Category: Packaging

Denmark Adopts Plain Packaging

An example of plain packaging from Australia, which pioneered the concept.
(Photo: Taco Tuinstra)
In December 2020, the Danish Parliament adopted an amendment to the Tobacco Act establishing a requirement to ensure that “each unit pack and any outer packaging [of tobacco products] has a standardized design,” according to the Framework Convention for Tobacco Control. This requirement does not apply to cigars and pipe tobacco.
Subsequently, the minister of health issued Executive Order 572 of March 2021 detailing the standardized design and packaging requirements applicable to individual packets, outer and inner packaging and packaging material of tobacco products and herbal smoking products. These include standardized design requirements regarding surfaces, text, wrapping material and markings. Executive Order 699 of April 2021 further extends the applicability of plain packaging provisions to electronic cigarettes and refill containers with and without nicotine.
The measures for tobacco and herbal smoking products went into force on July 1, 2021, and come into full force on April 1, 2022.
The measures for electronic cigarettes and refill containers will come into force on Oct. 1, 2021, and come into full force on Oct. 1, 2022.
July 6, 2021
Parkside Boosts Malaysian Operations

Paula Birch (Photo: Parkside)
Specialist packaging solutions provider Parkside has announced it has placed significant investment in the latest flexible packaging production technology at its Malaysian headquarters.
Demand for hygienic, safe and convenient packaging is growing in the region, and as a result, Parkside has been investing in its production of high barrier and sustainable flexible packaging solutions at the facility. With a 10-color print press, three coater/laminators, three slitting lines and flexo plate making facilitates alongside a new business development strategy, the company is now targeting more categories within the Asia-Pacific food and drink sector.
“After the challenges of 2020, it’s clear that the way we manufacture, process and supply products has been changed for good,” said Global Sales Director Paula Birch, who was recently appointed general manager of Parkside Asia. “As consumer behavior and demands have evolved in the region, the supply chain has adapted. How closely brands can reflect the needs of shoppers—and how effectively they can use this to shape their operations—is set to prove a real differentiator as they adapt their strategies, and we are here to help!
“We have a fantastic best-in-class facility in Kuala Lumpur able to produce a wide range of flexible packaging solutions from lidding films and bags through to next-generation compostable and recyclable sustainable pack designs.
“We are widely known in Asia for our tobacco products, but we are so much more than that. We have the perfect product portfolio to address these emerging consumer trends, and it is vital moving forward [that] we ensure brands are aware of our capabilities.”
June 27, 2021
Amcor Installs Blown-Film Production Line

Photo: Amcor
Amcor’s Flexibles North America (AFNA) business has installed a seven-layer blown film line.
The new machine will produce the company’s recently launched proprietary AmPrima PE Plus ultra-clear and heat resistance films. The AmPrima line uses machine-direction orientation technology to produce films that can run at unmatched speeds.
These films enable customers to shift to recycle-ready solutions without compromise on performance, product appearance or manufacturing throughput. AmPrima is part of Amcor’s growing portfolio of responsible packaging solutions. In the U.S., when clean and dry, AmPrima can be collected for recycling curbside where available or through existing in-store drop-off locations. These solutions also are prequalified for the How2Recycle label, which saves customers time, cost and reduces risk in development.
According to Amcor, the AmPrima line represents another meaningful step forward against the company’s effort to make all its products recyclable or reusable by 2025. Amcor continues to enhance its leadership position in responsible packaging solutions with a keen focus on addressing end-of-life and reducing waste in the environment.
“This move enhances our ability to grow our AmPrima product line,” said AFNA President Fred Stephan, in a statement. “The integration of this technology is an important example of how we’re leaning into our commitment to satisfy customer demand for more sustainable solutions.”
Production teams at Amcor Flexibles North America Oshkosh Converter Films have completed first runs on the new AmPrima line. Amcor expects full production capability by the end of June.
June 24, 2021
What’s in a Bottle?

