Packaging Your Product 1, 2, 3… Basics of Food Packaging

A brand owner starting out with launching their new product has many things on their mind, and packaging is usually not one of them. Besides, you cannot package your product until you actually make it, right? Absolutely Correct. However, just as you want your product to be delicious and functional you’ll also want your package to be appealing and appropriate. Here is some basic packaging terminology to get you started.

Primary Packaging is the term used to identify the initial packaging that touches the product. Primary packaging can come in the form of bottles, bags, jars, pouches, cans, cartons, tubes, twist wraps and pretty much anything else you can think of.… but the most important thing to remember is that primary packaging is in direct contact with your product which you and your customers will be eating, drinking and/or putting on their skin or hair.

Some examples and uses of primary packaging:

Bottles and jars are especially popular for liquids and sauces and can be of glass or plastic and require a cap, lid or film seal.

Bags are typically pre-formed of plastic or paper and then sealed with a tie, fold, tape or other banding material. Bags are great for products that do not require an air tight seal.

Pouches are just like bags, but with a more permanent seal. Pouches can be pre-formed, filled, then final sealed, or be formed on a machine from a sheet of film while being filled at the same time.  Regardless, the term pouch implies a level of air tightness not found with just a bag.
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Secondary Packaging is the term used to describe the configuration the primary packaging then gets placed in. This could be a carton, case, additional bag, or other package which is not in direct contact with the product but instead in direct contact with the primary package.

For example, multiple bottle or jars can be assembled into a variety pack of three flavors and strapped or shrink wrapped together. The strapping or shrink wrapping is the secondary packaging. These bundles of flavors can then be placed into an outer corrugate for easy transport which leads us to the next and final level of packaging.

Tertiary Packaging is the term for this 3rd level of packaging. Tertiary packaging typically consists of corrugate cases or corrugate trays. So, why would you want THREE levels of packaging? Having another level of packaging eases distribution by consolidating the product into handy sizes for shipping and stocking.

Continuing from the example above, your jars (primary) are strapped together to form a three pack (secondary) then 6 bundles of those three-pack jars are placed in a case for a total of 18 jars in the case (tertiary).   Another way to think of these distinctive levels of packaging: Primary is for the ultimate consumer; Secondary is for the intermediate purchaser; and Tertiary is for the distributors.

Have no fear when it comes to packaging.  Keeping in mind these three levels of packaging – primary, secondary, and tertiary – remember this rule of thumb: The further away from the point of manufacture you want to send your product, the more packaging you’ll need to consider using.  Once you decide where you want your product to go – whether it’s 10th street, Telluride or Tel Aviv – this will determine how far down the packaging rabbit hole you need to go.

About Pack Systems

Karen is a recovering corporate engineer turned consultant for small, medium-sized and large CPG firms in the Food & Beverage industry. She can be found tweeting about engineering, food making and food waste, making the Denver Mini Maker Faire, sewing bags and clothes, screen printing, making a mess in her kitchen or engineering facility network optimizations and product launches.

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