VDMA Packaging Forum: Information Day Focuses on Important Topics about Food and Pharmaceutical Packaging

Packaging growth market

Packaging has become an indispensable part of our everyday life. Therefore, it`s no wonder that the packaging market is continuously growing. In 2010, the world production of packaging machines stood at 24.2 billion euros, reaching a value of 35.3 billion euros in 2016. Germany was, as it has been for many years, again TOP1 producer country in 2016, accounting for 18 percent of the total volume. Packaging also plays an important part in the plastics sector: In 2016, the demand for plastics in Europe amounted to nearly 50 billion tons, approximately 40 percent of which were attributable to the packaging sector.

Track & trace and security labels

GS1 Germany offers standards that ensure the identification of items or reliable communication all along the value chain. For the companies to be able to trace the current location of goods, there are the so-called track & trace solutions. They are based on standardized identification systems. Legal requirements as, for instance, an EU regulation for food packaging state that products must be retraceable.

Many participants had also come in order to get information about traceability by means of security labels. The attending companies used the forum in order to acquaint themselves with possible applications in their own companies. The end customer can protect himself against counterfeits by means of security labels. Securikett Ulrich & Horn as well as oneIDentity presented their solutions for security labels, product identity codes and identification.

WIPOTEC-OCS offers weighing and inspection solutions and sees serialization and/or aggregation as a solution for numerous challenges of contract manufacturers. They are faced, e.g., with different legal requirements as regards serialisation or different group standards for the exchange of data.

Migration

HTWK Leipzig University of Engineering, Business and Culture as well as printing ink manufacturer Siegwerk Druckfarben talked about the challenges due to migration. The inherent hazard with packaging is that printing ink may find its way into the food. The lectures made clear that migration cannot be totally avoided, but can be reduced to a minimum. In order to reach comprehensive conformity, only substances that comply with the legal and in-house requirements of the company can be used. Other measures to achieve comprehensive conformity include analyses at the end product under worst-case conditions carried out by the companies themselves.

The VDMA Packaging Forum is organized by three sector associations, i.e., the Association for Plastics and Rubber Machinery, the Association for Food Processing and Packaging Machinery as well as the Association for Printing and Paper Technology.