Plastic packaging for food and drink products will continue to outperform all other materials, and the market will reach $172.1bn globally by 2014, up from $147bn, according to the latest research by Business Insights.
It’s hard for other materials to compete in the food and drink market, as plastic is cheaper than glass and metals such as aluminium, says Business Insights, which says that this will be a prevailing trend for the next five years.
Growth in the use of plastic will continue to be led by Europe, which accounts for 38% of the total market, according to the Plastic Packaging Market Outlook in Foods & Drinks by Business Insights.
“Growth in Europe has been fuelled by innovation caused by manufacturers trying to meet the demand for ethical packaging solutions,” said Michael Randle, analyst at Business Insights. “As a result, there has been a move towards lightweighting of plastics (Faerch Plast has reduced the average weight of its CPET trays by 11% since 2008, while Plastic Technologies has now made its oPTI lightweight foamed PET container blow-moulding process available for beer applications, for example), as one of its advantages is that it takes up less space in landfills. In fact, in 2010, nearly 45% of new products in plastic packaging took place in Europe.”
Plastic generally generates less solid waste during production and recycling, and this adds to its attraction.
Yet, compared with other materials in Europe, plastics still suffer from a rather poor image with regards to their environmental credentials and consumption of resources, and a recent study commissioned by the association of plastics manufacturers (PlasticsEurope eV) set out to evaluate the truth.
Perhaps not surprisingly given the commissioning body, the study conducted by Denkstatt-GmbH concluded that plastic products actually contribute to the saving of energy and the reduction of greenhouse gases. In the study, The Effects of Plastics upon Energy Consumption and Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Europe, Denkstatt concluded that both energy consumption and the quantity of greenhouse gases emitted would substantially increase if plastic products should be replaced by other materials.
It highlighted that, in particular, the reduction in the loss of foodstuffs through the use of plastic protective packaging was particularly in its favour.
Many companies are tapping into this need to reduce food wastage and at the same time exploit the ability of packaging to give added value to their brands. Sunsweet Growers in the US has recently introduced individually wrapped prunes in a plastic tube.
Sunsweet Ones take prunes to a different level in terms of consumer appeal. The individual plastic wrapping ensures that the prunes don’t stick together and makes it easier for them to be eaten one at a time, while keeping the rest of the pack contents fresh over time.
“Instead of developing new products or new flavours to compete with other brands offering a similar product, manufacturers are starting to exploit the ability of packaging to give added value,” said Andrew Streeter, director of independent packaging analyst Pack-Track, a subsidiary of Datamonitor. “In the case of prunes, there’s often very little to distinguish the different brands, so consumers will choose the cheapest brand. However, if the packaging can add value by addressing a consumer concern, as in the case of Sunsweet Ones, consumers are more likely to see the point of spending extra and choosing that brand.”
Streeter also highlighted how, in the UK, Heinz Beans’ Fridge Pack resealable plastic container enables customers to keep leftover beans in the fridge for up to five days without having to transfer them into a storage container, which offers added value to a popular staple product. Produced by RPC Containers Corby, the 1kg, blow-moulded container is marked up to show five equal portions, and includes meal suggestions.
Heinz opted for plastic for its lightweight and shatterproof qualities, making it safe and easy to handle, and the choice of recyclable PP was made for environmental reasons.
Heinz’s fridge pack is fitted with an injection-moulded lid from RPC Halstead, an easy-peel, high barrier sealing film from LPF Flexible Packaging (part of the Clondalkin Group Flexible Packaging Division) and is decorated with a shrink sleeve supplied by CCL Decorative Sleeves.
LPF Flexible Packaging’s easy-peel film is made from a transparent three-layer structure, with a glass-coated polyester, nylon and special high-performance sealable and peelable cast polypropylene created by LPF’s sister company, Wentus in Germany. The 80mm high barrier, reel-fed film provides excellent oxygen barrier properties, is retortable up to 131°C, and ensures a shelf life of 15 months for the Heinz Beans Fridge Pack.
Gravure printed in four colours and two white layers for opacity. The sleeve is printed on OPS to minimise vertical shrink onto the bottle, and CCL Decorative Sleeves worked closely with Accraply Grahams, who supplied the sleeving line for Heinz.
“The use of a shrink sleeve provides an eye-catching ‘look’ that’s instantly recognisable as Heinz Beanz,” said John Alderman of Heinz. “For optimum efficiency, the sleeve is easily removable at the point of recycling by the use of an easy tear strip.”
In Ireland, Carbery has selected Zip-Pak’s new DoubleZip resealable closure system for its Dubliner brand of premium Irish cheese. Designed to reduce food waste and offer convenience, the new press-to-close solution features two sets of interlocking profiles strategically spaced to guide consumers’ fingers along a path, ensuring complete bag closure after every use.
“Our focus group research indicates that consumers overwhelmingly prefer DoubleZip to single-profile solutions,” said Elizabeth Sheaffer, marketing manager at Zip-Pak. “Especially for oxygen-sensitive products such as cheese and meat, the dual profiles promote freshness by locking out air and environmental contaminants.”
According to Carbery, its choice of flexible packaging coupled with the DoubleZip recloseable mechanism improves the produce-to-package ratio, reduces the amount of packaging waste and reduces food wastage.
Concerns over safety, which may have dogged plastic as a packaging material of choice in the past due to fears over migration issues, are also being answered by plastic packaging suppliers.
“Technologies such as multi-barrier coatings and oxygen scavengers, which help strengthen the properties of the plastic and help to stop any leakage, are already starting to help drive growth,” said Randle at Business Insights. “However, the adoption of emerging technologies such as nanotechnology could prove to be a turning point, as they are suitable for products that are highly sensitive to air and moisture, like nutraceuticals, which are becoming increasingly popular with consumers.”
Claire Rowan is managing editor of Food & Beverage International magazine. Subscribe here.
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