Health and safety through packaging

April 15th, 2020

Key purpose of every packaging is to protect the packed products. The protection is needed against oxygen, dirt, mold, bacteria and other external factors. Most importantly, packaging ensures product safety and more flexible and effective supply chain; providing food, hygiene products and other goods to all the people around the globe.

Now, when we are facing an unprecedented challenge with the corona virus, making people worried about their health, the consumers are paying more attention to food and product safety. Before the pandemic, bake-off points in grocery stores were increasing their popularity and a number of people avoided buying prepacked vegetables, for example. Now, we start seeing the bake-off points and salad bars being shut down and increased sales in packed bread, fruits and vegetables. Consumers are relying on the packaging to protect the products, thus protecting them from viruses, bacteria and other microbes. How many times, in the past few days, you have made the decision to go with the prepacked option just to be sure?

In addition to product safety, packaging is an essential part of the supply chain. During these emergency conditions with increased border controls and sometimes delayed deliveries, we need to make sure that food products are well packed in order to avoid spoiled goods and food waste. One example of a high-quality – low waste packaging solutions is our AmerFresh Active Packaging Solution for extending the shelf life of fresh cut fruits and vegetables. These kind of solutions provide the brand owners and retailers with more flexibility in crisis situations and higher quality for consumers.

Together, we will fight this pandemic, and one day it will be over. What will most likely remain, is the consumers’ trust in packaging to ensure the safety of food and other products they buy. After the crisis, it is our responsibility to, together, continue on developing even more environmentally friendly packaging solutions that protect the products with less nonrenewable resources, decrease food waste and are either reusable or recyclable. As the past days have so concretely shown, we need packaging, we need plastic packaging, to ensure the health, safety and functioning of our societies.