The Bioterrorism Act influences processors' priorities as tracking and tracing requirements and product safety top the concerns of FE's annual packaging survey.
While the slowly improving economy is bolstering budgets for new packaging equipment and material spending, product safety, in terms of tamper evidence and traceability as well as increasing automation levels, continue to be top concerns of respondents to Food Engineering's 19th Annual Packaging Trends Survey.
In examining the impact the economy has had on packaging equipment and material upgrade plans this year, 21 percent of respondents say they have increased capital expenditure projects, while last year only 6 percent of respondents said they saw an increase in spending. The percentage of respondents who reduced capital expenditure projects this year is 29 percent, down from 39 percent last year.