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In current pandemic situation packaging is playing vital role in everyday lifestyle. Packaged food is being given more preference during pandemic. Although packaging has evolved in many ways, but due to increased demand of food supplies, household items like cleaner and disinfectant large amount of waste is being generated. Keeping environment in mind many organization has joined hand to reuse plastic waste whether they are pet bottle or flexible bags.

Packaging has its own importance; here are few benefits that packaging offer society,

• Proper packaging keeps products fresh longer:

Many food products from bread to cookies stay fresher when sealed in packaging. For example, bread becomes stale in mere minutes outside of its packaging. Foods that are canned or vacuum-sealed can stay fresh on a shelf for months or even years, while they'd last only days in the refrigerator before spoiling.

• Proper packaging protects against breakage and tampering:

Packaging keeps fluids like ink and perfume from evaporating. Paper becomes discolored and glue unusable when exposed to the air, but keeps for years in its packaging. Items that could be sold without packaging like stuffed animals and other toys are shielded from the dings and dirt they encounter during shipping or sitting on store shelves.

From over the counter pharmaceutical products to spaghetti sauce, packaging can offer important tamper evident feature to ensure product integrity and reduce the risk of fraud.

• Proper packaging makes shipping easier:

There are distinct advantages of packaging in logistics. Items that are boxed can be stacked and transported more easily than those that are loose.

• Proper packaging provides product protection:

No consumer wants to receive a product that has been scratched, dented, or is broken. Low-quality materials, lack of cushioning, and incorrect box sizes are common reasons products become damaged during the shipping process. From the most basic function, the container should be protecting your product. Working with your packaging supplier to ensure you are using the proper packaging will preserve the integrity of your product and your brand!

• Proper packaging can increase profits:

If a product arrives with dents or showing any signs of wear and tear, many consumers will consider it damaged and request a refund or exchange. Returns and repairs are costly and cut into your profits. The customer may also feel dissatisfied with the quality of your product and choose to take their business elsewhere, costing you a valuable client. Improving your packaging techniques will not only decrease the frequency of these incidences, but will also increase customer satisfaction with your brand.

• Proper packaging can improve delivery time:

A lot of valuable time is wasted processing boxes or envelopes that are opened during the shipping process. Packages that were opened must be checked for missing parts and be corrected before continuing to the end user. This slows down the delivery process and is likely to result in a late delivery to your customer. By using the proper packaging, your product will be delivered damage-free on the expected delivery date, resulting in a satisfied and repeat customer!

• Proper packaging strengthens your reputation:

Increase positive opinions of your company through packaging that is resistant to damage and gets your product into the hands of your customer on time, every time. Product packaging has a strong effect on consumers so be sure to utilize the marketing benefits packaging offers as well. First impressions count! Your customer sees the package before they open the box to view your product. Use packaging to create a lasting impression that will resonate with your customer and distinguish your brand!

• Proper packaging helps consumers make informed purchases:

Packaging can help to identify products, their quantity, and their ingredients and in the case of food products their nutritional value, shelf life, and how to prepare and serve best.

Without this information the consumer must either stand in lines waiting to talk to sale person about what ingredients are in products or shelf life of product or simply by products in ignorance.

• Proper packaging provides convenience:

Now a days in most of the families both partners are working which means, more working mothers, less structured mealtimes and a faster- paced lifestyle, changing lifestyle as created the need for single serve portions , ready to eat meals, less than family sized beverage bottles and a wide variety of packaging options.

• Proper packaging dramatically reduces disease:

Packaging has played a critical role in the improvement of health care systems. Without proper packaging, public would not be able to have access to life saving medicines like COVID vaccine.

• Proper packaging gives us choices we would not have otherwise:

People can enjoy the taste of fresh seafood shipped from thousands of mile away. People get the fresh nuts like almonds, walnuts all the way from California which is known for best almonds and walnuts, to any part of world with same taste and aroma at the time of being packaged from shipping all because of packaging.

• Proper packaging reduces food costs:

By reducing the cost of processing and the amount of food lost due to spoilage and vermin, packaging reduces cost and increase healthy choices.

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In this current situation, Consumers are more focused on health and hygiene, which is changing consumer behavior towards packaged foods. They are now looking for products which assures quality and healthy. According to Mintel Report on Indian Consumers 2021, below are the key points about to Indian consumer behavior :

• Four of Five Indian Consumers think living healthier lifestyle is important and a third want to achieve financial stability and be protected against health treats.
• Being Healthy and living healthy is the top most priority.
• Looking for Foods that are good for health with tempting taste and Packaging.

