Dairy packaging trends (Part Two): Connective tech delivers supply chain transparency as e-commerce expands

03 Nov 2021 --- The COVID-19 pandemic has elevated home food delivery, throwing up fresh challenges for dairy manufacturers to ensure food protection and preservation are maintained in transit. Moreover, consumers are increasingly concerned by the product life cycle, bringing supply chain transparency and connective solutions to the fore. 

In Part Two of this dairy packaging trends Special Report, PackagingInsights investigates the impacts and solutions to accelerated e-commerce expansion and enhanced supply chain transparency. We are joined by leading dairy packaging manufacturers Sealpac, Sealed Air, Tetra Pak, SIG, Amcor and dairy co-operative Fonterra.

In Part One, we took a closer look at the impacts of rising consumer and regulatory environmental sustainability demands on the dairy packaging market.

Home delivery hurdles
E-commerce is a long-term trend, exponentially expanded by the COVID-19 experience. Home food delivery has soared as a consequence of lockdowns and social restrictions. According to a recent survey by Innova Market Insights, 35% of global consumers have increased their home food delivery use during the pandemic.

For Andrea Questa, e-grocery solutions manager EMEA at Sealed Air, a total system approach to food packaging can help e-food businesses satisfy growing market demands. “The right combination of high performance primary and secondary packaging will protect food quality and integrity, and maintain the correct temperature inside the package, whether that’s hot or cold,” he explains.

“Although both primary and secondary packaging must work together to achieve the overall aim of maintaining food quality and safety during storage, handling and transit, they must also deliver in other crucial areas. These areas include reducing waste, improving the unpackaging experience, communicating information and brand stories, and optimizing available transportation space.”

Sealed Air’s Cryovac brand BDF Film delivers significant plastic reductions.Numerous food e-commerce businesses use Sealed Air’s Cryovac brand BDF Film, available with or without a tray. The overwrap barrier film with modified atmosphere is ultra-thin and reduces plastic usage while still delivering “excellent abuse resistance” to rips and punctures.

Cryovac brand BDF film also delivers anti-fog performance to help improve the appearance of food and the consumer brand experience.

However, for Irene Buzzoni, marketing and communications coordinator at Sealpac International, there are no major differences in packaging demands for e-commerce compared to physical retail sales.

“Since the groceries need to be transported to the consumer, product security is of the utmost importance. As a company specialized in sealing technology, our main purpose has always been to provide a hermetic seal for maximum product safety,” she explains.

“Also in developing new packaging systems, such as all the environmentally sustainable solutions mentioned before, we will never compromise on product protection.”

Buzzoni says Sealpac has witnessed a growth in pre-packaged products in specific segments, including dairy products, such as cuts or slices of cheese, during the pandemic.

The omnipresent brand
Eric Ding, head of global category management at SIG, argues omnichannel retailing poses unique challenges for food and beverage manufacturers. “Dependency on their retail partners for last-mile delivery means manufacturers have limited control,” he points out.

“It can also become difficult to provide a consistent brand experience across owned and third-party channels. Here, unifying channels like social media, websites, and the often-overlooked product packaging, can be a differentiator.”

Ding pinpoints the example of SIG’s One Cap, One Code solution, used by one of China’s largest dairy producers to drive engagement on WeChat. With innovative technology like its Pac.Engage solution, SIG says the gap between offline and online channels can be bridged to create an omnipresent brand.

“Pac.Engage is enabling customers to interact with consumers via the packaging. With a simple smartphone scan, consumers can access a world of games and competitions and loyalty programs and vouchers to redeem online,” says Ding.SIG’s Pac.Engage solution helps brands create omnipresent appeal across offline and online channels.

“Huge advantages that our aseptic carton packs have in the field of e-commerce are undoubtedly the benefits they bring by nature. These include, for example, the fact they can be transported and stored for long periods without refrigeration, and that they are proven to have a high level of stability,” he adds.

Likewise, Brazilian dairy and soy-based beverage company Cemil recently adopted SIG’s Pac.Trust traceability system to manage its entire logistics chain in real-time through a QR code-enabled system.

Meanwhile, on the food preservation front, Sealed Air offers the TempGuard Temperature Assurance Solution for secondary packaging, designed for shipping pre-packaged temperature-sensitive goods. The solution delivers “excellent thermal insulation” and an “outstanding layer of protective padding.”

The superior insulation can maintain temperatures of fresh, chilled and frozen foods for between 24-48 hours during delivery, ensuring foods arrive with consumers in prime condition and any risk of food waste caused by spoilage is minimized. 

Supply chain connectivity
With the world becoming ever more complex and fast-paced, more effective decision making supported by reliable data is paramount. In response to this demand, Tetra Pak added connected packages to its portfolio in 2019.

“With our Tetra Pak Connected Package platform, milk or juice cartons can have a unique code that, once scanned, transforms the package into an interactive information channel, full-scale data carrier, and digital tool. Shoppers can access vast amounts of information, such as where the product was made, the farm where the ingredients came from and where the package can be recycled,” explains Bengt Eliasson, category manager for dairy ambient at Tetra Pak.

In partnership with Rockwell & Siemens, Tetra Pak can also now offer its dairy producer clients data logging, supervisory system, and traceability connected all the way from milk intake to the package in the consumer’s hand. Additional benefits are greater focus on flexibility, efficiency, improving carbon footprint, and shortening the holding time to improve the naturalness of the final product.Amcor’s MaXQ enhances product experience with dynamic codes for consumer engagement, anti-counterfeiting, and track and trace.

Similarly, Sealpac’s packaging equipment allows for online coding, labeling and printing. “Traceability can be facilitated by adding a barcode or QR code to the pack,” details Buzzoni. “With our cardboard-based packaging solutions, which offer more space for communication, we have enhanced the possibilities for adding trace information.”

Traceability triumphs
Meanwhile, Fonterra provides consumers with a robust internal traceability system and the ability to validate the authenticity and provenance of products using the most commonplace mechanism – a QR code and smartphone.

“This technology is available on our Anmum brand range to assure our most vulnerable and susceptible population,” outlines Lara Phillips, senior manager for sustainability solutions at Fonterra. “We individually serialize every product/retail unit and enable a digital engagement platform, giving the consumer the power and reassurance to check at any point of time whether the product they are purchasing is legitimate and safe to consume.”

“Our strategy is to grow this capability and extend it to our other product lines. Over the past year, we have also partnered with provenance.org, a platform to make sustainable supply chains commonplace. A QR code is available on our Anchor plant-based bottle here in New Zealand – making our environmental performance and verification readily available to consumers.”

Amcor is also active in the digital transparency space, developing MaXQ, an end-to-end digital packaging system designed to take advantage of a captive digital audience and drive consumer engagement and loyalty. MaXQ allows brands to personalize the experience by creating dynamic codes for consumer engagement, anti-counterfeiting, and track and trace.

In Part One of this Special Report, we took a closer look at the impacts of rising consumer and regulatory environmental sustainability demands on the dairy packaging market.

By Joshua Poole