Through the Line: Packaging and Processing

Why would a chewing gum brand put a holographic serial number on every pouch? Enamio, a remineralizing chewing gum, is packed in a high-barrier stand-up pouch carrying a tamper-evident authentication sticker, a unique serial number verifiable on the company’s website, and a scannable QR code—even though the company says it hasn’t identified a single verified counterfeit to date.  This is an AI-gen...

A plant that can’t get more power from the grid still found room to electrify. Where did the headroom come from? This podcast episode looks at how Royal Avebe, a farmer-owned starch and plant-protein cooperative in the Netherlands, electrified part of production at its Foxhol plant without adding grid capacity. Working with Schneider Electric, the site paired a new industrial electric boiler with...

A country that recycles about 30% of its glass isn’t going to hit a 90% bottle return rate this decade. So what does a reuse system that works in the meantime actually look like? Senior Editor Anne Marie Mohan sits down with Adam Rack, co-founder and COO of Revino, on building a refillable wine bottle system in Oregon and expanding it into California with a CalRecycle grant. He explains why standa...

Is it smarter for big brands to pay EPR fees than to redesign packaging for every state? On this week’s End of the Line, ProFood World Editor-in-Chief Derrick Teal is joined by Liz Cuneo, Sean Riley, and Matt Reynolds. Reynolds and Riley break down how EPR fees, eco-modulation, and early signs of state-to-state harmonization are shaping brand strategy. Cuneo also shares what bacterial cellulose fa...

Materials don't usually come off a problematic list. So how did EPS transport packaging become the first one to manage it? This episode unpacks the US Plastics Pact's decision to remove EPS transport packaging from its Problematic and Unnecessary Materials List, the first delisting since the list was created. It covers which three categories the carve-out actually covers and which EPS fo...

If a plant is reporting OEE above 100% while living with daily downtime and weekly quality losses, what exactly is that number measuring? This episode argumes that OEE has become a scoreboard when it should be a diagnostic. It covers how manipulated baselines produce impossible scores, why a packaging jam is easy to count but a humidity-driven drop in powder flowability isn't, what real-time...

How do you put a fragrance on a carton when the embossing die applies exactly the kind of pressure designed to release it? This episode breaks down a Packaging World interview with Opella packaging innovation lead Heidi Graham on the Icy Hot Revive & Recovery carton, where the scratch-and-sniff lives in a clear spot varnish rather than a sticker. It covers why a pressure-sensitive label was ru...

What happens when all that plant-floor data finally becomes useful?  After a long week in Chicago, the End of the Line crew unpacks the biggest themes from PACK EXPO.  Chief editors Sean Riley, Liz Cuneo, Matt Reynolds, and Derek Teal are joined by PMMI Media Group Associate Editor Casey Flanagan. They discuss how AI is turning operational and packaging-materials data into something operators and...

Pharma packaging works under stricter rules than almost anything else on the show floor. So why does so much of what’s built for it end up in food and beverage? Editor-in-chief Liz Cuneo and Packaging World's Matt Reynolds report from day four of PACK EXPO International on AI inspection systems that learn to spot defects no one programmed them to find, closures that combine child resistance,...

Everyone agreed the industry needed more data. What happens when the machines start telling you what to do with it? Derrick Teal and Casey Flanagan report from day two of PACK EXPO International on inspection systems pairing detection with AI-generated recommendations, plant-isolated language models, and agentic assistants taking items off a supply chain planner’s list.  They also cover approaches...

What does a trend look like once it’s a machine on a show floor? Matt Reynolds and Anne Marie Mohan sit down on day one of PACK EXPO International with what they found in the first few hours: a dry forming platform that lays fiber where it’s needed instead of cutting it out of a web, paper barrier structures built through supplier partnerships rather than a single material, a square food container...

PMMI Media Group’s chief editors, Matt Reynolds, Derrick Teal, Liz Cuneo are joined by ProFood World associate editor Casey Flanagan to discuss whether humanoid robots should look human at all, what the BLS projects for pharmaceutical packaging jobs, and the recycling process Suntory is testing on a much dirtier feedstock than Japan’s.

