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Choices in Barrier Flexible Packaging

Here are some ways to enhance the barrier properties of flexible packaging.

Sterling Anthony
Sterling Anthony

Flexible packaging is a structural characterization referring to a material’s ability to bend and to fold, therefore, to flex. Flexible packaging, compared to rigid packaging like glass and metals, is lightweight. That inherent property results in lower transportation costs for brand owners and convenience-of-handling for consumers. Barrier protection, however, is not an inherent property of flexible packaging. It needs to be bestowed through engineered means.

The need for barrier packaging derives from the need to protect the contained products from the harmful effects of gases, moisture, and light (UV). The aforementioned elements can reduce the quality, efficacy, performance, and aesthetics of products such as food and beverage, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and cosmetics, among others.

Flexible packaging provides barrier, either as a monolayer or a multilayer substrate. The associated technologies include extrusions, coextrusions, laminations, and coatings, producing structures such as bags, pouches, and thermoforms. The packaging supplier industry segment known as converters offer a wide and imaginative range of offerings. But how does a packaging user decide?

The protection function of flexible packaging (as with any other type of packaging) always should reflect the needs of the product. A given product’s susceptibility to harm establishes the type and the level of barrier that the flexible packaging must provide. As logical and straightforward as that might sound, decisions are complicated by various considerations and chief among them is the targeted shelf life/service life. It sets ramifications throughout the supply chain, notably on inventory levels.

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