As flexible packaging becomes thinner and thinner to improve sustainability scores, the challenge becomes greater and more difficult to consistently apply legible “date codes.” Thankfully, new technologies in materials and machinery have advanced the use of reduced substrates in most flexible packaging applications, including form-fill-seal, thermoform and tray sealing and pouch filling.
Despite material reductions, these formations provide the extended shelf required to protect brand freshness over a set period of time. To make sure brands communicate this “freshness,” it’s critical to have date codes on every package that consumers and retailers can easily read.