Today packaging as a product and a profession is arguably stronger than ever. Tampering, while not impossible, now presents sufficient challenge that terrorists seem to have given up on it as a weapon. In the United States if not elsewhere, the issue of packaging as irresponsible and unnecessarily overdone has stopped making headlines. And, although they will not admit it for one second, consumers today are affected more by packaging than perhaps any other aspect of product marketing when making a purchase decision. Everyone involved in packaging continues to innovate at an astounding pace.
Many challenges remain.
New, highly restrictive environmental regulations coming out of Europe and Asia threaten to do serious damage to the international transport and sale of packaged goods. Recent news of pharmaceutical and food recalls in the United States means packagers will have to be ever more vigilant in ensuring that their use of materials and machinery is as up to date and exacting as possible.