The days are gone when packaging was used for nothing more than protecting the product and ensuring an attractive presentation at the point of sale. These days, packaging has to do a lot more. It has to be intelligent and interactive, and it is supposed to track goods along the entire supply chain, to expose counterfeits, to test whether a package has already been opened, or to indicate whether a cold chain has been interrupted. Finally, it is supposed to make it possible to pursue new methods of brand communication and to interact with the consumer.

  QR codes are spreading very rapidly at the moment: in magazines, on placards, and on packaging too.
More and more merchants and manufacturers of branded products are making use of these two-dimensional “quick response” codes. If the consumer has a cell phone with a built-in camera or a smartphone, it can be used to scan in the code printed on the packaging. The phones have an app that decrypts the code and navigates the user directly to the corresponding website of the manufacturer, where consumers can find more information. In this way, the limited analogue space on the packaging can be expanded virtually.

For example, the stated goal of Frosta, a producer of frozen foods, is to “remove cooking obstacles”.
The company prints a QR code on many frozen vegetable packages. With a smartphone, the consumer can then use the code to navigate to a microsite that presents recipe ideas, for example. Any ingredients that are still needed can then conveniently be bought during the same shopping trip. But that's not all: In keeping with the trend towards interactivity and networking, users can also enter their own recipe ideas and use interfaces to social media networks like Facebook and Twitter.

Using interactive packaging to boost product appreciation Coca-Cola has its sights on a different target group. Together with the can manufacturer Ball Packaging Europe, the beverage maker wants to use beverage cans as a link between music and refreshment. A consumer with a cell phone uses the QR code printed on the can to connect directly to the Coke Music Portal. “This way, the beverage can appeal to several of the customer’s senses at once — taste, hearing, sight — and therefore turns into an interactive, multimedia amplifier of the customer’s enjoyment of the product,” says Gerlof Toenhake, Director of Marketing at Ball Packaging Europe.

  QR codes are used for more than just brand communication, however.
The printing press manufacturer Heidelberg has developed a technology that protects against product piracy. The products are equipped with security tags. These consist of a pattern randomly generated from copper threads and an associated, unique QR code. The combination of these two elements on the product itself or its packaging ensures a high degree of protection against counterfeits and generates a unique identity comparable to a human fingerprint for each individual product. With a special app that runs on mobile devices like smartphones, it is easy for the final customer to check the authenticity of the products labelled in this way.

  The QR code is used by not only manufacturers of branded products but also by merchants.
For example, the discount supermarket chain Netto is currently expanding QR coding for its products. Now that all the packaged fruit and vegetable products have been labelled, fresh meat is being tagged with the QR code too. Via smartphone, the customer can obtain information about the origin, quality, and nutritional value of the product, in addition to recipes. The spread of QR codes has gained more momentum as a result of the recent E. coli scare and other food scandals. This shows how quickly a technology can become established if it is relatively simple and inexpensive to use.

Because of their cost, RFID (radio frequency identification) tags are not yet suitable for the mass market. If prices fall, this could change quickly, however, because RFID technology has the potential to replace the bar code. Radio frequency technology enables non-contact identification, management and tracking of as many products as is desired, throughout the entire value chain and from production to the consumer. The packaging used for high-priced products is already being made with integrated RFID tags as protection against product piracy and theft.

  New development: RFID plus sensor
The Fraunhofer Institute for Physical Measurement Techniques IPM, Freiburg, is going one step further: It has developed special RFID tags in which sensors are integrated into the label. This means temperature sensors can be used to check whether a cold chain has been maintained, for example. In a different variant, gas sensors measure the concentration of the gas ethylene, which allows inferences to be made about the degree of ripeness of many types of fruit.

  As the examples show, packaging is taking on a multimedia character and linking manufacturers, the trade and consumers.
There is a downside, however: This brave new world of packaging doesn’t yet seem to be fully mature and functionally stable. A study carried out by GS 1 (an international organization that formulates global standards to improve the value chain) and the consultancy GapGemini shows that the product information often is not valid. Over 90 per cent of the information that British market researchers obtained via mobile bar code scanning was incorrect or incomplete. And how will customers react? Thirty-eight per cent of those surveyed said they wouldn’t buy the product if they can’t trust the data they get via their smartphones. So there is still some work to be done in this regard.

  Health consciousness provides impetus for developments
Despite the fact that there are sometimes still problems with the technology and some “teething troubles” that have to be cured, these difficulties won't impede the growth in intelligent packaging. Organic and printed electronics in particular have considerable potential to change the world of packaging. The U.S. market research firm MarketsandMarkets estimates that between 2010 and 2015, global sales of intelligent packaging will grow by 8.2 per cent per year to approximately US$24 billion.

