The challenges for today’s food manufacturing market and the five S’s to consider when choosing packaging: sustainability, shelf-life, size, shape and smart labels.

As a brand manager, production or plant manager, your primary focuses include your bottom line. Packaging affects many aspects of your product line and with that, your business growth. 

More than ever consumers are concerned with supporting ethical businesses with environmentally conscious practices. They are growing increasingly aware of what they consume, the waste they create and the businesses that are aligned with this ethos.

A report by GlobalData reveals that two-thirds of consumers worldwide think that living an ethical or sustainable lifestyle is important to creating a feeling of well-being. This increased focus on environmental impact is creating new opportunities for sustainable packaging material producers.

A survey released by sustainability specialists Empauer and BtoB communications firm, Adduco Communications, reveals how global packaging industry professionals feel about sustainability, and raises questions about the industry’s preparedness to both implement and measure sustainability practices now and in the future.

BillerudKorsnäs is encouraging action against ocean litter in a series of U.S. events, in theme with this year's World Oceans Day earlier this month. The Swedish company has a mission to challenge conventional packaging and bring more sustainable practices to the industry.

CarbonLITE, a PET bottle-to-bottle recycling leader, plans to build a new plant in Pennsylvania. The facility will enable the company to increase the number of post-consumer PET beverage bottles it recycles annually by 50 percent, to more than 6 billion.