Photo: Сергей Лабутин
A look at e-liquid bottling and packaging regulations
By Marissa Dean
Like anything in the nicotine industry, bottling and packaging are changing as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration introduces more regulations—PMTAs, testing requirements, labeling restrictions, etc. Being curious what regulations are in place for bottling and e-liquid packaging specifically, I turned to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) website and found this: “The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is the independent federal agency responsible for enforcing a key provision of the Child Nicotine Poisoning Prevention Act of 2015 (CNPPA). … That law requires any nicotine provided in a liquid nicotine container sold, offered for sale, manufactured for sale, distributed in commerce or imported into the United States to be in ‘special packaging’ as defined by the Poison Prevention Packaging Act (PPPA). This packaging, in layman’s terms, must be designed to prevent children from accidentally accessing and ingesting liquid nicotine and must restrict the flow of liquid nicotine under specific conditions.”
Child-proofing e-liquid bottles makes sense. But are there other regulations? I hit a wall in my research here. Could bottles be made out of anything? Did labels and packaging have to have warnings on them? I went down the rabbit hole of bottling websites, anything from manufacturers to wholesalers. The most common theme between them was the conversation of glass bottles versus plastic bottles.
Glass is the obvious environmentally friendly option, but it has more potential for breakage and injury due to breakage. Plus there’s the added question of how to make them flow-restrictive to meet CPSC regulations. Plastic bottles are made out of different polyethylenes—polyethylene terephthalate, low-density polyethylene and high-density polyethylene. Plastic is not friendly to the environment, taking decades to break down, and even then, only breaking down into microplastics.
Recycling helps curb the problem, but many vapor companies lack fruitful recycling programs, if they have them at all. Bidi Vapor offers one for its Bidi Sticks, called Bidi Cares, but as far as bottles are concerned, it doesn’t seem like there are any specific programs outside of traditional city/county recycling programs.
Going further down the rabbit hole of packaging regulations, I found myself jumping from source to source throughout the vapor community, getting similar responses: “I’m not the right person to answer your questions, but try this person.” Eventually, I reached Azim Chowdhury of Keller and Heckman.
Chowdhury is a partner at Keller and Heckman, a law firm that specializes in regulatory law, including FDA, CPSC and packaging regulations in particular, and represents companies in the electronic nicotine-delivery system (ENDS) space. As such, he’s well versed in e-liquid packaging regulations. He told me that there are two federal agencies to look to: the CPSC and the FDA. Already having seen the CPSC regulations, I was curious what the FDA had to say.
Simply put, the FDA regulations for e-liquid packaging lie within the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (TCA), the FDA Deeming Rule and premarket tobacco product application (PMTA) requirements.
The TCA “defines ‘tobacco product’ very broadly, in pertinent part, to include anything made or derived from tobacco intended for human consumption, including the components, parts and accessories of the product,” Chowdhury wrote in an email. The Deeming Rule extended the FDA’s tobacco authorities to cover e-cigarettes, e-liquids, pipe tobacco, hookah tobacco, cigars, novel and future tobacco products, among others. “Now, components and parts of newly deemed products are subject to FDA’s tobacco product authorities. With respect to e-liquid packaging, FDA has indicated that the ‘container closure system’ for e-liquids—the materials expected to come into contact with the e-liquid, such as the bottle, cap and dropper—would likely be considered a ‘component and part’ of the e-liquid, and, therefore, subject to regulation as a tobacco product because such materials are intended or reasonably expected to affect or alter the performance, composition, constituents or characteristics of the product.”
Accordingly, e-liquid manufacturers must provide detailed information with their PMTAs on the bottle/container closure system to demonstrate that the e-liquid, as packaged, is appropriate for the protection of public health, according to Chowdhury. “For example, in PMTA deficiency letters sent to e-liquid companies, FDA is requesting detailed information on the components of the container closure system (e.g., e-liquid bottle, cap, dropper). FDA has indicated that it is not sufficient to merely identify the components of the container closure system but wants applicants to completely characterize and specify the materials used in such components. In other words, FDA is requesting compositional details that will likely need to be obtained from the bottle supplier (and can be provided to FDA via confidential Tobacco Product Master Files).”
In 2019, the CPSC added the “flow restriction” requirement to its rule, stating that the 2015 law (child-resistant packaging) always intended to capture flow restriction. The CPSC “issued notices of violations to numerous e-liquid companies alleging that e-liquid bottles (specifically glass bottles) without flow restrictors rendered the e-liquid a ‘misbranded hazardous substance’ pursuant to section 2(p) of the Federal Hazardous Substances Act (FHSA),” according to the Keller and Heckman blog, The Continuum of Risk. “CPSC ordered these companies to initiate a number of ‘corrective actions,’ including to immediately stop sale and distribution, notify all known retailers and consumers and destroy and dispose of returned units and any remaining inventory.”
Because of the CPSC change, the agency issued hundreds of violation letters. Keller and Heckman sent a letter to the CPSC on behalf of a number of state and national vapor trade associations, pointing out that making the necessary bottling changes to meet CPSC requirements would run afoul of FDA’s prohibition on modifying currently marketed products without FDA authorization. The FDA, in the end, decided not to enforce PMTA change regulations for flow restriction modifications, encompassed in the “Compliance Policy for Limited Modifications to Certain Marketed Tobacco Products.” The guidance states that “this compliance policy provides that FDA does not intend to enforce violations of the premarket review requirements against such modified products [liquid nicotine products modified to comply with the Child Nicotine Poisoning Prevention Act of 2015 flow restrictor requirements and battery-operated tobacco products modified to comply with UL 8139] on the basis of the modifications described in this guidance.”

