When you think of food safety, perhaps you think about the recent baby food recall in Japan, high lead levels in instant noodle packets in India, or rice contamination from plastic in Indonesia?

Regardless, the point is clear: packaging is critical to food safety and is one of the biggest challenges for the next decade.

Consumers in the Asia Pacific region are becoming increasingly focused on food safety and are advocating strongly for the use of safe materials in products and packaging. This advocacy is leading to an increase in legislation and put pressure on large brands to make changes.

With the entire food and beverage sector under increased pressure to improve safety and traceability throughout the supply chain, packaging plays a critical role in ensuring the safety and security of food.

How can brand owners and packagers build quality and safety into packaging throughout its entire journey, while meeting high standards of logistics and distribution needs?

ACCOUNTABILITY THROUGH TRACEABILITY

Delivering safe food requires visibility into its journey from farm to fork. Food and beverage companies are not only expected to deliver more, high-quality products faster and for less, but to provide all the information associated with the origins of ingredients and product materials including packaging, as well as the conditions under which they were produced and transported along the value chain.

Food companies now need to provide regulators with records that allow them to trace a material or product through all stages of manufacturing, processing and distribution. The records should enable regulators to identify businesses that are involved in all aspects of packaging and food contact materials.

For example, in Australia and New Zealand traceability of food packaging is currently assured by the Food Standards Code. This is designed to reassure packaging users that if an issue occurs they can trace it back to source and fix the issue.

SMART LABELLING FOR TRANSPARENCY

Labelling is a key element in maintaining food quality and has become a legal requirement throughout the Asia Pacific region. For example, in Singapore, the legislation on food labelling for prepacked food has been established by the Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA).

Every package of food, drink and pet food in Singapore must bear a label which is noticeable and holds important information about the product as required by the Food Regulations.

You can now use smart labels that communicate information to consumers about the quality and freshness of food products by monitoring environmental storage conditions. The labels are designed to enhance consumer safety and reduce the likelihood that consumers will prematurely discard food because of uncertainties about freshness.

Radio-frequency identification (RFID) and smart labels can also help with traceability, assisting in the assurance that the food is well monitored, for example, appropriate storage and temperature conditions are maintained, to ensure high quality and food safety.

In addition, brands can build trust through labelling that provides consumer transparency. For example, Zego uses an interactive quick response (QR) code to inform its consumers.