With a market share of 35 per cent, North America is set to become the largest buyer of active and intelligent packaging. The health-conscious consumer is applying ever higher standards to food safety. This is likely to add more impetus to the spread of intelligent packaging, particularly in the fields of dairy products, meat, poultry, and ready-cooked meals.
For further information on Anuga FoodTec, visit www.anugafoodtec.com

  Robots are becoming more and more widespread.
The International Federation of Robotics has announced that 115,000 industrial robots were delivered worldwide in 2010.
The figure is almost twice as high as in 2009, when sales were at a low point due to the economic crisis. Sales are expected to grow by 10 to 15 percent in 2011, and by an average of five percent in the following years. A total of 30,000 robots were sold last year in Europe, with 13,400 of them sold in Germany alone. Although this growth is largely due to the electronics, automotive, and metalworking industries, the sector is convinced that the use of robots in the food and beverage industry will continue to increase.

  What are the advantages of using robots?
Robots are ideal for the flexible handling of smaller and smaller production lots involving different sizes and shapes. In packaging applications, robots relieve human beings from having to perform monotonous tasks, which is why they have been increasingly used for such chores for many years now. The availability of completely hygienic robot models ensures that it is no longer problematical to use these machines in the processing and primary packaging of hygiene-sensitive food.

Here, chemical-resistant and easy-to-clean versions of food-grade picker, SCARA and jointed-arm robots can exploit their advantages for use in moist surroundings. At the same time, the most important advantage of these untiring machines is that they minimise hygiene and contamination risks in the interest of food safety. In addition, each production step is documented and can be traced, thus ensuring a higher level of quality assurance.

  The right gripper for every application
However, there is still one problem that needs to be resolved: the interface between the robot and the product. In addition to hygiene issues, food products are often sensitive to mechanical handling and have very diverse shapes with irregular surfaces. In order to tackle these problems, experts have, in recent years, simulated the human hand in various ways, as it is the most versatile gripper in existence.

Companies have also developed task-specific gripper systems that are hygienic and easy to clean and that proceed with the requisite care when handling products. In spite of this, these machines are fast enough that the productivity increases resulting from the use of robots are not offset by slow gripper processes.

  Besides mechanical grippers, there are also many systems that use vacuum technology.
The focus here is on creating appropriate designs for ensuring optimum carrying capacity, compressed air consumption, tolerance to product residues (e.g. flaked off breading) and tolerance to compressed air leaks created when the suction surface isn't completely covered. In addition to gripper systems made of stainless steel, the popular vacuum grippers also employ individually designed suction grippers made of silicone polymers approved for use with food.

These suction grippers are used for any type of goods and their airflow mechanism causes them to deform in a predefined manner during the suction process. Such grippers can, for example, precisely attach themselves to irregularly shaped chicken fillets or legs and partially surround them like a mechanical gripper does so that the grip is secure despite the fact that only a weak vacuum is used. Modular systems are now offered for standard tasks such as the handling of a predefined sequence of geometrically uniform objects. In these systems, the appropriate gripper tool can be put together from standardized parts and modified as needed.

  Watch fresh meat being hygienically packaged
In 2012 Anuga FoodTec in Cologne will once again supply trade visitors from the food industry with ideas and inspiration on how to use robot technology. In line with the approach of offering not only partial solutions but integrated and flexible technology concepts, the Robotic Pack Line special show will once again present a sample application that demonstrates the technology's great potential for the sector.

This time around, the show will demonstrate the hygienic handling of real fresh meat. In a complete production line, robots will automatically take E2 bowls from palettes and check the fresh meat that the bowls contain. A robot equipped with a hygienic gripper takes the pieces of meat out of the bowls and places them in a piece of primary packaging (a tray), which it then seals. After the seams of the seal have been checked and the product labelled, a SCARA robot lays the finished pieces of primary packaging in the cleaned E2 bowls, which are then automatically placed onto the palette.

Another section of the Robotic Pack Line will demonstrate a high-performance secondary packaging process. Here, the trays are automatically removed, checked, labelled and put into boxes. These boxes are then labelled as well and placed onto palettes. The live presentation of the Robotic Pack Line in 2012 will be a world-first, which will only be presented in this way at Anuga FoodTec.

  Anuga FoodTec from 27th to 30th March 2012
Further information on Anuga FoodTec is available online, at www.anugafoodtec.de