Of the Package, By the Package and For the Package

By Thomas Dunn, EAS Independent Consultant

Providing safe food requires both safe food packaging materials and risk prevention by that packaging.  As an integral part of the food supply chain, packaging may pose biological, chemical, or physical hazards to the food supply. But as soon as packaged food leaves the managed confines of Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) zones, its package mitigates the environmental hazards encountered between the packaging room and the point of consumption. The hazard analysis for a food processing facility typically begins at the receiving dock and ends at the shipping dock. A packaged product’s package goes with it long after it is shipped. While each element of the food supply chain, such as shipping, storage, and retail display, has defined food safety practices, the package is present literally as another layer of protection for the food until its consumption.

When you come right down to it, the package does more than providing package functionality by containing, protecting/preserving, transporting, and describing its product. The core mission of a package is to “to escort its product from producer to consumer.”