Workshop to improve food and drink packaging

The Food and Drink Federation and Sheffield Hallam University are hosting a packaging engineering innovation workshop at the National Centre of Excellence for Food Engineering (NCEFE) on 2 November 2015.

The event aims to bring together manufacturers, packaging and machinery suppliers, engineers and researchers to identify priority projects and develop long term vision for improved food and drink packaging.

It hopes to deliver a step change in food and drink packaging engineering performance over the next five years. The workshop will be a great opportunity to explore options for pre-competitive collaboration and identify funding opportunities for these to create smarter packaging, radically improve productivity and meet consumer demand.

Martin West, head of integrated business planning at Premier Foods and chair of the food engineering innovation group at NCEFE, says, “The centre of excellence has received strong industry backing from food and drink manufacturers to help industry improve manufacturing processes for the future. Packaging plays an essential role in this and innovations in packaging and the information it carries have much potential to reduce environmental impacts and increase productivity.

“This event is a unique opportunity for manufacturers to work side by side with packaging and machinery suppliers in a pre-competitive space and help shape and drive the innovation agenda in food and drink.”

Martin Howarth, director of the NCEFE at Sheffield Hallam, adds, “The new centre prides itself on its links with local businesses, and can also boast enormous strength and flexibility in its packaging design expertise. This event works with partners to identify projects that build on our early successes as a centre and explore areas of shared practice and innovation.”