like plastic
Wood-based substitute material for plastic offers the food industry new sustainable options. Finnish start-up and SAVE FOOD member Woodly supplies wood cellulose polymers for various packaging solutions and products such as reusable cups. The carbon-neutral material is particularly useful in ensuring that bread is hygienically packaged while staying fresh for a long time and looking appetising.
Stretch film holding tins in place on a pallet

Image: Brangs+Heinrich

17.09.2024

Sustainable packaging film for sleeving, stretching, shrinking and sealing
Plastic film is indispensable in the packaging sector. Used as sealing film, it can seal food trays, it can enclose beverage bottles in the form of sleeves and as stretch film, it lends stability to packaging during transport. Modern packaging films are sustainable, recyclable or are made from recycled materials. With a view to the European Packaging Directive, this is indeed a boon.
Portrait of Clarissa Odewald

Image: thyssenkrupp Rasselstein

17.09.2024

Clarissa Odewald is leading thyssenkrupp Rasselstein through the change of brands in packaging steel
Tin-coated or specially chromium-plated blackplate is also known as tinplate and is used predominantly in the manufacture of packaging. In Andernach, the sole German manufacturer thyssenkrupp Rasselstein produces tinplate for approximately 400 customers in 80 countries. Clarissa Odewald has recently become the Chief Sales Officer and Chairwoman of the Executive Board.
Artificial intelligence

Image: iStock

23.08.2024

Artificial intelligence for more process quality
Artificial intelligence (AI) will play an important part in the future in optimising processes within the food industry. It can lengthen the shelf life of food by allowing precise control of temperature and humidity, for example. AI analyses huge amounts of data in real time in order to guarantee optimum recipes and storage conditions and minimise spoiling.

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Five brown eggs instead of six in an open egg carton on an orange background.

Image: Tanaonte/iStock

14.08.2024

More transparency for hidden price increases
Shopping for daily necessities has gotten expensive. But some products have become more expensive without a change in price – there is simply less content per package. Customers often do not notice this practice, called shrinkflation, to begin with. France and Hungary are now combatting this practice and obligating supermarkets to indicate hidden price increases.
Graphic of the 17 Global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for Sustainable Development and Climate Protection

Image: senkaya/iStock

14.08.2024

Brand manufacturers fail to meet their sustainability targets
The packaging of the future is meant to be recyclable, made of recycled material or compostable. A few years ago, many manufacturers therefore defined ambitious sustainability targets, from which some are now beginning to back away. Corporations like Unilever, PepsiCo and Colgate-Palmolive have already announced that they will not be able to meet their targets by 2025.
Finalist Posters

Image: PKN Packaging News

25.07.2024

Australia’s Female Packaging Leaders Get Their Moment in the Sun

The inaugural PKN Women in Packaging Awards recognize a wide range of accomplishments.

The inaugural PKN Women in Packaging Awards celebrated six remarkable women and a pioneering Hall of Fame inductee. The event highlighted the achievements of women in the industry, addressed the lack of diversity and promoted sustainability efforts. With a focus on innovation and leadership, this celebration aims to inspire and empower more women to make their mark in packaging.
Woman holding bag of feathers

Image: Aeropowder

18.07.2024

Natural insulation from feathers
With their microscopically small hollow fibre structure, feathers are among the lightest natural fibres ever and provide excellent heat insulation. A British start-up utilises these properties and turns feathers, a waste product from the poultry industry, into an insulating packaging material for the cold transport.
Two hands

Image: unsplash/Cytonn Photography

18.07.2024

Partnerships in the packaging industry
Stronger together – the same is true for the packaging industry. Many businesses have recognised this and so, partnerships are currently very sought-after. Focusing on common know-how, sharing resources and technical knowledge all offers an advantage over the competition.
Aldi UK has been at the forefront of many efforts to advance sustainability and reduce the carbon footprint of its product packaging

Image: Aldi

26.06.2024

ALDI UK using AI to provide visibility to its flexible plastic packaging efforts
Aldi UK is pioneering the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to assist in its recycling of flexible plastic packaging. The supermarket offers front-of-store collection points for such packaging and then applies technology from Greenback Recycling Technologies to track and verify the flow of material using eco2Veritas system. The project is supported by the brand-backed Flexible Plastic Fund.
Depending on composition, the colour of the final product may vary.

