Select packaging materials for food and drink product development

This standard is about the skills and knowledge needed for you to select packaging materials for food and drink product development. Packaging is important to the cost, integrity, shelf life and marketing of a food and drink product. Determining the most suitable packaging for a product is important in ensuring organisational and regulatory financial, quality and compliance requirements are met.

You must be able to determine the requirements, constraints and opportunities in the food and drink business for the selection of packaging materials. You must be able to liaise with relevant people ensuring organisational, regulatory and customer requirements are met. You must be able to select the food product packaging material, gain input and agreement into its selection and confirm a final specification for use by purchasing, quality or additional teams across the food and drink business.

This standard is for you if you work in food and drink manufacture and/or supply operations and are involved in selecting packaging materials for food and drink product development.

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*         Prepare to select packaging materials*

1. source the organisational policies and procedures for the selection and use of food and drink product packaging materials
2. liaise with departments across the food business including purchasing, marketing and additional functions to determine specific packaging requirements
3. assess the capability and capacity of the food and drink business workforce to use specific packaging materials
4. identify the packaging options available for use with current specific plant and equipment in the production of food and drink products
5. gather information and market intelligence to inform selection of food and drink product packaging, including full costing analysis
6. confirm specific requirements for packaging from customers and stakeholders
7. prepare a draft specification for the essential and desirable requirements of the food and drink product packaging

**Select packaging

**
8. gather a number of packaging options based on the draft technical specification and cost options
9. gain input, from relevant people across the food business, into the selection process
10. check all relevant people inputting into the selection process are familiar with the organisational policies relating to packaging choice
11. investigate the relevant technical aspects and associated costs of food packaging that must be considered during the selection process
12. encourage a creative and innovative working environment whilst maintaining the organisational and customer boundaries relating to quality and cost or additional requirement
13. capture the cost and time required to train workforce in the use of new packaging, if required, and feed the information into the selection process
14. select sustainable packaging in accordance with the organisational regulations and requirements

**Confirm selection of packaging

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15. gain agreement from relevant people on the choice of packaging material
16. confirm packaging final technical specification
17. confirm the selected packaging material can be supplied within cost, volume and timeline constraints
18. communicate the selected packaging to relevant people

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1. the regulatory and organisational policies and procedures relating to the selection and use of packaging materials
2. the organisational methods of communication including the use of new technology and how to use them
3. the organisational requirements for the determination of draft and final packaging specifications
4. how to use market intelligence and information relating to the selection of packaging materials
5. how to source food and drink packaging options
6. what the specific packaging requirements for are from customers and how to ascertain them
7. the essential and desirable features of food and drink packaging and how to determine them for a specific food and drink product
8. why it is important to liaise with colleagues and customers to determine the specific packaging requirements and how to do this
9. the functional areas across a food business that will input into the selection of packaging materials
10. why it is important to determine the current availability of plant and equipment needed to implement new packaging
11. how to determine the impact of new packaging on workforce requirements including possible training and development needs
12. why it is important to communicate the final specification to relevant people and how to do this
13. why it is important to liaise with finance or purchasing to determine cost constraints on packaging selections
14. why it is important to support a creative and innovative working environment
15. what the organisational, regulatory and customer sustainability policies and requirements are relating to food product packaging
16. the technical aspects of food packaging that must be investigated and tested during the selection process
17. why it is important to select packaging that complies with hygiene, allergens, food safety, health and safety and compliance requirements and how to do this
18. the environmental impact of packaging choices
19. the organisational and customer requirements for the technical content of packaging specifications

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3

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01 Jan 2023

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Current

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Original

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Improve

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IMPPD112

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Manufacturing Technologies, Plant and Machine Operatives, Process Operatives, Process, Plant and Machine Operatives

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8111

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Develop; new product; product development; food and drink; select; packaging materials

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