Food packaging must meet three fundamental characteristics: respect the safety of the food they contain, comply with current regulations, not deteriorate or damage the food, preserving its integrity as much as possible. In addition, good food packaging must allow the delivery, or more generally, the transport of the product and must be customizable in order to best identify and represent the company that produces it.
For all these reasons, flexible food packaging is preferred for packaging intended for contact with food. Currently, in fact, over 90 percent of flexible packaging is used in the food sector, especially fruit and vegetables, followed by the packaging of cheeses and bakery products and pasta. Other types of foods for which flexible packaging is used include cured meats, frozen foods, coffee and pet food.
What is flexible packaging?
To understand the reason why flexible packaging is often used in the food sector, it is good to have more information on the world of flexible packaging. These packaging can be made of various materials: plastic films, paper or aluminium. They are made by extrusion or coupling and, based on the number of materials used, they can be mono-material or multi-material.
Flexible aluminium packaging is one of the most popular packaging types: it keeps the fragrance of a product intact, extends its shelf-life, can be customized with ad hoc prints, guarantees a barrier effect against external contaminants. Thanks to the properties of this material, it is also 100 percent recyclable.
With these characteristics, in general, the flexible packaging sector is experiencing a phase of great innovation and expansion both in the food world and in the non-food sector which affects the cosmetic/pharmaceutical and domestic detergent markets.
IPS Industrial Packaging Solution can supply aluminium foil to be used for the production of flexible packaging for foods and more. Thanks to belonging to the Laminazione Sottile Group, it can boast a solid and effective supply chain in every phase, from procurement to production up to distribution.