Due to pandemic over half the population of country gives high priority to supporting local business to help revive the country’s economy by supporting products that are ‘Made in India’. Policies like Made in India, Affordable housing and Government led life insurance are shaping consumers choice around health, life goals and supporting local business.

According to Mintel Research, 82% of men prefer healthy lifestyle vs 79% of women. In 2018 and 2019, India has the highest number Of Diabetics at 50.8 Million according to WHO, despite of young population.

Growing awareness of lifestyle diseases through campaigns driven by Brands and Social Media Influencers for healthy living.  Brand’ healthy claims are appearing on indulgent categories like Snacks, spreads and bakery products.  according to Global New Product Database ,20% of Snacks launched in Year 2018 and 2019 claims to be healthy.

Despite health being a priority always, people are not able to focus on it. This gives an opportunity to Brands to guide people on what actually healthy really means.

Covid 19 has increased everyone's focus on being healthy, which brands can take advantage of, to promotes healthy eating, natural and healthy ingredients and Exercising. 

According to a research by Mintel, out of four three peoples have achieved work-life balance and they can focus on other priorities other than work, like family and health. Brands like CULT-FIT allows people involved with them to meditate, exercise and relax anytime anywhere they want to. It helps people to maintain the balance between work, family and health.

Another example is KIT- KAT ads promote concept of ‘Break time’ to help people grab break from work and rejuvenating break with their favorite snack.

18-34 years old prefer to spend quality time with family and friends, this indicates how the stress of modern life is drives people to seek out time to spend with loved ones. Here to brands market products as catalyst for creating more family time.  Dominos promotes ordering pizza online to bring family together for occasions like watching match or movies on tv.

The pandemic has led people to push back their priorities such owing business, buying new house, car etc. Job losses, pay cuts has led people being frugal in their spending patterns. Now people are looking for premium rather than basics for health and food spending. People are willing to spend bit more on products which assures quality.

Home care has risen with more focus on appliances as well as furnishing to improve the habitat, to bring in convenience, as home is center of all activities. Usage of home products like disinfectants anti- bacterial sprays, veggies washes have spiked in line with the increased focus on hygiene. Food, Exercise and mental wellness have become priority as people strive for wellness through crisis. Immunity boosting foods are sought after.

 In this situation, people are more focused towards health and hygiene, they are willing to spend money on products which are good for health, natural and most importantly immunity booster. People are looking forwards for the products and services which will help them send more time with family and friends.

Packaging Connections observe that this could be opportunity for brands to explore more of appetizing food items with innovative packaging that promotes more family engagement. Homecare products that are more user friendly can be actually used by children with effectiveness as required in this current situation. Because now growing with the pervious packaging will be difficult to achieve same revenue.

• Now People are looking for packaging which is assuring quality and transparency of what they are purchasing with more functionality. For instance, a box which can be used as plate to serve that food, Pouch which can be converted to bowl.
• Brands can talk about affordable indulgences to gratify ambitions such as home decor, purchase of appliances and spends on technology and customized by age group and working status.
• Promotes family activities such DIY food kits to ease the responsibilities of women so that they can also spend more time with family
• Giving game on Packaging with promotes family engagement.
• Packaging design which provides process of making of food .

The aseptic packaging market is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 10.89%, from $39.6 billion in 2017 to $66.5 billion by 2022. The growth is mainly driven by the rapid expansion of end-use industries such as food & beverage and pharmaceuticals. Primary factors pushing the field upwards are the rising demand for convenience and quality products, a change in consumer lifestyle, the growth of the dairy beverage market. Progress in developing countries inflates the demand for packaged food & beverages as well as natural products such as flavoured milk and juices.

As of today, the main segment is food and dairy, with a 57% share. Consumption-wise, cartons are the most common packaging material in the aseptic beverage market (51% share) as well as in the entire sector of aseptically-packaged products (72% share).

Aseptic packaging- Principle

Aseptic packaging consists in the process of aseptically packing food & beverage and pharmaceutical products right after sterilisation, executed through UHT (Ultra High Temperature). This is different from the standard process, where sterilisation is performed after packaging rather than before.

