Packaging is the science, art and technology of enclosing or protecting products for distribution, storage, sale, and use. Packaging also refers to the process of design, evaluation, and production of packages. Packaging can be described as a coordinated system of preparing goods for transport, warehousing, logistics, sale, and end use. Packaging contains, protects, preserves, transports, informs, and sells.[1] In many countries it is fully integrated into government, business, institutional, industrial, and personal use.
Package labelling (en-GB) or labeling (en-US) is any written, electronic, or graphic communications on the packaging or on a separate but associated label A label is a piece of paper, polymer, cloth, metal, or other material affixed to a container or article, on which is printed a legend, information concerning the product, addresses, etc. A label may also be printed directly on the container or article.
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The purposes of packaging and package labels
Packaging and package labeling have several objectives[2]
- Physical protection - The objects enclosed in the package may require protection from, among other things, shock A mechanical or physical shock is a sudden acceleration or deceleration caused, for example, by impact, drop, kick, earthquake, or explosion. Shock is a transient physical excitation, vibration Vibration refers to mechanical oscillations about an equilibrium point. The oscillations may be periodic such as the motion of a pendulum or random such as the movement of a tire on a gravel road, compression, temperature Historically, two equivalent concepts of temperature have developed, the thermodynamic description and a microscopic explanation based on statistical physics. Since thermodynamics deals entirely with macroscopic measurements, the thermodynamic definition of temperature, first stated by Lord Kelvin, is stated entirely in empirical, measurable[3], etc.
- Barrier protection - A barrier from oxygen Oxygen (pronounced /ˈɒksɨdʒɨn/, OK-si-jin, from the Greek roots ὀξύς (acid, literally "sharp", from the taste of acids) and -γενής (-genēs) (producer, literally begetter), is the element with atomic number 8 and represented by the symbol O. It is a member of the chalcogen group on the periodic table, and is a highly, water vapor Water vapor or water vapour , also aqueous vapor, is the gas phase of water. Water vapor is one state of water within the hydrosphere. Water vapor can be produced from the evaporation of boiling liquid water or from the sublimation of ice. Under typical atmospheric conditions, water vapor is continuously generated by evaporation and removed by, dust, etc., is often required. Permeation Permeation, in physics and engineering, is the penetration of a permeate through a solid, and is related to a material's intrinsic permeability. Permeability is tested by permeation measurement, for example by a minipermeameter is a critical factor in design. Some packages contain desiccants A desiccant is a hygroscopic substance that induces or sustains a state of dryness in its local vicinity in a moderately well-sealed container or Oxygen absorbers An oxygen absorber is a small packet of material used to prolong the shelf life of food. They are used in food packaging to prevent food colour change, to stop oils in foods from becoming rancid, and also retard the growth of oxygen-using aerobic microorganisms such as fungi to help extend shelf life. Modified atmospheres [4] or controlled atmospheres are also maintained in some food packages. Keeping the contents clean, fresh, sterile Asepsis is the state of being free from disease-causing contaminants . The term asepsis also often refers to those practices used to promote or induce asepsis in an operative field in surgery or medicine to prevent infection. Ideally, a field is "sterile" — free of all biological contaminants, not just those that can cause disease,[5] and safe for the intended shelf life Shelf life is the length of time that food, drink, medicine and other perishable items are given before they are considered unsuitable for sale or consumption. In some regions, a best before, use by or freshness date is required on packaged perishable foods is a primary function.
- Containment or agglomeration - Small objects are typically grouped together in one package for reasons of efficiency. For example, a single box of 1000 pencils requires less physical handling than 1000 single pencils. Liquids Liquid is one of the three classical states of matter. Like a gas, a liquid is able to flow and take the shape of a container, but, like a solid, it resists compression. Unlike a gas, a liquid does not disperse to fill every space of a container, and maintains a fairly constant density. A distinctive property of the liquid state is surface tension,, powders A powder is a dry, bulk solid composed of a large number of very fine particles that may flow freely when shaken or tilted. Powders are a special sub-class of granular materials, although the terms powder and granular are sometimes used to distinguish separate classes of material. In particular, powders refer to those granular materials that have, and granular materials A granular material is a conglomeration of discrete solid, macroscopic particles characterized by a loss of energy whenever the particles interact . The constituents that compose granular material must be large enough such that they are not subject to thermal motion fluctuations. Thus, the lower size limit for grains in granular material is about 1 need containment.
