Worldwide interest in the wide range of innovative packaging technology at Interpack was never really in doubt. But the fact that the expected visitor total of 165,000 for the event in Düsseldorf, Germany event was exceeded by more than 10,000 indicates the exhibition and its 2,600 exhibitors have managed to strike the right image. This year the packaging sector excelled in longer shelf life attributes, improved convenience for fillers as well as consumers, and even more attention to food safety. Latest developments included a fascinating introduction to radio frequency identification (RFID) for food chain traceability. This technology is based on individual electronic chips for each food package (see below). The difference to barcoding is not only that the chips are much smaller but also that RFID chips can be scanned from a considerable distance and, for instance, a whole warehouse shelf can be recorded at the same time for batch processing.
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