Does Your Product Need Tamper-Evident Packaging?

Not all products are required by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to use tamper-evident packaging. But recently, consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies — even those whose products don’t require tamper-evident packaging — have discovered that such packaging could preventing product theft or counterfeiting. Could your product similarly benefit from tamper-evident packaging features?

Why use tamper-evident packaging?

The 1982 Tylenol cyanide poisonings rudely awakened CPG providers to the need for tamper-evident packaging. This tragic case forever changed not only the pharmaceutical industry but also the packaged food and packaging industries as federal regulations swiftly followed to help ensure consumer safety.

While the need for tamper-evident packaging for food and drug products is obvious from the tragedy of the Tylenol poisonings, a less obvious need for tamper-evident packaging arises for other consumer goods that are often targeted by counterfeiters. Counterfeit goods crop up in nearly every product category, from pharmaceuticals to electronics to handbags to liquor. Skilled counterfeiters can duplicate a product so precisely that the end consumer cannot tell the difference between the real product and the fake.

Types of tamper-evident packaging

Tamper-evident packaging is continually evolving as new technologies and techniques are developed. Tamper-evident packaging can include features as simple as a foil seal on a bottle of medication or banded shrink wrap around the cap. But technology has provided increasingly sophisticated tamper-evident features — not just for consumer protection but also protection of a company’s brand by thwarting counterfeiting.

Packaging industry analysts, such as MarketsandMarkets, forecast a growing demand for anti-counterfeit and anti-tamper packaging solutions over the next three to five years. These solutions include the use of innovations such as these:

• security features, such as tamper-evident sleeve labels;
• invisible chemical markers (called taggants) embedded in packaging materials;
• unique serial numbers to track and trace packages;
• radio frequency identification (RFID) tags;
• holograms for authentication; and
• secure packaging designs, such as clamshells, shrink wraps, and tamper-evident closures.

Protecting your brand

You’ve made a significant investment in your building your brand. Using tamper-evident packaging protects your brand’s value and integrity in addition to your customers.

Even if your product is not required to meet stringent legal and federal anti-tampering standards, it may still be in your company’s best interest to implement tamper-evident features into your packaging. If you do choose tamper-evident packaging, you’ll want to make sure to partner with a packaging provider like Combined Technologies, Inc. (CTI) that does the necessary quality assurance tests to ensure your tamper-evident package features work as intended.

[cta]Have your retailers increased their security requirements? Talk to CTI. We can help you design the most cost-effective theft-deterrent package for your needs. Contact us online, by email, or by phone at 847-968-4855.[/cta]