Safety and environmental requirements for packaging design

Ambalaža danas mora zadovoljiti brojne zahtjeve za sigurnošću i zaštitom okoliša koji postaju sve zahtjevniji, uzimajući u obzir i ekonomičnost. Baziranje samo na okolišnim zahtjevima može smanjiti zaštitnu funkciju ambalaže ili obrnuto. Provođenjem analize životnog vijeka ambalaže već je u stadiju dizajna moguće procijeniti utjecaj ambalaže na okoliš te to iskoristiti kao temelj za donošenje odluka. Zahtjevi za sigurnost ambalaže obuhvaćaju uz sprečavanje kvarenja hrane još i sljedivost, utjecaj materijala ambalaže na hranu te problem patvorenja hrane. Dizajn ambalaže tako mora spriječiti prijenos tvari iz sastava ambalažnih materijala u hranu te postaviti efikasni sustav sljedivosti koji osigurava prijenos relevantnih informacija kroz cijeli opskrbni lanac. Kako bi se spriječilo patvorenje, potrebno je dizajnirati ambalažu koju će biti teško oponašati, ali koja će imati prihvatljivu cijenu proizvođačima i potrošačima. U stadiju dizajna ambalaže analizira se široki raspon čimbenika koji se protežu od potreba tržišta, preko konkurencije, vrste materijala, opsežnih zakonskih zahtjeva pa sve do konačnog načina zbrinjavanja. Poslije toga mogu se donijeti odluke o optimalnom omjeru ovih zahtjeva u konačnoj ambalaži.Packaging today has to fulfil numerous safety and environmental demands which are becoming more and more rigorous, having in mind also its cost-effectiveness. Concentrating only on environmental demands can decrease the protective function of packaging and vice versa. By conducting a life cycle analysis of packaging it is possible to assess already in the design stage impact that packaging has on the environment and use it as the base for decision making. Demands for the safety of packaging beside the prevention of food spoilage include also traceability, influence of the packaging materials on the food and the problem of food counterfeiting. Packaging design must thus prevent transfer of substances from packaging material to the food and to set up an effective traceability system to ensure the transfer of the relevant information’s through entire supply chain. To prevent the counterfeiting it is necessary to design the packaging that will be hard to imitate, but that will have acceptable price to producers and consumers. In the packaging design stage vide range of the factors are being analysed that expand form the market demands thru competition, types of the materials, extensive regulatory demands all the way to final method of disposing. Following that, decisions can be made on the optimal proportion of these demands in the final packaging