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Highlights of the 18th IAPRI World Packaging Conference

A record 24 countries were represented at the recently completed IAPRI World Packaging Conference as this year’s host, the Packaging Program at Cal Poly, celebrated its 
25 anniversary.

Dr. Jay Singh, professor and packaging program director at Cal Poly.
Dr. Jay Singh, professor and packaging program director at Cal Poly.

The 18th IAPRI World Packaging Conference, a collaboration between the International Association of Packaging Research Institutes (IAPRI) and the Packaging Program at Cal Poly State University, San Luis Obispo, CA, was held June 17-21. It was attended by 170 delegates from a record 24 countries. As the host, the Packaging Program at Cal Poly commemorated its 25th anniversary with the global participants at the four-day conference.


There were 93 presentations for the oral and poster categories, and they were produced by some of the leading national and international packaging researchers from industry and academia on 11 topic areas. These ranged from packaging for food & agricultural products to packaging for hazardous and dangerous goods.


Four leading experts from academia, industry, and the US government provided keynote presentations on plastics and sustainability: The Future of Bioplastics and Biomaterials in the New Green Economy; Global Packaging Trends in the Food and Beverage Industries; Packaging and Logistics to Support the War Fighter; and North American Containerboard Supply to Global Markets and the Important Role for Innovation in Corrugated Packaging Today.


This conference was also generously sponsored by several of the leading trade associations, brand owners, consulting firms, research equipment manufacturers, and material and packaging manufacturers from the packaging field. A record 23 sponsors—Packaging World was among them—made this event highly educational, exciting, and memorable for all.


At most academic conferences the topics are presented from a deeply scientific perspective, and as such are generally considered too technical to be of immediate practical use to everyday packaging professionals. Though the conference at Cal Poly was held primarily for the scientific community, there were numerous lessons for today’s practitioners. This article reports on several innovative presentations made in the focus area of Packaging for Food & Agriculture .


In the topic area of Active and Intelligent Packaging, as related to food packaging, several examples related to innovative concepts were presented. The use of silver ions as an antimicrobial agent in food applications was discussed by a group from the Novel Materials & Nanotechnology Group at Spain’s University of Valencia. The group reported the results of successful incorporation of silver ions from a salt compound of silver into polylactide acid (PLA) matrices by a solvent casting technique. The ions were reported to not affect crystallinity, water permeability, or water-induced plasticization of the materials, and they were homogenously distributed along the surface and thickness of the films. Antimicrobial assays according to the broth dilution method in M9 medium reported a bactericidal effect of the films after daily washings during the 6, 30 and 60 days of experimentation of the films with 0.01%, 0.1% and 1% silver, respectively. These results represent a step forward in the understanding of silver antimicrobial efficacy and its possible application in the food packaging industry.

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