Food Packaging Materials Turn to Green and Safety to Help Elevate Consumer Services

When buying food, the first thing consumers see and touch is the packaging, commonly plastic film, glass bottles, metal cans, paper bags and the like. As the last process and an important component of the modern food industry, food packaging plays important roles in protecting food, preserving freshness and facilitating distribution. Different food packaging materials also have their own advantages and disadvantages. The rapid development of China's national economy has driven sustained growth in the consumer goods market, and China's food packaging industry is facing both opportunities and challenges.

The food packaging market keeps expanding

To maintain food quality, keep food from deteriorating during storage, distribution and sale, prevent microbial contamination and prevent excessive chemical and physical changes, all kinds of food must be packaged. In the food industry, packaging occupies an important position as a market segment.

The upstream of the food packaging industry chain consists of raw material and equipment suppliers, including packaging paper, general-purpose plastics, glass, aluminum materials and packaging machinery; the midstream is the food packaging manufacturing industry, including paper packaging, plastic packaging, metal packaging and glass packaging; the downstream is the application market for food packaging products, mainly including snack foods, convenience foods, infant foods and food delivery.

Along with the increase in the urban population and the rapid development of retail infrastructure, demand for packaged food keeps growing, which has promoted the expansion of the packaging market. According to data released by the China Packaging Federation, in 2020 the market size of China's food packaging industry was 603.9 billion yuan, up 0.3% year on year compared with 2019, and China's food packaging market size is expected to reach 630 billion yuan by 2023.

As a basic component of food packaging, food packaging materials include paper, bamboo, wood, metal, enamel, ceramics, plastics, rubber, natural fibers, chemical fibers, glass and other products used for packaging or holding food or food additives, as well as coatings that come into direct contact with food or food additives.

Plastic is a common category of food packaging. The common materials are polyethylene, polypropylene, polyester and polyamide; they are mainly high-barrier materials with gas barrier, moisture barrier and oil barrier properties and stable chemical performance. The main materials of metal packaging are tinplate and aluminum, which feature corrosion resistance, non-toxicity, high strength and good ductility. In addition, metal packaging has excellent sealing performance and is often used to make canned food and other highly sealed foods.

As an ancient packaging material, glass features transparency, sealing performance, chemical stability and reusability. It can meet the purity and hygiene requirements of food packaging and allows flexible and attractive shapes, but its disadvantages are that it is fragile and heavy. Paper packaging is light in weight, easy to process, recyclable and refined and attractive in appearance, and is often used for packaging milk, desserts and the like.

Besides ensuring food quality, food packaging can also arouse consumers' attention to and interest in a product through unique design and technology, further improving convenience and meeting the demand for novelty.

Overview of food packaging materials and packaging companies

As the state raises its requirements on environmental protection and hygiene and raw material costs rise in the market, the industrial concentration and the leading-player effect in the food packaging materials and food packaging industries are becoming more and more obvious, and companies with technological and capital advantages hold a dominant position.

Upstream listed companies in general-purpose plastics include Kingfa Sci. & Tech. (600143) and Wote Advanced Material (002886); listed companies in packaging paper include Sun Paper (002078), Xianhe (603733) and Huatai Paper (600308); listed companies in packaging-specific equipment include Tederic Machinery (603289), Yizumi (300415) and KraussMaffei (600579). Listed companies in paper food packaging include Hoshine Packaging (002228) and Xintonglian (603022); listed companies in plastic packaging include Zijiang Enterprise (600210), Shuangxing New Materials (002585) and Tongchan Lixing (002243); listed companies in metal packaging include Baosteel Packaging (601968) and Org Technology (002701).

Kingfa Sci. & Tech. (600143) was founded in 1993 and focuses on the research, production, sales and service of high-performance new materials. Its products cover 8 major categories, including modified plastics, eco-friendly high-performance recycled plastics, fully biodegradable plastics, special engineering plastics, carbon fiber and composite materials, light hydrocarbons and hydrogen energy, styrenic resins and healthcare polymer materials. Kingfa's materials serve more than 1,000 well-known enterprises around the world; in 2022 its revenue was 40.412 billion yuan and its net profit was 1.991 billion yuan.

Sun Paper (002078) was founded in 1982 and is a world-leading multinational integrated forestry-pulp-paper group, a national green factory and a China Top 500 Enterprise, and it was successfully listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in 2006. The group has an annual pulp and paper capacity of 12 million tonnes and operating revenue of more than 70 billion yuan, and holds 516 core intellectual property rights. It has formed a product structure of six major series led by high-grade coated packaging board, high-grade art coated paper, specialty fiber dissolving pulp and high-grade industrial packaging paper.

Org Technology (002701) was founded in 1994 in Wenchang, Hainan, and is dedicated to the R&D, design, production and sales of metal packaging products for food and beverages; it can also provide services such as filling and QR code-assisted marketing, and was listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in October 2012. Fast-moving consumer goods brands it has served over the long term include Tsingtao Beer, Coca-Cola, Genki Forest, Yili and Want Want. By the end of 2021, the company had more than 40 manufacturing bases across the country, covering three-piece cans, two-piece cans, end making and metal material printing.

China Resources Chemical (301090) is a first-tier profit center under China Resources Group specializing in the production and sales of non-fiber-grade polyester chips, with an overall annual polyester production capacity of 2.1 million tonnes, and it has quality domestic and international customers including Coca-Cola, Evian, Nongfu Spring and Master Kong. Its "Hualei" brand bottle-grade polyester chips are widely used in drinking water, hot-fill beverages, carbonated drinks, edible oil and alcoholic beverage packaging. The company is actively cultivating rPET recycling projects in line with the circular economy trend.

Food packaging moves toward green and intelligent

It is worth noting that at present China's food packaging industry faces challenges and some food packaging materials still have problems, which have had a certain impact on food safety, hygiene, environmental protection and consumers' health. In addition, under different conditions of use, food packaging materials that were originally safe may also become unsafe.

In recent years, continuous consumption upgrading has placed higher demands on food packaging. Green and eco-friendly, multi-functional, safe and reliable will become new trends in the development of the packaging industry, and specialized equipment for food packaging is also developing toward good dynamic precision and a high degree of automation to adapt to ever-rising production needs.

Today, green consumption is in vogue. In order to improve food safety and reduce environmental pollution, the use of natural polymer materials as raw materials to prepare eco-friendly, biodegradable new packaging materials is drawing more and more attention. Recyclable and reusable eco-friendly packaging materials will become the main trend in the development of the packaging industry, and green packaging materials and nano packaging materials will be vigorously developed.

With the development of high technology and new technologies, China's food packaging industry will also develop toward diversification, high efficiency and intelligence. From stand-alone automated products to networking between multiple packaging machines, so as to meet the requirements of high output and high utilization rates of machinery and equipment.

Intelligent packaging can integrate machinery, biology, electronics, chemical sensors and network technology into packaging materials, enabling ordinary packaging to achieve many "special functions". The commonly used forms of food intelligent packaging mainly include three types: time-temperature indicators, gas indicators and freshness indicators. In the future, a "universal and perfect" food packaging material may become a reality.

What companies need to do is to choose suitable packaging according to the characteristics of the food to ensure food quality; to attract consumers' attention with outstanding packaging design and increase sales; to strengthen international cooperation, constantly innovate and upgrade food packaging technology, enhance their own strength and competitiveness, and provide consumers with more complete services.

——This article is reprinted from China Packaging Network (pack.cn). Original link: http://news.pack.cn/show-379413.html