Smart packaging has become an active field of research in various industries as the need to track goods through the supply chain escalates. Significant work is underway among various stakeholders to identify and commercialize smart packaging technologies, especially in the healthcare, electronics and energy industries.
Frost & Sullivan New analysis from Frost & Sullivan, Impact Assessment of Smart Packaging in Healthcare, Electronics, and Energy, finds that smart packaging for healthcare and electronics products is the most developed. Adoption of smart packaging for pharmaceuticals, in particular, will increase rapidly owing to a growing aged population in the western world and concerns surrounding drug counterfeiting and overdoses. Smart packaging for energy is still in a nascent stage.
"Smart packaging will continue to grow strongly in the healthcare industry, owing to the intense research climate," said Technical InsightsSenior Industry AnalystAarthi Janakiraman. "With consumers in healthcare and electronics, especially, demanding sophisticated packaging that can detect exposure to environmental factors, maintain humidity, and act as a drying agent, there is every reason to see more products being sold commercially."
One hurdle to commercializing the technology is the disparity in regulations across countries, particularly, stringent laws inEurope and North America. The high cost of active and intelligent packaging, potential privacy concerns with smartphones, and low public acceptance add to the challenge.
Customers need to be educated about the technology to ease psychological barriers to acceptance. Quelling consumer fears on food safety, preservation of packaged contents, and creating awareness on the choice of packages available will be crucial.
"Environmentally-friendly, tamper-proof, and lightweight packaging will be the next step for the industry," opined Janakiraman. "Advancements geared toward miniaturization, non-invasive sensing of packaging equipped with smart displays, and radio-frequency identification tags will lend momentum to the use of next generation packaging in healthcare, energy and electronics applications."
Impact Assessment of Smart Packaging in Healthcare, Electronics, and Energy, a part of theTechnical Insights subscription, provides a comprehensive overview of the top smart packaging technologies, their current and future trends in healthcare, energy and electronics. The study reviews technology developments that might significantly impact adoption of smart packaging in various application sectors in the near, medium and long term. Further, this study includes detailed technology analysis evaluated following extensive interviews with market participants.