technology

Pickler’s software comes at a crucial time for the packaging industry. With an increasing trend of conscious consumerism and new EU legislation such as the Green Claims Directive and Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSDR), packaging producers, distributors, and retailers are required to transparently showcase the impact of complete packaging portfolios.

Companies in all industries seek to increase the likelihood of their products being purchased by consumers. Brand reliability and trust can take time to establish, beyond the issue of enticing consumers to take a chance on the product in the first place. Packaging structure and design are the initial contact between product and consumer and can play a large role in the ultimate choice of a consumer to put a product in their cart.

On the side of a corridor in the department of food science and nutrition at Avinashilingam Institute of Home Science and Higher Education for Women in Coimbatore, a machine with a long conveyor belt has been set up for facilitating research on packaging.

The machine was built by a team of researchers at the college, who then used it to make edible and eco-friendly packaging material. “The wrappers can be eaten, “says Pa Raajeswari, associate professor, who headed the project.

International packaging giant Eviosys has revealed its latest innovation, Ecopeel^TM. 200 years of expertise and innovation has produced an industry first: a processable food can with a sleek, peelable foil directly sealed on the can body. 

Ecopeel^TM has been designed with sustainability, convenience and inclusivity at its core. By replacing the traditional ring-pull with foil, Ecopeel^TM is lighter and offers a 20% carbon reduction per can. 

Japan's veteran astronaut Koichi Wakata lived on the International Space Station (ISS) on a five-month mission from October 6, 2022 to March 12, 2023, setting the space duration record for an astronaut from Japan. His bags were packed with a supply of 3D Space Shampoo Sheets, a dry type of shampoo developed by Kao Corporation. The same sheet, now available commercially under the brand name Space Shampoo Sheet, can easily wipe impurities from the scalp and hair without water. A light massage of the contoured sheet over the hair removes excess sebum and refreshes the scalp.

Sappi is a manufacturer of flexible packaging papers with integrated barriers and heat-seal capability. Xeikon develops digital printing engines, both toner-based and inkjet, for a variety of packaging applications. One of its latest developments is Titon, a new toner formulation responding to sustainability trends in packaging, and claimed to offer, ‘all the benefits of UV inks without the disadvantages.’ Specifically, this sees the combination of the food-safe and odourless properties of dry toner with the special resistance to chemicals and mechanical abrasion of UV inkjet ink.