Knowing a pallet of medicine sits in a warehouse in Chicago isn't the same as knowing it's still good. So what counts as visibility? Supply chain professionals report real confidence in their ability to handle disruption. Nearly half also admit they can't maintain full visibility across their chains. This episode digs into GS1 US research on that gap, why standardized data is what c...

What's the difference between a machine that actually learns and a machine with an AI label on it? Editor-in-Chief, Derek Teal and Casey Flanagan, Associate Editor, preview the inspection and detection heading to PACK EXPO International They cover multifunction machinery, how to tell real AI from marketing, and the sanitation features showing up across inspection equipment. Read the full Inno...

Where do you shelve a carbonated, dairy-free coffee? Not with the energy drinks, and not with the canned lattes. This episode digs into how Indian brand Black Poetry and consultancy OPEN Strategy & Design solved that problem on the can itself, using a design concept called beautiful vandalism that splits classical portraiture from street-art graffiti with a ragged torn-paper edge. Along the wa...

PMMI Media Group’s chief editors are joined by Packaging World senior editor Anne Marie Mohan to discuss what producers are scrambling to figure out before SB 54’s January deadline, why return-on-the-go reuse is suddenly everywhere, and what’s happened to U.S. PET recycling capacity.

What do pharmaceutical manufacturers actually need from packaging equipment now that speed alone isn't the answer?  Editors Sean Riley and Liz Cuneo sit down to discuss key findings from the 2026 Pharmaceutical Innovations Report. They provide insight into how automated changeover, connected equipment, and patient-centric design are reshaping what a high-performance pharma line looks like. Re...

What makes a food plant a faster payday for an attacker than a bank? Kristin King, founder of AnzenSage and author of Securing What Feeds Us: Cybersecurity in Food and Agriculture , sits down with Editor-in-Chief Derek Teal to explain why food and beverage manufacturers get targeted, biological processes that can't be paused, and enormous pressure to restore uptime fast. She walks through wha...

What happens when the layer that made flexible packaging easy to seal is the same layer recyclability requires you to remove? Senior Editor Anne Marie Mohan and Chief Editor Matt Reynolds preview the flexible packaging innovations heading to PACK EXPO International. Reynolds breaks down how mono-material films have narrowed the sealing window until the temperature that seals sits close to the temp...

PMMI Media Group's chief editors, Liz Cuneo, Derrick Teal, Matt Reynolds, and Sean Riley sit down to discuss why healthcare material changes take years, what happens to a packaging line after the ransomware is cleared, and why your inventory problem might really be a complexity problem.

What problems is the medical device industry actually trying to solve and what should manufacturers be preparing for next?  Liz Cuneo, Editor-in-Chief of Healthcare Packaging, and Sean Riley Editor-in-Chief of OEM magazine dig into the 2026 Medical Device Innovations Report, drawn from what the editors saw on the show floor at PACK EXPO Las Vegas. They cover why flexibility is displacing raw throu...

What happens when a plant full of flexible equipment hits a problem no one on the line feels confident enough to solve? Scenario-based training and frontline ownership are helping food and beverage processors shorten changeovers, reduce downtime, and improve first-pass quality while building the confidence teams need when conditions shift outside the norm. This is an AI-generated podcast episode....

What if the biggest shift in packaging robotics isn't a new capability at all, but a price tag? Chief Editor Matt Reynolds and Senior Editor Anne Marie Mohan preview the robotics innovations heading to PACK EXPO International, tracing what they saw at PACK EXPO Las Vegas and Automate in Chicago. Mohan breaks down why cost and complexity defined the show floor, from sub-$40,000 cobot palletize...

PMMI Media Group's chief editors, Liz Cuneo, Derrick Teal, Matt Reynolds, and Sean Riley sit down to discuss why one missing screw in a light fixture can contaminate a plant, how particle design is reshaping inhalers, and what P&G's club-channel pack sizes say about the consumer wallet.

Why are pharma customers no longer asking equipment makers how fast a blister line runs? Equipment manufacturers Körber, Romaco, and IMA Safe explain how shrinking batch sizes and high-mix production have made overall equipment effectiveness (OEE), not blisters per minute, the leading KPI on modern lines. This episode covers the real challenges of running recyclable mono-material films at speed, w...