Fluid Certify has developed patent-pending technology to help address the glass bottle flow restriction issue.
The industry tried to comply as best as possible; many premium e-liquid products that had previously been in glass bottles were switched to plastic bottles because there were no flow restriction capabilities in glass bottles. Glass bottles typically use droppers, whereas plastic bottles allow for squeezing. However, one innovative company in this space, Fluid Certify, has developed patent-pending technology to help address the glass bottle flow restriction issue.
Fluid Certify was founded by Cole McDonald, who also founded McDonald Vapor Co., an e-liquid manufacturer. In 2020, Cole passed away in a tragic climbing accident, and his mother, Lola McDonald, has kept the business going. Before Cole’s passing, he created flow restriction technology for glass bottles. Cole’s e-liquid products were packaged in unique glass bottles, and when the CPSC came out with its guidance, he conceived of his patent-pending technology to allow himself and others to maintain a level of excellence and offer alternatives to more generic plastic bottles.
The material used in Fluid Certify’s glass bottle flow restrictors is FDA food grade and offers flexibility and strength. It uses vacuum pressure and gravity to allow for repeated, uninterrupted use of a pipette. While the company is not currently mass producing the technology, it is not out of the question, according to Lola.
“Cole had a passion for the industry … he had no excuses for failure or blame—he found solutions,” Lola said of her son. His creativity and inclination for inventing opened the door to potentially “change things for the better” as he hoped to do. The company’s website, www.fluid-dynamic.com, offers more information on how to access the technology.
So what about the labels? While e-liquid labels are required to have basic information (name and place of business, amount of liquid contained, a nicotine addiction warning, etc.), the most critical FDA requirement is that they not appeal to youth. This is a broad requirement, and many companies received warning letters for products that mimicked kids’ foods, such as candy and juice. “My advice to clients is to keep their labels as simple as possible, keep it as mature as possible, and don’t use too many colors or graphics kids would enjoy,” said Chowdhury. The industry is “very subjective and competitive,” he added.
E-liquid packaging requirements are many, though it takes some digging to find them and guidance to navigate the nuance. With the growth and change in this industry, it will be interesting to see what comes next for e-liquid bottles and packaging.
Marissa Dean joined Tobacco Reporter in the summer of 2018 as a copy editor.Since that time, she has taken on additional responsibilities, including feature writing.Her skills span the publishing industry from layout and design to copy editing to content creation.