- Information transmission - Packages and labels A label is a piece of paper, polymer, cloth, metal, or other material affixed to a container or article, on which is printed a legend, information concerning the product, addresses, etc. A label may also be printed directly on the container or article communicate how to use, transport, recycle Recycling involves processing used materials into new products to prevent waste of potentially useful materials, reduce the consumption of fresh raw materials, reduce energy usage, reduce air pollution (from incineration) and water pollution (from landfilling) by reducing the need for "conventional" waste disposal, and lower greenhouse, or dispose of the package or product. With pharmaceuticals A pharmaceutical drug, also referred to as medicine, medication or medicament, can be loosely defined as any chemical substance intended for use in the medical diagnosis, cure, treatment, or prevention of disease, food Food is any substance or materials eaten or drunk to provide nutritional support for the body or for pleasure. It usually consists of plant or animal origin, that contains essential nutrients, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals, and is ingested and assimilated by an organism to produce energy, stimulate growth, and, medical Medicine is the science and art of healing humans. It includes a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness. Before scientific medicine, healing arts were practiced along with alchemical and ritual practices that developed out of religious and cultural traditions. The term &, and chemical In chemistry, a chemical substance is a material with a specific chemical composition products, some types of information are required Moral purchasing and problems like allergies are two things which are enabled by labelling. It is mandated in most developed nations, and increasingly in developing nations, especially for food products, e.g. "Grade A" meats. With regard to food and drugs, mandatory labelling has been a major battleground between consumer advocates and by governments. Some packages and labels also are used for track and trace In distribution and logistics of many types of products, track and trace or tracking and tracing, concerns a process of determining the current and past locations of a unique item or property purposes.
- Marketing - The packaging and labels A label is a piece of paper, polymer, cloth, metal, or other material affixed to a container or article, on which is printed a legend, information concerning the product, addresses, etc. A label may also be printed directly on the container or article can be used by marketers Marketing is the process by which companies create customer interest in products or services. It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business development. It is an integrated process through which companies build strong customer relationships and create value for their customers and for themselves to encourage potential buyers to purchase the product. Package graphic design Graphic design is a creative process — most often involving a client and a designer and usually completed in conjunction with producers of form — undertaken in order to convey a specific message (or messages) to a targeted audience. The term "graphic design" can also refer to a number of artistic and professional disciplines that and physical design have been important and constantly evolving phenomenon for several decades. Marketing communications Marketing Communications are messages and related media used to communicate with a market. Those who practice advertising, branding, direct marketing, graphic design, marketing, packaging, promotion, publicity, sponsorship, public relations, sales, sales promotion and online marketing are termed marketing communicators, marketing communication and graphic design Graphic design is a creative process — most often involving a client and a designer and usually completed in conjunction with producers of form — undertaken in order to convey a specific message (or messages) to a targeted audience. The term "graphic design" can also refer to a number of artistic and professional disciplines that are applied to the surface of the package and (in many cases) the point of sale display.
- Security - Packaging can play an important role in reducing the security Security is the degree of protection against danger, damage, loss, and criminal activity. Security as a form of protection are structures and processes that provide or improve security as a condition. The Institute for Security and Open Methodologies in the OSSTMM 3 defines security as "a form of protection where a separation is created risks of shipment. Packages can be made with improved tamper resistance Tamper resistance is resistance to tampering by either the normal users of a product, package, or system or others with physical access to it. There are many reasons for employing tamper resistance to deter tampering and also can have tamper-evident Tampering involves the deliberate altering or adulteration of information, a product, a package, or system. Solutions may involve all phases of product production, distribution, logistics, sale, and use. No single solution can be considered as "tamper proof". Often multiple levels of security need to be addressed to reduce the risk of[6] features to help indicate tampering. Packages can be engineered to help reduce the risks of package pilferage Pilferage is the theft of part of the contents of a package. It may also include theft of the contents but leaving the package, perhaps resealed with bogus contents. Small packages can be pilfered from a larger package such as a shipping container. Broader aspects of theft may include taking the entire package, pallet load, truck load, shoplifting,: Some package constructions are more resistant to pilferage and some have pilfer indicating seals. Packages may include authentication Authentication is the act of establishing or