A VIRTUAL LOOK AT SMART PACKAGING
In recent years, Packaging Europe has been a regular visitor at AIPIA’s Active & Intelligent Packaging Industry Association’s congresses in Amsterdam. As a physical event was not possible this year due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, AIPIA decided to run their 2020 World Congress in Amsterdam as a virtual event. The digital event was set up to match the physical event as closely as possible, and, like the physical events in previous years, offered a mix of keynotes, presentations on new and tried and tested technology innovations, brand challenges and virtual exhibition stands. Elisabeth Skoda explores just a few of the major talking points at the conference. Smart packaging outlook In a keynote, Raghu Das, CEO at IDTechEx, took a closer look at the state of the active and intelligent packaging industry now as well as trends and likely future trends. He identified some of the ‘classic’ use cases for smart packaging, such as improving logistics and safety, traceability, verifying authenticity and reducing crime, but he also highlighted other areas of use where growth was likely. “Smart packaging can be used to remove tedious processes. For example, in Japan with its aging population, there are less and less people of working age. The government don’t want capable people tied up in menial tasks such as scanning barcodes at supermarkets, so the aim is to eliminate supermarket tills and instead implement hundreds of billions of RFID codes as early as 2025.”
Beyond its functional use, smart packaging has the potential to excite people and make them engage with a brand. As supermarket own brands are gaining more traction, the use of smart packaging can work as a differentiator for established brands. Smart packaging comes in a variety of different technologies and offers a wide range of uses, and Mr Das listed just some of the technologies currently available: RFID for wireless item identification; electronic articles surveillance for theft protection; QR codes for identification; data loggers for the monitoring of temperature, vibration or shock; interactive smart packaging that offers features for consumer appeal, such as illumination, sound, or measure; chemical indicators that show a pack’s temperature at a glance; internal active packaging that interacts with the contents to keep Packaging Europe | 5 |