Image: Constanze Tillmann

25.06.2024

Kombucha leather – packaging from the tea lab
The packaging industry is looking for creative solutions to package food both safely and sustainably. A young team of students and researchers in Istanbul is currently working on prototypes of SCOBY, a leather-like biofilm made from fermented kombucha tea.
Long machine taking up three-storeys inside a hall

Image: Sappi

24.06.2024

Sustainable coatings for packaging papers
Food is more and more often wrapped in paper. But this natural material is porous and has next to no barrier properties against humidity, oxygen, grease or oil. Paper producers like Sappi are now coating their packaging papers sustainably using water-based barriers which do not impact later recycling. In research, a common topic is the development of bio-based barrier coating materials.
Portrait Tina Gerfer

Image: Wilhelm Rasch GmbH

21.06.2024

For Tina Gerfer, your word is as good as written
Her grandfather had the idea for a machine that could wrap delicate hollow chocolate figures like a Santa Claus or an Easter bunny in a perfectly fitting protective layer made of printed aluminium foil. Today, Tina Gerfer is head of the medium-sized mechanical engineering company, which has long ago grown beyond packaging for hollow figures.
Aldi refill station with touch screens

Image: GoUnpackaged

21.05.2024

The Refill Coalition aims to take reuse and refill mainstream
The UK-based Refill Coalition, led by the GoUnpackaged NGO, has worked with molder Berry Global and supply-chain firm CHEP to create a system designed to vastly reduce retailers’ need for single-use plastics packaging.
Three EU flags

Image: unsplash/ Alexandre Lallemand

13.05.2024

Compulsive EU regulation for sustainable packaging not far away
Harmonising the rules on packaging and packaging waste within Europe is long overdue. The draft of a Europe-wide, compulsive packaging directive by the European Commission in 2022 has already passed through the different levels of legislation and could achieve final adoption in autumn. Industry representatives are both expressing approval and criticism.
Lisa Antonie Scherer

Image: Proservation

13.05.2024

Inventor with team spirit
Founding a start-up right after graduation takes courage. Therefore, Lisa Antonie Scherer joined forces with three others to market her invention, an eco-friendly padding material. The most recent step is a successful crowd funding campaign to enable the purchase of a demonstration system.
Pia Schnück

Image: REWE Group

16.04.2024

Women in packaging: Circular economy at REWE Group
How can you use resources within the company and along the supply chain efficiently, and how can commerce make the leap from a linear to a genuine circular economy? Questions like these are the daily business of Pia Schnück. The economist and environmental scientist at REWE is responsible for the area sustainability, packaging and circular economy.
Sorting belt with packaging waste inside a sorting plant

Image: Julia Paul

16.04.2024

Artificial intelligence improves recycling
A green Europe is unthinkable without a working circular economy. For this to happen, waste sorting and recycling processes need to improve in order to obtain more recyclates for reuse. Artificial intelligence (AI) is already being used in sorting and recycling today, but new AI developments are currently revolutionising the industry.
Sway Co-founders at a seaweed farm

Image: Alex Krowiak

16.04.2024

Seaweed-based packaging gaining traction as a plastic alternative
Notpla Ltd. has landed a big contract with a UK sports-venue operator, while California startup Sway has launched a new seaweed-based biopolymer and secured major new funding. Both have won awards and are helping to commercialize seaweed-based packaging.
Woman carrying multiple boxes

Image: iStock

26.03.2024

Why ‘right-sizing’ your parcel packaging is good for the planet, and the bottom line
Consumers are all but addicted to home delivery of all types of products, driving the number of parcels shipped globally from 161 billion in 2022 to an estimated 225 billion by 2028.
Green box with tray with holes and glass jars

