A well-packaged product reduces excessive loading of the environment. As technology advances, improvements are being made in packaging all the time; smart packaging is on the way.

Food production burdens the environment. The greater the extent to which the food is processed, the greater the burden. That is why food should not end up as waste. A poorly packaged food that is allowed to go bad or dry, or produces a bad taste or smell on the journey from the shop to the consumer is an environmental burden.

"In the future packaging and the materials used for it will become more important. For example, the distribution of clean water and food in cities with millions of inhabitants places new demands not only on the packaging but also on the entire logistics," says Annukka Leppänen-Turkula, the managing director of the Association of Packaging Technology and Research.

RFID brings visibility

The development of packaging technology will ease the logistics in the future. An example is RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) tags, which are being used on a global scale. Thanks to the technology, RFID tags on pallets and packaging can be read by means of radio waves.

"RFID tags bring visibility to the entire delivery chain, since the path of the goods to the store room and onwards to the customer can be followed efficiently. The technology can also prove the genuineness of products, for example, pharmaceuticals and expensive brand clothing," says Mikko Immonen, the product manager, business unit supply chain management, at UPM Rafsec Oy. This Finnish company has its head office and product development based in Finland and is the world's leading producer of RFID tags.

Technology serves the needs of the wholesale and retail trade in particular. As the use of tags grows, their price will fall and the technology will develop. In the future it will be possible to read the entire contents of a shopping trolley at the check-out desk in one go and not one item at a time as at present with the present bar code technology

Smartness increases safety

KCL, a company that does research in the chemical forest industry, examines the incorporation of smart properties into packaging by means of different sensors. Different practical applications from smart technology for packaging can be expected on a wider scale in the next ten years.

"In the future it will be possible to incorporate smart chips into the packaging at the production stage. When the smartness property exists in the packaging material itself, it can also be activated i.e. used later," says Susanna Nieminen at KCL.

Smartness makes packaging, such as that for pharmaceuticals, safer for the user. Because incorporating the smartness properties into the materials used for packaging is expensive, it is not easy to copy them onto pirate products.

>> www.ptr.fi
>> www.rafsec.com
>> www.kcl.fi

UHF Label Tags are used in logistics and stock room control.