June 1, 2021
Blind Test: Smokers Unable to Detect Brands

Photo: fotofabrika
When properly blinded, smokers are unable to tell apart brands of cigarettes, according to a study by the Sharik Association for Health Research and Alfaisal University in Saudi Arabia that was published in JMIR Formative Research.
In 2019, Saudi Arabia implemented a law requiring cigarette manufacturers to sell their products in generic, unbranded packaging. Following the measure, smokers started complaining to the Saudi Food and Drug Authority (SFDA) about a perceived difference in cigarette quality. These complaints persisted for more than 90 days, starting in mid-November 2019 and continuing until at least March 2020, when the researchers started writing their manuscript.
Tobacco companies denied changing ingredients, manufacturing processes and the quality of tobacco sold in Saudi Arabia.
Smokers in the United Kingdom and Australia also complained about taste differences after their countries implemented plain tobacco packaging.
Previous studies of the matter did not find significant differences in taste, but they highlighted the difficulties of measuring this variable, which may affect the results. The main difficulty is in the method of measuring the difference between the branded and the plain-packaged cigarettes without exposing participants to the brand they are trying during the study. No previous study was fully able to blind the participants to the cigarette branding, although the senses are known to affect the taste.
Remarkably, no significant differences were seen in smokers’ ability to identify their favorite brands.
For the current study, researchers fitted each participant with virtual reality goggles accompanied by special software to alter the visual reality. In addition, the participants wore medical gloves to alter the feeling of touching the cigarettes. Then, participants received six sequences of different random exposures (three puffs) to three plain-packaged cigarettes (two from their favorite brand and one from another brand as a control) and three branded cigarettes (two from the favorite brand and one from another brand as a control).
After controlling participants’ visual and touch perceptions, no significant differences were observed in their ability to identify plain versus branded cigarettes. Remarkably, no significant differences were seen in smokers’ ability to identify their favorite brands.
The experiment convinced participating smokers that the taste of cigarettes in Saudi Arabia remained unchanged after plain packaging. Prior to the experiment, 16 out of 18 participants thought they detected a change compared to the old, branded cigarettes. After the experiment, all participants reported that they had changed their opinion and did not believe any taste differences existed between plain-packaged and branded cigarettes.
The authors note that sensory perception and sensory research are priorities within the tobacco industry because they have direct effects on commercial concerns. Sensory aspects contribute to smoker satisfaction and tobacco product acceptance, and they play an important role in controlling cigarette-puffing behavior. According to the researchers, tobacco companies have capitalized on distinct sensory preferences across gender, age and ethnic groups by tailoring products for specific populations.
May 20, 2021
Taat to Stand Out Among U.K. Plain Packs

Taat Global Alternatives has developed the pack designs for Taat Original, Smooth and Menthol for sale at retail in the United Kingdom.
Packaging for all tobacco cigarettes in the United Kingdom must adhere to requirements, including a designated principal color, a smooth surface with no texture or embossing and the absence of promotional images or logos. Because Taat is a nontobacco product, it is subject to different packaging regulations. The company expects its brightly colored packages to stand out compared to the plain packaging of traditional cigarettes.

Anytime your product is visually outstanding from its competition, a lot of work is already done for you.
Setti Coscarella, CEO, Taat
“We are very excited about our impending entrance into the U.K. market and our advantageous product distinction on the shelf. Anytime your product is visually outstanding from its competition, a lot of work is already done for you,” said Setti Coscarella, CEO of Taat, in a statement.
“As we continue to explore opportunities outside of the U.K., we recognize that the European Union presents a complicated regulatory network, with each member country implementing its own rules with respect to importation, packaging tariffs and other factors. Interest in our product from legal-aged smokers in Europe has been overwhelming, and we will navigate the regulations on a country-by-country basis.”
May 20, 2021
Growth Expected in Folding Carton Market

Photo: Taco Tuinstra
The folding carton market in North America is expected to grow by $2.68 billion, registering a compound annual growth rate of about 5 percent during 2021–2025, according to a new Technavio report.
The rise in the number of Covid-19 cases led to the shutdown of several manufacturing units, including the manufacturing plants of folding cartons in North America. Also, the disruptions in the supply chain caused by the pandemic limited the availability of raw materials and workforce in the market. However, the increasing demand from the healthcare and food and beverages industries for packaging and transporting a wide range of products is expected to reduce the impact caused by the pandemic on the market in 2021.
The market is expected to be driven by factors such as the increasing use of eco-friendly materials in packaging, the emergence of specialized folding cartons and the growth in the retail segment and e-commerce in North America.

