The Essential Role of Food Packaging in Maintaining Food Safety and How to Protect Your Product

Packaging is sometimes seen as the last step in production after the critical food safety work is complete. In reality, it functions as a primary food safety control — once a product leaves processing, packaging is what protects it from contamination, environmental exposure, tampering, and physical damage throughout transport and storage.

Unfortunately, this is also the point in the manufacturing process where preventable failures frequently occur. Packaging and labeling errors accounted for 45.5% of food recalls in 2024, which cost the industry $1.92 billion. Despite Listeria contamination often dominating headlines, these recalls were three times less common than label- and packaging-related recalls.  

All too often, leaders treat food packaging as a marketing or logistics component rather than a food safety control. Read on as we explore common packaging-related risks and the practical steps your facility can take to maintain product integrity after processing. 

To read the rest of the story, please go to: AIB International