confirming something (or someone) as authentic, that is, that claims made by or about the subject are true ("authentification" is a French language variant of this word). This might involve confirming the identity of a person, tracing the origins of an artifact, ensuring that a product is what seals and use security printing Security printing is the field of the printing industry that deals with the printing of items such as banknotes, passports, tamper-evident labels, stock certificates, postage stamps and identity cards. The main goal of security printing is to prevent forgery, tampering, or counterfeiting to help indicate that the package and contents are not counterfeit A counterfeit is an imitation, usually one that is made with the intent of fraudulently passing it off as genuine. Counterfeit products are often produced with the intent to take advantage of the established worth of the imitated product. The word counterfeit frequently describes both the forgeries of currency and documents, as well as the. Packages also can include anti-theft devices, such as dye-packs, RFID Radio-frequency identification is the use of an object (typically referred to as an RFID tag) applied to or incorporated into a product, animal, or person for the purpose of identification and tracking using radio waves. Some tags can be read from several meters away and beyond the line of sight of the reader tags, or electronic article surveillance Electronic article surveillance is a technological method for preventing shoplifting from retail stores or pilferage of books from libraries. Special tags are fixed to merchandise or books. These tags are removed or deactivated by the clerks when the item is properly bought or checked out. At the exits of the store, a detection system sounds an[7] tags that can be activated or detected by devices at exit points and require specialized tools to deactivate. Using packaging in this way is a means of loss prevention Retail Loss prevention is a form of private investigation into larceny or theft. The focus of such investigations generally includes shoplifting, package pilferage, embezzlement, credit fraud, and check fraud. "Loss prevention" or "LP" is used to describe a number of methods used to reduce the amount of all losses and shrinkage.
- Convenience - Packages can have features that add convenience in distribution, handling, stacking, display, sale, opening, reclosing, use, dispensing, and reuse.
- Portion control - Single serving or single dosage Current efforts in the area of drug delivery include the development of targeted delivery in which the drug is only active in the target area of the body and sustained release formulations in which the drug is released over a period of time in a controlled manner from a formulation. Types of sustained release formulations include liposomes, drug packaging has a precise amount of contents to control usage. Bulk commodities (such as salt) can be divided into packages that are a more suitable size for individual households. It is also aids the control of inventory: selling sealed one-liter-bottles of milk, rather than having people bring their own bottles to fill themselves.
Packaging types
Various household packaging types for foodsPackaging may be looked at as being of several different types. For example a transport package or distribution package can be the shipping container Freight containers are a reusable transport and storage unit for moving products and raw materials between locations or countries. There are approximately seventeen million intermodal containers in the world and a large proportion of the world's long distance freight generated by international trade is transported inside shipping containers used to ship, store, and handle the product or inner packages. Some identify a consumer package as one which is directed toward a consumer or household.
Packaging may be described in relation to the type of product being packaged: medical device A medical device is a product which is used for medical purposes in patients, in diagnosis, therapy or surgery[citation needed]. If applied to the body, the effect of the medical device is primarily physical, in contrast to pharmaceutical drugs, which exert a biochemical effect. Specific regional definitions of medical device vary slightly as packaging, bulk chemical In chemistry, a chemical substance is a material with a specific chemical composition packaging, over-the-counter drug Over-the-counter drugs are medicines that may be sold directly to a consumer without a prescription from a health care professional, as compared to prescription drugs, which may only be sold to consumers possessing a valid prescription. In many countries, OTC drugs are selected by a regulatory agency to ensure that they are ingredients that are packaging, retail food Food is any substance or materials eaten or drunk to provide nutritional support for the body or for pleasure. It usually consists of plant or animal origin, that contains essential nutrients, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals, and is ingested and assimilated by an organism to produce energy, stimulate growth, and packaging, military materiel Materiel is a term used in English to refer to the equipment and supplies in military and commercial supply chain management packaging, pharmaceutical A pharmaceutical drug, also referred to as medicine, medication or medicament, can be loosely defined as any chemical substance intended for use in the medical diagnosis, cure, treatment, or prevention of disease packaging, etc.
Aluminium can with a pull tabIt is sometimes convenient to categorize packages by layer or function: "primary", "secondary", etc.
- Primary packaging is the material that first envelops the product and holds it. This usually is the smallest unit of distribution or use and is the package which is in direct contact with the contents.
- Secondary packaging is outside the primary packaging, perhaps used to group primary packages together.
