Through the Line: Packaging and Processing

How do you turn a sprawling, 18-hall European trade show into something you can actually navigate from your desk? Associate Editor Casey Flanagan and Editor-in-Chief Derek Teal break down how they turned their interpack coverage into an interactive, category-organized report spanning labeling and traceability, confectionary and baking, inspection and detection, and more. They discuss the "Not...

How do you package a $10 eye cream and a heavy glass jar in the same box without shipping air or breaking anything? Kate Kollerer, chief operations and technology officer at Face Reality, and Fiona Lowbridge, chief commercial officer at ALOM, discuss how the acne skincare brand tackled over-packaging across its 60+ SKU professional and B2B/B2C business. They walk through the dimensional packaging...

PMMI Media Group's chief editors, Liz Cuneo, Derrick Teal, Matt Reynolds, and Sean Riley sit down to discuss RFID's move to the case level, Kikkoman's new Wisconsin plant, and why changeover now outranks speed.

Why do perfectly good pre-printed labels end up in the incinerator by the thousands—and why doesn't anyone treat it as a sustainability problem? This episode unpacks the structural flaw behind label waste in regulated healthcare packaging, where batch-printed inventory rarely matches high-mix, low-volume production reality. It introduces the Label Waste Index, a site-level audit tool that sep...

How do you scale almond processing throughput by 70% without cracking a single delicate kernel? This episode explores Almondco's Project Optimize, a 10,000-square-meter facility expansion built around six custom Flexicon tubular cable conveyors, food-grade surge hoppers, and vibratory feeders that keep almonds moving gently between processing stages. It traces how Flexicon's scope grew f...

What happens when data-dense 2D codes push up against the packaging line speeds brands can't afford to slow down? Chief Editor Matt Reynolds and Senior Editor Anne Marie Mohan preview the coding, marking, and labeling innovations heading to PACK EXPO International, tracing what they saw at PACK EXPO Las Vegas and Interpack Düsseldorf. Reynolds breaks down how print heads, inks, and vision sys...

PMMI Media Group's chief editors, Liz Cuneo, Derrick Teal, Matt Reynolds, and Sean Riley sit down to  discuss a new scratch & sniff package, sustainable energy systems, and using AI fluency as a job hook. 

What's driving the pharmaceutical industry's forecasted addition of 19,000 jobs by 2034? An aging population, breakthrough therapeutics, and a push to reshore production are fueling major growth in domestic pharma manufacturing. While data science and cybersecurity roles are growing fastest, high-volume positions like packaging operators and chemists remain essential, and employers are r...

What does it take for food manufacturers to move beyond checking regulatory boxes and into a fully data-driven food safety program? This episode breaks down FDA's 2026 priorities under its reorganized Human Foods Program, from tighter scrutiny of validated preventive controls to expanded traceability recordkeeping for high-risk foods. It covers the agency's growing focus on root cause an...

What if sustainable packaging no longer meant giving something up—no slower lines, no sacrificed shelf life, no compromise? Editor-in-Chief Matt Reynolds and Senior Editor Anne Marie Mohan preview the sustainability, materials, and equipment trends set to define PACK EXPO International in Chicago this October. Mohan shares standout innovations from recyclable pharma blisters to high-barrier paper...

What if the best healthcare packaging is the packaging no one notices? Editor-in-Chief Liz Cuneo sits down with Melissa Carter, Principal Director of Service Innovation at Abbott Cancer Diagnostics, to discuss the process of designing sample collection kits for phlebotomists, pathologists, and patients screening themselves at home for the first time. Carter traces a career path that ran from groce...

Most pump damage doesn't happen while the pump is running. So where does it happen—and what does that mean for how a pump should be designed? Advances in hygienic pump designs are helping food and beverage processors improve sanitation, reduce downtime, and lower total cost of ownership while protecting product quality and supporting increasingly demanding production environments. This is an...

Green has signaled olive oil on shelf for generations. So why did Deoleo put its extra virgin in a blue bottle? Senior Editor Anne Marie Mohan sits down with Daniele Pucchi, Global R&D Packaging Manager for global olive oil producer Deoleo, and Jose Bonache, Corporate Affairs & Communications Director for the company. They discuss  Deoleo’s approach to packaging innovation, sustainability,...