Image: Pacoon

12.03.2024

A sturdy concept for the future of reusable containers?
Within the planned EU packaging regulation, quotas for reusable containers play an important part. However, reusable container collection systems are not yet widespread in Europe. This is in spite of the fact that preserves, jams, fruit gums, sauces or dried products could come in reusable packaging in addition to beverages. Pacoon now has developed a new reusable container system.
Human operating a display on a humanoid robot

Image: PAL Robotics

12.03.2024

What drives the robot market in 2024?
All over the world, more robots than ever before are in use in various industries: According to the International Federation of Robotics IFR, the number of industrial robots is currently about 3.9 million units. These run the gamut from new developments in artificial intelligence to collaborative robots for new applications and humanoid solutions.
Caroline Babendererde is Head of Sustainability Mid Europe at Tetra Pak

21.02.2024

“We must make packaging more attractive as a varied professional field”
In a world forced to meet the global challenges of sustainable food systems, progressive packaging solutions are indispensable. This includes the people working on these solutions. In this interview with Caroline Babendererde, Head of Sustainability Mid Europe at Tetra Pak, we discuss how to win young talents for the industry and the role of sustainability initiatives.
Caroline Babendererde is Head of Sustainability Mid Europe at Tetra Pak

21.02.2024

“We must make packaging more attractive as a varied professional field”
In a world forced to meet the global challenges of sustainable food systems, progressive packaging solutions are indispensable. This includes the people working on these solutions. In this interview with Caroline Babendererde, Head of Sustainability Mid Europe at Tetra Pak, we discuss how to win young talents for the industry and the role of sustainability initiatives.
Several rolls of labels

Image: Securikett

14.02.2024

Paper safety labels for recycling
Products that are counterfeit or which have been tampered with cause large economic damage. Safety labels can help to guarantee the authenticity and integrity of goods, as when someone attempts to open the packaging, it leaves irreversible traces. When it comes to recyclability, however, these small labels are often not performing very well.

Image: Sensoneo

14.02.2024

Romania launches the world’s largest deposit system for beverages
Right now, Romania has one of the lowest recycling rates for packaging in all of Europe. This is currently set to change. Recently, the country in south-eastern Europe introduced a deposit return system for single-use packaging for beverages – with almost 80,000 collection points it is to become the world’s largest so-called Deposit Return System (DRS).
Foam from waste cardboard

Image: Beijing Key Laboratory of Wood Science and Engineering

17.01.2024

Researchers tout sustainable packaging foam made from waste cardboard
Researchers in Beijing have developed an environmentally friendly cushioning and insulating foam made entirely from recycled cardboard that they say offers a sustainable, plastic-free packaging alternative to the shipping industry.
Three women hold picture frames in their hands

Image: Pro Carton

17.01.2024

Urgent need for young talent
There is an urgent need for young, skilled workers everywhere, and the packaging industry is no exception. Next-generation workers often pursue unconventional approaches with bold new ideas, regardless of whether they have studied packaging technology or design at European universities or completed an industry apprenticeship.
Mia Pettersson

Image: Sonja Bähr, private

17.01.2024

Networked packaging industry specialist
Who is saying something, for what reason are they saying it, what is behind it and who does it benefit? Industrial engineer Sonja Bähr uses questions like these to encourage people to be more critical about statements regarding packaging, waste disposal and recycling.
Woman behind a lectern

Image: dvi

14.12.2023

“Impressed by the power of innovation”
The German Packaging Institute brings all the different players in the packaging industry together – whether for an expert or political discussion or to celebrate innovations, for example at the German Packaging Award. Kim Cheng, a lawyer and since 2016 managing director of the dvi, combines legal competence with commitment to the needs of the packaging industry and its players.
Children in front of full plates.

Image: SIG

13.12.2023

Cartons for Good project wins SAVE FOOD competition
1.3 billion tonnes of food are lost or wasted globally every year. With their project Cartons for Good, the SIG Foundation is using the SIG know-how to reduce theses losses. With a specially developed bottling station, the team supports communities in poorer countries to preserve food locally – and was able to win in the project competition by the SAVE FOOD Initiative.