Meeting Compliance in the Food Packaging Sector
The food packaging sector is understandably heavily regulated, to protect consumers and the supply chain. Compliance requires a multi-faceted approach and a depth of understanding due to the diversity of regulation at regional, national and at global level.
With a global market size of 2.1 trillion units in 2022 and growth over the next five years expected to reach more than 2% CAGR, the sector is full of opportunity. We’re here to help navigate the complexities of compliance so that you can fully harness them.
What does compliance mean for food packaging?
With a globally diverse regulatory environment, it can be challenging to keep track of compliance requirements and responsibilities within the supply chain. Variations include materials usage, human contact, screening processes for contaminants and much more in between. This is why it is important for manufacturers and their supply chain to identify specific elements within the regulatory control and follow them carefully.
Ensuring that the end product meets the right standards for the region or country that it is intended for is key, as failure to meet compliance mandates can become expensive.
Since 2019, the regulatory landscape has become even more challenging, especially for SMEs. With changes to requirements becoming ever-more stringent, particularly within the subject of human contact, this has resulted in a big re-think across supply chains of all sizes. While this has encouraged greater collaboration, the whole process of compliance has become more time-consuming and complex as a result.
For many manufacturers, it has become essential to pinpoint and establish a process of responsibility and to find a way of navigating through much of the current ambiguity surrounding the whole issue of compliance.
Does automating the food packaging line help meet compliance?
Introducing automation on the food packaging line delivers a level of compliance that effectively reduces, and sometimes removes the human contact element altogether. This can also improve quality control and screening by giving operators greater visibility.
In many other respects, automating food packaging can improve operational efficiency, expedite distribution and automate compliance in terms of labelling, handling sustainable materials and improving traceability, historically complex elements of compliance.
Communication is key
An essential key to meeting compliance lies in communication and engaging with the right suppliers within the supply chain. This simplifies the process of identifying the correct areas of responsibility and can help to smooth the way for compliant operation.
In some instances, manufacturers have found success in the establishment of a regulatory compliance team to collect information and key data. This can be useful in maintaining a wider view of the compliance landscape and can form the backbone of the operational framework, keeping the business up-to-date and on-track.
It is also critical to ensure that, if integrating automatic packaging solutions, the OEM is experienced and knowledgeable in their approach to compliance. When taking on machinery from outside the local region, this needs to be especially high on the list of requirements. Communication and good interaction is more important in this respect than any other, due to the often significant investment required.
Solutions in action: how we can help
Jacob White works with business of all sizes in the food packaging sector all around the world and understand that compliance must work at all levels to meet regional, national and global standards. This is often and rightly the highest priority for both our clients and us as we work through careful assessment of the business model.
To see this in action, please take a look at the following case studies:
Asia
A large food handling business in Thailand came to us to help modernise and standardise its packaging environment. Working closely with them on site, and already familiar with the regional compliance requirement for reduced human contact, we were able to install a fully-automatic solution.
Read the full case study here.
A snack food packaging business located in Southeast Asia wanted to harness the opportunities in this sector that experienced a surge in demand. It needed to be flexible to cope with multi-product changes fast and meet the regulatory standards that were also surging and changing quickly.
Read the full case study here.
Europe
Frozen foods require an additional set of standards for both packaging and distribution. Please read the following case studies to find out how we could help.
Frozen food company diversifies
Frozen food producer increases versatility
Read all our case studies here.
As packaging machine manufacturers for more than 100 years, Jacob White has seen every regulatory and compliance change from around the world. We build machines that can help our clients to meet the necessary stringency required in the food packaging sector, regardless of the size or location of the main business operation. Talk to us today and let us help you with the vital future proofing needed for fully compliant food packaging.