Why do rule-based inspection systems keep flagging perfectly good pharmaceutical packages as defective? AI-based vision inspection is replacing rigid, rule-based systems on pharma packaging lines, cutting false rejects by learning to tell normal variation from true defects. This episode covers gains in serialization verification and environmental adaptability, plus how these systems are increasing...

Why are more food and beverage processors mixing refrigerants instead of picking just one? As food processors rethink cooling from the ground up, ammonia, CO₂, and nitrogen technologies are each carving out distinct roles in faster, smarter, and more sustainable refrigeration systems. This is an AI-generated podcast episode. Read the full featured article on ProFood World .

What does it take to move a bestselling supplement out of plastic and into paper, without consumers thinking they got a counterfeit? Senior editor Anne Marie Mohan talks with Eric Bell, principal packaging scientist at Nestlé, about the two-year journey behind Vital Proteins' switch from an HDPE container to the GPI Bordio paperboard canister. He walks through the scuffing and distribution ch...

What does it take to make medical waste disposal safer, faster, and completely mess-free? Editor-in-Chief Liz Cuneo talks with Ashleigh Hotz of SmartSolv and Victoria Robinson of Safetec about the water-soluble, biodegradable packaging behind Safetec's drop-in solidifier pouches, which let OR workers skip the cutting, measuring, and pouring that traditional packets require. They discuss how t...

How can food manufacturers scale innovation and reformulation efforts when a growing patchwork of state-level ingredient bans is reshaping what they can put on shelves? Food manufacturers are using digital twin technology, artificial intelligence, and advanced automation to reformulate products and maintain profitability as state legislatures ban synthetic dyes and additives like Red No. 40 and Ye...

What happens when sustainability moves from a late-stage checkbox to a live decision-making tool? Senior editor Anne Marie Mohan talks with Gayatri Keskar, global packaging material science leader at Kenvue, about the company's sustainability innovation profiler, a tool that lets developers weigh formulation and packaging trade-offs in real time.  She walks through how switching OGX's bo...

How can pharmaceutical packaging help researchers tell whether a drug failed or a patient just missed a dose? Sensor-embedded blister packs, NFC chips, and RFID tags are giving clinical trial researchers objective, time-stamped data on when investigational drugs are actually accessed, replacing unreliable self-reported adherence. The piece traces how this shift is improving data integrity and part...

What happens when decades-old lean manufacturing principles collide with today's machine learning push in food and beverage plants? Industry experts break down why data standardization, not model-building, is the real bottleneck to AI-driven waste reduction, from siloed IT and OT departments to inconsistent naming conventions across plants. The piece traces real-world wins in predictive maint...

How did Google reach its plastic-free packaging goal a year early, and what did the constraint teach them along the way? Senior Editor Anne Marie Mohan talks with Joey Giacomini, packaging design engineer lead at Google, about the company's push to eliminate plastic from its hardware packaging. He explains how tackling the final holdouts—hang tabs, shrink wrap, plastic tape—led to a stronger,...

What will it take for the pharma industry to survive the National Drug Code (NDC) Rule? Editor-in-Chief Liz Cuneo recaps top takeaways from GS1 Connect, where industry leaders unpacked the FDA's coming shift to a standardized 12-digit National Drug Code and its ripple effects across barcoding, labeling, and supply-chain systems. The conversation also covered the expanding role of RFID and con...

What does it take to fix an unstable wastewater treatment system at a facility processing 2.9 billion lbs of milk a year? Michigan State University's Anaerobic Digestion Research and Extension Center partnered with MWC, a Michigan cheese and whey protein plant, turning the challenge into a capstone project for biosystems engineering students. Together, they diagnosed fluctuating pH levels and...

What happens when a packaging engineer becomes a company's entire EPR function—with no dedicated team, no enterprise software, and just Excel? Senior Editor Anne Marie Mohan sits down with Charlotte Ashcraft of Just Born Quality Confections. Ashcraft shares how she built a state-by-state EPR compliance model from the ground up, starting with a summer-long physical audit of the company's...