Smart Packaging Gains

Significant advances are anticipated in the intelligent packaging segment, where demand will expand more than 30% each year to $165 million in 2011. Growth will be fueled by the development of new generations of products with improved performance at more cost-competitive prices, which will spur greater market acceptance for many product types. The majority of active and intelligent packaging technologies are still specialty niches in the broad U.S. packaging sector due to the relatively high cost of many product types. These and other trends are presented in Active & Intelligent Packaging, a new study from the Freedonia Group, Inc., a Cleveland-based industry market research firm.

Gains will be based on the emergence of lower cost time-temperature indicator (TTI) labels as well as the growing awareness of these products as critical tools in improving food safety and reducing losses in the supply chain. Increasing cost-competitiveness will support strong opportunities for other intelligent packaging, such as compliance monitoring packaging for pharmaceuticals, active pharmaceutical reminders, ripeness detecting labels and thermochromic labels.

Active packaging is projected to advance more than 11% a year to $975 million in 2011, fueled by robust growth for gas scavengers based on changes in the food product mix and increased cost-competitiveness driving expanded applications for oxygen scavengers.