Packaging is necessary in order to hold any products or things that need to be handled for distribution, for sales, and for storage purposes. The ancient ways of packaging started by using whatever natural materials available, such as tree barks, big sized leaves, clay containers, woven straw bags, animal skins, etc. Later, it progressed to wooden crates and barrels, and vessels made from bronze, etc. These were used by the early merchants and trades.
When tin was found, manufacturers started the canning of food stuffs which they found to be a better form of packaging. Canning keeps the food air tight and is great for longer food preservation. Canning is still being used till today for many types of food products, both in liquid form or dry form.
Besides tin, other materials are also being used for packaging such as bottles, paper bags, paper box cello wraps, polystyrene, aluminium, and many others. Every packaging needs labelling. Labelling is important to reveal the items inside the packaging. Labelling used to be in written form. Later it progressed to printed labels that are separate from the actual packaging.
Now with modern technology, labelling can be printed directly on the flexible packagingconsisting of both the rigid and the non-rigid packaging. Attractive and good quality graphic designs can also be printed on the packaging for the purpose of sales marketing. The non-rigid packaging also known as flexible packaging includes the bags and pouches.
The flexible pouch packaging are used to pack food stuffs such as liquid food, food in water, pre-cooked food, dried food, and etc. Pre-cooked food packed with flexible packaging can be warmed by submerging the packaging containing the food into the hot water. Some consumers prefer to have the food taken out from the packaging and have the food heated in the microwave oven.
The flexible packaging is made from the lamination of flexible plastic, metal foils and etc. to form a multilayer structure for safe and clean storing of products. Flexible packaging is a popular packaging for snacks, dairy products, natural food, medication, dairy products, pet food, and even gardening products, etc.
The types of pouch packages are the 3-side seal, pouch with zipper, and the stand-up or upright pouch with bottom and side gussets. These pouch packages comes with high quality graphic designs printed on them. Pouch packages are lighter than can or bottle packages. Flexible pouch packaging also takes up less space when it comes to storage.