- Tertiary packaging is used for bulk handling Logistics is the management of the flow of goods, information and other resources in a repair cycle between the point of origin and the point of consumption in order to meet the requirements of customers. Logistics involves the integration of information, transportation, inventory, warehousing, material handling, and packaging, and occasionally, warehouse A warehouse is a commercial building for storage of goods. Warehouses are used by manufacturers, importers, exporters, wholesalers, transport businesses, customs, etc. They are usually large plain buildings in industrial areas of cities and towns. They usually have loading docks to load and unload goods from trucks. Sometimes warehouses load and storage and transport Transport or transportation is the movement of people and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, rail, road, water, cable, pipeline, and space. The field can be divided into infrastructure, vehicles, and operations shipping. The most common form is a palletized A pallet (sometimes called a skid) is a flat transport structure that supports goods in a stable fashion while being lifted by a forklift, pallet jack, front loader or other jacking device. A pallet is the structural foundation of a unit load which allows handling and storage efficiencies. Goods or shipping containers are often placed on a pallet unit load A unit load combines individual items or items in shipping containers into a single "unit" that can be moved easily with pallet jack or forklift truck. A unit load packs tightly into warehouse racks, intermodal containers, trucks, and boxcars, yet can be easily broken apart at a distribution point, usually a distribution center, that packs tightly into containers.
These broad categories can be somewhat arbitrary. For example, depending on the use, a shrink wrap can be primary packaging when applied directly to the product, secondary packaging when combining smaller packages, and tertiary packaging on some distribution packs.
Symbols used on packages and labels
Many types of symbols for package labeling are nationally and internationally standardized. For consumer packaging, symbols exist for product certifications, trademarks, proof of purchase, etc. Some requirements and symbols exist to communicate aspects of consumer use and safety. Examples of environmental and recycling symbols include: Recycling symbol, Resin identification code (below), and Green Dot (symbol).
Bar codes (below), Universal Product Codes, and RFID labels are common to allow automated information management in logistics and retailing. Country of Origin Labeling is often used.
"Wikipedia" encoded in Code 128Shipping container labeling
"Print & Apply" corner wrap UCC (GS1-128) label application to a pallet loadTechnologies related to shipping containers are identification codes, bar codes, and electronic data interchange (EDI). These three core technologies serve to enable the business functions in the process of shipping containers throughout the distribution channel. Each has an essential function: identification codes either relate product information or serve as keys to other data, bar codes allow for the automated input of identification codes and other data, and EDI moves data between trading partners within the distribution channel.
Elements of these core technologies include UPC and EAN item identification codes, the SCC-14 (UPC shipping container code), the SSCC-18 (Serial Shipping Container Codes), Interleaved 2-of-5 and UCC/EAN-128 (newly designated GS1-128) bar code symbologies, and ANSI ASC X12 and UN/EDIFACT EDI standards.
Small parcel carriers often have their own formats. For example, United Parcel Service has a MaxiCode 2-D code for parcel tracking.
RFID labels for shipping containers are also increasing in usage. A Wal-Mart division, Sam's Club, has also moved in this direction and is putting pressure on on its suppliers for compliance.[8]
Shipments of hazardous materials or dangerous goods have special information and symbols (labels, plackards, etc) as required by UN, country, and specific carrier requirements. Two examples are below:
With transport packages, standardised symbols are also used to communicate handling needs. Some common ones are shown below while others are listed in ASTM D5445 "Standard Practice for Pictorial Markings for Handling of Goods" and ISO 780 "Pictorial marking for handling of goods".
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Fragile |
Do not use hand hooks |
This way up |
Keep away from sunlight |
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Keep away from water |
Clamp as indicated |
Do not clamp as indicated |
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What They Think
NiklaPET meets every labelling requirement. It gives very good results in both offset and flexographic printing applications, due to its quick ink drying. ...
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multiple batch labels for hand applying Our range of Label software packages mean we can work with the most complex of network s and develop specific software packages based on your needs Desktop Label Dispensers Desktop label dispensers are used to dispense all standard adhesive labels fast and effectively After a label is removed the next one is automatically made
Nicki @ Cardiff Bites
Fri, 08 May 2009 10:31:00 GM
This, along with the drive for more local and organic produce, less . packaging. waste and more ethically sourced and fair trade imports, could lead to a total consumer revolution! Now you're just getting carried away ...
