Insect resistant packaging

A finished manufactured food product, such as a packet of biscuits, or breakfast cereal, is protected against subsequent insect attack in warehouses away from the factory only by the design and quality of the packaging.  This is simple to understand but is, nevertheless, often forgotten during the product and packaging development stages.  It is only when complaints arrive from customers, sometimes overseas customers, that this truth comes back to haunt the factory QA team. 

By this stage, it is often difficult to know where in the product chain, from factory to centralised warehouse, to local distribution storage, to supermarket, to cash-and-carry, to corner shop, and sometimes even the consumer’s own pantry, the infestation has actually occurred.  The risks vary at each stage, but the product final packaging is the last resort, and must resist physical damage from fork-lift truck and manual handling, and the mandibles of roving, hungry insects.  Young beetle and moth larvae are generally too small to chew through plastic and polythene, and aluminium foil, but can sometimes penetrate paper and cardboard packaging.  However, as moth and beetle larvae grow and certainly when beetle grubs become adults, their mandible strength increases significantly, and then even thick polythene food containers and foil sachets may be breached. 

Careful laboratory trials can be done to show the weak design and manufacture points with all existing packaging, and compared with developed designs, looking at different species, and their different life stages, looking at how the risks to packaged food changes during insect development.  This is the work which puts facts before hunches and before thoughtless risk taking.  

Just how well will health-food crispy bars withstand moths and beetles in a southern French warehouse, or in a Malaysian corner shop, over a 3 to 6 month shelf-life period?  These tests will guide the thinking and planning of product manufacturers and marketing planners though objective, technical results.

For further details of this service please contact Mike Kelly.