May 7, 2021
New Director and GM for Parkside Asia

Paula Birch
Parkside has appointed Paula Birch director and general manager of the company’s Asian operations. Effective immediately, Birch will take up the new position alongside her current global sales director role—a position she has held for the last two years.
Birch will relocate to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to drive new business opportunities in key packaging markets, including tobacco and food, across the Asian region.
“At Parkside, we pride ourselves on being industry-leading innovators across the print and packaging sectors,” said Birch. “I am delighted to take up this new role in a significant growth period in the Asian market and show just what our business is capable of. With emergent technologies and process efficiencies being implemented at our Malaysian site, coupled with increasing demands for compostable, recyclable and lightweight, flexible packaging solutions, I’m excited about what the future holds for us as a business.”
I am delighted to take up this new role in a significant growth period in the Asian market and show just what our business is capable of.
Paula Birch, director and GM, Parkside Asia
Over recent years, Parkside has repositioned its brand and service offering, gaining a strong foothold in the European food packaging sector.
The business is renowned for its focus on sustainable, flexible packaging solutions. Birch will implement this strategy in the Asian packaging market while building on its reputation for tobacco packaging in the region.
“We are delighted to see Paula progress into her new role,” said Robert Adamson, managing director of Parkside. “Her extensive experience is invaluable in supporting the company’s growth and innovation strategy across Europe and Asia. Paula is a shining example of our values at Parkside being committed, innovative, hardworking and never afraid to challenge the norm. She represents the quality of personnel we aim to attract at Parkside, and we are excited by her potential to propel the business forward.”
April 28, 2021
Researchers Urge Refresh of Warnings

Image: ITCPEP
While Canada’s plain tobacco packaging laws substantially reduced pack appeal, they have not made smokers take greater notice of the pictorial health warnings, according to a new report published by the International Tobacco Control Policy Evaluation Project (ITCPEP).
Canada introduced plain packaging in 2019 as part of a comprehensive suite of policies to help reduce tobacco use to 5 percent by 2035.
The regulations apply to packaging for all tobacco products, including manufactured cigarettes, roll-your-own products, cigars, pipe tobacco, smokeless tobacco and heated-tobacco products.
Vapor products are not covered under these regulations because they are not classified as tobacco products under the Canada’s Tobacco and Vaping Products Act.
In 2001, Canada became the first country to require graphic health warnings on cigarette packs. The images are periodically refreshed. The most recent switch of pictures took place eight years ago.
The ITCPEP survey showed that the share of smokers who did not like the look of their cigarette pack after the implementation of plain packaging in Canada increased from 29 percent in 2018 to 45 percent in 2020.
However, there was no significant change in the percentage of smokers who said they usually notice warning labels first when looking at a cigarette pack (35 percent in 2018 versus 36 percent in 2020).
Based on their findings, the report’s authors recommend refreshing Canada’s eight-year-old pictorial health warnings to address wear-out of health warning salience and effectiveness
As of July 2020, plain packaging has been fully implemented in 14 countries: Australia (2012); France and the United Kingdom (2017); New Zealand, Norway and Ireland (2018); Uruguay and Thailand (2019); Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Israel and Slovenia (January 2020); Canada (February 2020); and Singapore (July 2020).
By January 2022, Belgium, Hungary and the Netherlands will have fully implemented plain packaging.
April 6, 2021
New Zealand: Call for RYO Graphic Warnings

Photo: Tobacco Reporter archive
A recent study by the University of Otago that was published in the Drug and Alcohol Review recommended that the New Zealand government require that graphic (pictorial) health warnings be placed on packages of roll-your-own tobacco, reports the Otago Times Daily.
Users of roll-your-own tobacco comprise 40 percent of all adult smokers in New Zealand, according to the study. The study’s lead researcher, Mei-Ling Blank, a research fellow in the Otago Department of Preventive and Social Medicine, noted that the nation had an unusually high percentage of roll-your-own smokers compared with many other countries, who also tended to believe their cigarettes were superior and that some health warnings did not fully apply to them.
Blank noted that in New Zealand, many more additives were included in roll-your-own tobacco than in tobacco in machine-made cigarettes, a fact that was opposite what the study’s participants presupposed. Blank said the report suggested that “new, harder-hitting, user-specific themes on tobacco pouches” should be applied.
April 2, 2021