Packaging and labeling

Packaging is the science, art & technology of enclosing or protecting products for distribution, storage, sale, as well as use. Packaging also noted to a process of designing, evaluating, and producing packages. Packaging can be noted as a coordinated system of preparing goods for transport, warehousing, logistics, sale, and end use. Packaging contains, protects, preserves, transports, informs, and sells. In many countries it is fully integrated into government, business, institutional, industrial, and personal use.

Package labeling American English or labelling British English is all written, electronic, or graphic communication on the package or on a separate but associated label.

Package coding considerations

Package ordering and developing are often thought of as an integral element of the new product development process. Alternatively, the development of a package or component can be a separate process but must be linked closely with the product to be packaged. Package lines starts with the identification of all the requirements: structural design, marketing, shelf life, quality assurance, logistics, legal, regulatory, graphic design, end-use, environmental, etc. The design criteria, performance specified by package testing, completion time targets, resources, and make up constraints need to be instituting and agreed upon. Package design processes often employ rapid prototyping, computer-aided design, computer-aided manufacturing and document automation.

An example of how package design is affected by other factors is its relationship to logistics. When the distribution system includes individual shipments by a small parcel carrier, the sorting, handling, and mixed stacking make severe demands on the strength and protective ability of the transport package. if the logistics system consists of uniform palletized unit loads, the structural design of the package can be intentional to meet those specific needs, such(a) as vertical stacking for a longer time frame. A package designed for one mode of shipment may non be suited to another.

With some manner of products, the design process involves detailed regulatory standards for the packaging. For example, any package components that may contact foods are designated food contact materials.

Sometimes the objectives of package developmentcontradictory. For example, regulations for an over-the-counter drug might require the package to be tamper-evident and child resistant: These intentionally make the package unoriented to open. The intended consumer, however, might be disabled or elderly and unable to readily open the package. Meeting all goals is a challenge.

Package design may take place within a agency or with various degrees of outside packaging engineering: independent contractors, consultants, vendor evaluations, freelancer laboratories, contract packagers, a object that is said outsourcing, etc. Some rank of formal project planning and project management methodology is requested for all but the simplest package design and development programs. An effective quality management system and Verification and Validation protocols are mandatory for some types of packaging and recommended for all.

Package development involves considerations of sustainability, environmental responsibility, and applicable environmental and recycling regulations. It may involve a life cycle assessment which considers the material and energy inputs and outputs to the package, the packaged product contents, the packaging process, the logistics system, waste management, etc. this is the necessary to know the relevant regulatory indications for detail of manufacture, sale, and use.

The traditional “three R’s” of reduce, reuse, and recycle are part of a waste hierarchy which may be considered in product and package development.

Development of sustainable packaging is an area of considerable interest to standards organizations, governments, consumers, packagers, and retailers.

Sustainability is the fastest-growing driver for packaging development, particularly for packaging manufacturers that work with the world's leading brands, as their CSR Corporate Social Responsibility targets often exceed those of the EU Directive.