The COVID-19 pandemic has brought social and economic life to a halt throughout the world creating almost a paranoia of sanitary and hygiene. New regulations order hygiene rules to be obeyed for packaging, storing, and transporting food products. Packaged goods and well-known brands are preferred for the sake of food safety during the crisis by a majority of consumers. Packaged products are deemed to be safe since they are protected from human contact. Bakers had been resisting calls for offering bread in packages. Now a circular has issued silently during COVID-19 pandemic and bread will be sold in packages. It seems that this crisis contributes to a safer and healthier change for the food sector.

The COVID-19 pandemic upset world balances and its effects becoming more sever day by day. Consuming packaged food is among the most significant measures against the pandemic. Packages enable food products to be conserved without spoiling and be offered economically and safely. Food packages are primarily used to lengthen shelf lives of products, to store them appropriately, to protect them from contaminants, and to minimize spoilage and quality loss. Packages not only preserve bread pasta, biscuits, milk, cheese, pulses, fruits-vegetables, and other food products but also human health. Because unpackaged food is vulnerable to bacteria and spoilage and as a result şt threatens our health. In addition to this, tracking products sold without packages is also difficult and their declared shelf life is suspicious. Packaged food is vital for human health and it will continue to be especially in the post-coronavirus era.

Packages cover and conserve the food and increase awareness. It is also a sub-component of the marketing mix, namely product, package, promotion, and place. The packaging is an element of the promotion. Therefore, the global packaging industry has a size of billions of dollars each year and 60% of packages are used for food products. The coronavirus pandemic has increased the significance of packaging. In the modern world, packages are an important factor for consumers to prefer a particular product.

Packaging has especially gained importance for food products recently. The primary aim of packaging is to physically protect the food product. Physical protection ensures resistance against shock, vibration, pressure, temperature, and other effects that might decrease product quality. Packages also play a barrier role against oxygen, water vapor, dust, and/or chemical materials. As a result, the packaging ensures physical protection to lengthen the shelf life and enables a high degree of flexibility to businesses for storage and logistic operations.

But longer shelf life is not the only benefit of food packages. Packaged food also gives a sense of safety to the consumers. The primary function of packaging is conserving the content fresh, clean, and safe during its shelf life.

Packages are also an important element of marketing strategies of brands to draw the attention of customers and increase sales. It is a significant tool for a successful marketing strategy. Packages also contain all necessary details to inform customers about weight, production and expiration dates, usage, ingredients, and so on.

Packages are like showcases of our products. Some global firms are well aware of the significance of packages. Most of the time, they even invest more in packaging processes than they do for the product itself. For many consumers, packages are as important as the product itself for the buying decision. You can attract a customer with good packaging or distract them with a bad one.

CLASSIFIED AS “ESSENTIAL SECTOR” BY EUROPE The coronavirus pandemic confirmed that plastic material is vital for hygiene and medical products as well as food and other sectors. According to a report by the Turkish Plastic Industrialists Research, Development, and Education Foundation many European governments define the plastic industry as a “vital sector”. Demand for disposable plastic and food packages has increased in Turkey as well as Europe. As lockdown measures are loosening in Europe, demand for plastic products is on the rise. In Belgium, the whole plastic industry is declared as vital. In France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, and Spain some sub-sectors of the plastic industry are classified as vital. This classification is important for the continuity of production for plastic factories and this is also a significant development for a perception change about plastic products.

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• Strategic cooperation between Premier Tech and Bühler Swiss Bühler Group and Premier Tech from Canada are now taking their strategic cooperation two steps further. What started with a close collaboration in August 2019, evolved into a Joint Venture in China and ultimately grew to a global partnership for bulk packaging. [button color="red" size="small" link="https://www.magazinebbm.com/english/strategic-cooperation-between-premier-tech-and-buhler-2/.html" icon="" target="true"]Click to read >>[/button]
• Packaging improves hygiene and shelf life of baked products "For longer shelf life, we need to implement Modified Atmosphere Packaging (MAP) for baked products. During modified atmosphere packaging; gases like oxygen, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, ethylene, etc. are added or removed to modify the atmosphere circulating the food product. Gases to be added or removed depends on the product type." [button color="red" size="small" link="https://www.magazinebbm.com/english/packaging-improves-hygiene-and-shelf-life-of-baked-products/.html" icon="" target="true"]Click to read >>[/button]
• A flexible TLM packaging line from Schubert for Bahlsen Bahlsen’s new “Keks’n Cream” creation delivers a lot of taste in the layers of its filled double biscuits. To enable the pastry manufacturer to pack the sensitive products safely, quickly and attractively, a total of 24 pick & place robots had to be accommodated in a machine area of less than ten metres. Moreover, a building support post had to be integrated into the system. A customised TLM machine from Gerhard Schubert masters these challenges while offering flexible packaging options and high output within a minimum of space. [button color="red" size="small" link="https://www.magazinebbm.com/english/a-flexible-tlm-packaging-line-from-schubert-for-bahlsen/.html" icon="" target="true"]Click to read >>[/button]
• TOMRA Food makes its test and demonstration centers virtual TOMRA Food is taking further action to ensure business continuity while protecting its employees’ and customers’ health with the introduction of Virtual Demonstration Centers to provide interactive demonstrations at this time of limited contact. [button color="red" size="small" link="https://www.magazinebbm.com/english/tomra-food-makes-its-test-and-demonstration-centers-virtual-2/.html" icon="" target="true"]Click to read[/button]