7 Key Points to Consider for Food Packaging

Food producers have a variety of needs: choosing the appropriate materials for specific applications, tooling costs, developing packaging, lead times and consistency, especially in an automated environment. Examine these considerations in depth to determine what you need in a food packaging manufacturer so you can receive high quality food packaging that fits within your budget.

Lower Packaging Costs

Food manufacturers are typically looking to save money, especially in packaging, to provide consumers with the lowest price possible. To do this, many companies opt for food packaging manufacturers who can complete the entire process in-house. By taking care of everything from designs to tooling to final production, an all-inclusive plastic packaging company can effectively lower your overall costs.

Tamper Evident

Tamper resistant designs are an essential component of food packaging designs. Search for a food packaging company that offers various tamper-evident concepts for food packaging designs so you can find one that best suits your products.

SQF Level Three

Quality is a key concern for food manufacturers. Therefore, your packaging manufacturer must be up-to-date with the latest food safety measures, including SQF certification. SQF is a standard created to ensure companies are complying with food safety and quality management systems. When searching for a packaging company, you’ll find that companies with an SQF level three certification provide many advantages, including quality control, traceability throughout production and, overall, increased trust with consumers.

Reduced Tooling Costs

As a food manufacturer, you need to go with the most cost effective option for tooling. The solution? A plastic packaging company that can design and build tooling in house. The price of in-house tooling is comparable to “stock” tooling, but it’s customized to your products’ packaging. Additionally, you should search for a company who can design tooling based on the overall sales volume of a project.

Speed to Market

Like any plastic packaging design, food packaging must have superior speed-to-market development times. However, new designs must go through various approval, tooling, prototype and testing stages, which can sometimes take as many as 20 weeks. During such a lengthy plastic packaging production time, consumers may lose interest in the product. To ensure your products can be packaged in the shortest feasible time, you’ll need to choose a plastic packaging company with the capability to design and produce tooling that matches the speed of new item production and market testing.

Multiple U.S. Locations for Manufacturing

Search for a plastic packaging manufacturer that has multiple locations throughout the country. This is especially crucial for larger companies’ accounts. In case any issues were ever to arise, the company can then consult with another one of its plants to move or quickly build new tooling to ensure projects are completed within the projected timeline.

Quality Support

When working with a plastic packaging company, you’ll want to know they will be able to assist you if you ever have any questions or concerns throughout your product packaging designs. When searching for a team, look for one that provides quality and engineering support from the initial design through and after commercialization is another valued item.

To learn more about the key points for food packaging or to get started on a project, contact the team at Plastic Ingenuity.