The EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) takes effect on Aug 12, 2026. Every food and beverage product entering the EU market now needs a signed Declaration of Conformity, and for many manufacturers, new ‘forever chemicals’ PFAS substance tracking to go with it. The latter applies to packaging that comes into direct contact with food.

The timing matters. Schneider’s research shows compliance already costs European food and beverage manufacturers 13.7% of a product’s final price, more than labour (12.2%) and well ahead of manufacturing margin (8.0%). [1]

Across the UK and Ireland, food and beverage manufacturers report compliance costs of 12.8% of final product price, ahead of labour costs (11.5%) and overall manufacturing margin (9.5%). [2]

That was true before this summer’s heat waves cut the European grain harvest prospects by 9 million tons and while French vegetable growers warn of shortages imports may not fully cover. US Department of Agriculture forecasts now put EU grain imports rising from 26.5 million to 28.4 million tons this year.

Europe is leaning harder on imports at the exact moment those imports face tighter compliance checks. Supply chain visibility and regulatory readiness have converged into a single challenge, one that next-generation industrial intelligence is now equipped to solve.

Where manufacturers most need to focus is data transparency through the supply chain itself, information that today is still gathered supplier by supplier, largely by manual means. Closing that gap, connecting it into a single traceable digital thread through connected, AI-enabled industrial data platforms, will be key.

Yet, only about a third of Europe’s food and beverage manufacturers say AI plays a significant role in PFAS or packaging compliance today. This is also where AI has moved furthest into compliance work in the UK & Ireland: 49.2% say it plays a significant or critical role in PFAS compliance, and 55.6% say the same for packaging compliance, both comfortably the highest figures in our European sample. [3]

I believe that gap will close. Manufacturers who treat traceability and compliance requirements as a longer-term industrial competitiveness priority will be better positioned to deliver on both regulatory and consumer expectations and take advantage of emerging market opportunities.

Sources: [1], [2], [3] – The “2026 Industrial AI in CPG” study was conducted by Censuswide on behalf of Schneider Electric among a sample of 451 Food & Beverage C-suite and senior manufacturing decision-makers across five European markets: Germany, Switzerland and Austria (DACH, n=125), France (n=100), Italy (n=100), and the UK and Ireland (n=126). Censuswide is a member of the Market Research Society (MRS) and the British Polling Council (BPC), and a signatory of the Global Data Quality Pledge; it adheres to the MRS Code of Conduct and ESOMAR principles.

About the author

Neil Smith, CPG president, Schneider Electric