Business

A couple of articles in this issue got me thinking that packaging is hugely under-selling itself and its benefits to society.

While the environment debate continues to occupy and tax the industry’s finest, we see little recognition in the wider world of the contribution packaging can and should make to improving health and wellbeing.

First off, the government’s obesity strategy for England, while predictably placing a lot of emphasis on front-of-pack labelling, also talks about the importance of smaller portion sizes in reducing waistlines.

The industry is already being urged to look at portion sizes as part of  Wrap’s efforts to tackle food waste, but its contribution to healthy eating has not been so readily recognised.

In my experience, stores are far more likely to offer examples of gargantuan portions than those suited to the pursuit of the Body Beautiful.

It also strikes me that the healthy eating debate provides an opportunity for packs to become the embodiment of brands; for example, waisted tins could signal slimline portions.

Elsewhere in this issue, Des King reports that four out of 10 patients fail to take their medicine as prescribed, contributing to prolonged ill-health.

Again, packaging technology could provide a solution to this hugely expensive problem, be it in providing better information to patients or by incorporating electronic sensors and alarms.

So, to promote the health benefits of packaging, I suggest a marketing and lobbying campaign based around the following paraphrase of a milk advert from the 1980s: Packaging – what more could a body ask for?