In addition to sterilisation, another factor that significantly impacts shelf life is the material in use. The most common one is polylaminate, also known as multilayer aseptic carton. Polylaminate is crucial, as it decreases the exchange of oxygen with the environment while also working as a barrier against light - two elements that, if they both came into contact with the product, might negatively alter it.

History

Aseptic packaging was invented in the late 1920s, but soon discarded due to high costs and inflexibility. The technology, simply, was not mature enough. During the following decades, though, development was tremendous, leading to consumer-size aseptic packages becoming very common in the 1960s across the milk industry in Europe. At that time, Europe did not have the commercial refrigeration capacity to transport milk from rural dairies to the urban centers. The solution came in the form of carton bricks, so named because of the peculiar shape resembling a building brick.

 Carton bricks guarantee several advantages over traditional milk packaging methods. For one, they do not need refrigeration, since the aseptic packaging process ensures long shelf life at ambient temperature. Also, their characteristic brick-like shape makes them easy to stack and space saving. These factors among many others determined the popularity of aseptic carton packaging.

In packaging, multilayer aseptic carton refers to thin multilayer structures made by combining layers of paperboard, plastic and aluminium. Multilayer aseptic carton for milk and beverages can be single portion and family size.

Depending on the expected shelf life, it can have two different structures:

1. 3-layer polylaminate for short shelf lives, the layers being polyethylene, paperboard, and polyethylene, it is used for pasteurised products
2. 7-layer polylaminate for longer shelf lives (i.e. up to 12 months - please note: the effective duration of the shelf life depends entirely on the liquid product). The 7 layers are polytethylene, printing, paperboard, polyethylene, aluminium, adhesive resin, and polytethylene.

The long shelf life is achieved thanks to the additional aluminium layer, today as thin as a few µm, that is inserted between the paperboard and the internal polyethylene layer.

Each layer in the structure has its own importance, like first layer gives protection from moisture and external agents, second layer Makes the packaging recognisable and appealing, third layer ensure the recipient is sturdy and firm, fourth layer helps in adhesion between carton and aluminium film, fifth layer works as light and gas barrier and preserves nutritional value and flavour and aroma at ambient temperature, sixth layer  which is adhesive resin layer ensures the adhesion between the two and seventh layer has an alimentary use as it come direct contact of product.

Polyethylene is used for moisture protection, sealing, and as a promoting agent. Each polyethylene layer is made with a different kind of resin:

- The external layer made of Low Density Polyethylene (LDPE) protects the second layer (printing), provides moisture, and ensures functional stability to the flaps of the brick. In this layer an innovative, non-standard practice that a few players, including IPI, employ is to use biopolymers derived from sugarcane, the use of which increases the vegetable and renewable component of the packaging solution.

- The middle layer consists of an adhesive resin that makes the aluminium foil stick to the paperboard.

- The internal layer made of Linear Low Density Polyethylene (LLDPE) provides sealing as well as mechanical properties.

The advantages of multilayer aseptic carton

Multilayer aseptic carton delivers many advantages from a business, consumer, and marketing perspective.

Business-wise:

• It ensures a long shelf life at ambient temperature.
• Contrary to in-container sterilisation, it maintains the food nutritional and sensory properties.
• It is space saving, and therefore more cost-efficient in terms of storage space.
• It is more energy-efficient to produce.
• The package can be formed simultaneously with filling through a single form-fill-seal process. It protects the product from contamination.

Consumer-wise:

• It offers the highest degree of protection.
• It is light, easy to baggage, and safe.
• It is easy to stow and to stack.
• Disposal is a non-issue, since a multilayer aseptic carton is foldable.
• It provides a large area that can be exploited for marketing information and branding.
• Last but not least, it has a distinctive “eco-friendly” feeling.

Marketing-wise:

• It provides a large area for graphics that can be exploited for branding.
• The brick’s shape can be irregular, so as to perfectly fit the brand identity. 
• It is eco-sustainable, and sustainability sells.
• The process of sterilisation and aseptic packaging for food & beverage .

Aseptic packaging is accomplished by following these steps:

1.  The liquid food product goes through a process of thermal treatment, which leads to a  commercially sterile product.

2.  The packaging material is sterilised in a dedicated zone inside the packaging machine.

3. At the start of every production cycle, the packaging machine itself is sterilised and kept in sterile conditions during the whole production, ensuring that the environment is completely sterile during the entire packaging process. This way, the sterilised product and the sterilised packaging material come together in a sterile environment. The result is a hermetically-sealed long-life packaged product.

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