According to the latest report from global technology and consulting firm Technavio, the global intelligent packaging market will grow at a compound annual growth rate of nearly 8%. According to experts’ predictions, the packaging bags produced by intelligent packaging technology will account for 20%-40% of the total number of food and beverage packaging bags in the future.
When we talked about the future packaging trend, we mentioned the intelligent packaging. People who may not know it have a question. What is that?
Intelligent packaging is a type of information and functions that can sense, monitor, record and adjust the environment in which the product is located after retaining the basic packaging functions, and can transmit information to users conveniently and efficiently; users can communicate with them. An umbrella term for packages that communicate, easily trigger implicit or pre-made functions.
Intelligent packaging mainly has the following features:
1. Adaptive Packaging
Adaptive packaging technology is to simulate the environmental parameters required by food, and automatically adjust the environmental changes of food during storage and transfer, so that the environment in the packaging can maximize the storage and quality of food. In adaptive packaging, it needs to be adjusted or adapted. The food environmental parameters mainly include temperature, humidity, pressure, gas composition, etc. Adaptive packaging technology includes two parts: material and process. Some environmental parameters depend on chemical regulation, some depend on biological regulation, and some depend on physical regulation.
2. Display tamper evident packaging
Tamper-evident packaging refers to some special technical measures taken on items in order to prevent opening, stealing, changing and tearing, mischief, etc., through which the safety of items can be judged before the outer packaging is opened. In order to ensure the safety of articles, it is necessary to take corresponding measures in the three aspects of scientific, reasonable and ingenious tamper-evident structural design in the retail link of the manufacturing process.
3. Traceability Shipping Packaging
Traceable transportation packaging refers to the packaging in which the packaged items and containers are tracked throughout the transportation and circulation, so that managers can complete the optimization and adjustment of their circulation channels and transportation paths in a timely manner. This packaging technology is equipped with electronic chips on the container or tray, which can track and record various information, which can be read at any time and place. Traceable shipping packaging is especially suitable for automated shipping management and e-shopping delivery methods, as e-commerce requires just-in-time or lean production methods of supply; at the same time, e-shopping distribution centers and regional distribution centers also want the shortest possible time. The route and the mixed cargo are fully loaded for delivery. So as to achieve the purpose of reducing costs.
4. Smart Labels
Smart labels are high-tech products in the field of labels, which have now played an important role in product packaging and gradually replaced traditional product labels and barcodes. Smart labels include radio frequency identification tags, covert or overt trademark protection indicators, or sensors that alert product conditions. The RFID tag is mainly composed of a chip and an antenna. The chip is mainly used to receive and transmit data. It is read by the radio frequency signal sent by the reader. The reader is connected with the antenna and the computer network to form an electronic module. The reader sends special signals from its antenna. To the RFID tag in a specific area, the feedback information is processed and then transmitted to the computer network so that the management personnel can obtain the special information of the commodity. Smart labels can help manufacturers and consumers to understand the inventory circulation and quality of goods in real time. It plays a great role for manufacturers to monitor the status and position of their products in the supply chain. For example, warehouse managers can use smart labels to understand the types and quantities of products on the shelves to check product inventory data and determine the sales of products. In addition, intelligent labeling improves the anti-counterfeiting effect of labels, especially in pharmaceutical packaging, its anti-counterfeiting function has greatly surpassed traditional barcode labels.
At present, barcode, two-dimensional code, RFID, invisible watermark, digital watermark, dot matrix and other technologies have been applied to different degrees in commodities in different industries. With the deepening of application, brand owners and consumers tend to agree.
Among them, barcodes are the earliest and most widely used smart packaging, widely used in food and other retail commodities, and are the smart packaging with the most daily contact. The relevant information of the QR code can be obtained by “scanning”, which has been recognized by the market.
