1.
Packaging
information
regulations:
How they can affect the graphics and printing industry.

2.
Packaging helps to preserve and protect, ensuring that a
product reaches its final destination in good safe condition.
But what if people have allergies to the ingredients, or
maybe the ingredients carry other health risks?
Some people can develop reactions to seafood, peanuts,
eggs, milk, cereals, and consuming even a tiny amount of the
product can cause life-threatening reactions. Such allergies
appear to be more and more prevalent, which could mean
that humans are becoming more sensitive to particular
foods, or it could mean that we now understand such
conditions better from a medical viewpoint.
European regulations (Food Information Regulation, or FIR)
have come into effect to ensure that all food packaging
highlights the ingredients known to cause reactions in
people. On December 13th 2014 the EU declared that “For
pre-packed foods, allergen information must be emphasised
in the ingredients list”.
In 2016 mandatory nutritional declarations will also be
required, listing the fat and sugar content (for instance)
which can be important when selecting a product. In the UK
most of the food industry decided to voluntarily conform to
this 2016 regulation now.
Such legislative changes can put a strain on the printing
industry because the normal production can be severely
disrupted.
Firstly when the legislation is being developed, there is
uncertainty around what will be required to change, and
when. Consumer Products Companies wait to see what the
new legislation will bring, and packaging development stops.

3.
When the legislation is finalized, there is a rush to meet the
deadline and so a rush to change graphics, create colour
standards, meet demand whilst phasing out the old design,
and so all departments in prepress and printing
environments are put through immense strain.
Then there is a natural slowdown after the event, as new
designs are not seen for quite some time. When Canada went
through its own food/nutrition declaration legislation in
2005 the industry (especially prepress) saw a 25% increase
in turnover that year, the following year, there was a sharp
decrease in activity.
This week the UK Department of Health decided that the
packaging of tobacco packaging will be ‘standardised’,
following the example of Australia where cigarettes are sold
in brown packaging with the company name, product name
in simple text, and health warnings being the only graphic
elements.
The idea that is held by many is that the current stylized
packaging of tobacco products makes them look ‘glamorous’,
and that this attracts new customers to smoking.
Governments typically try to discourage smoking without
banning it completely.
For the past few years tobacco companies, anticipating these
restrictions, have been competing for market share by
changing designs often and adding new features such as
holograms. The thought has been that once ‘plain’ packaging
comes into effect it will be more difficult to move customers
from one brand to another.
Litho and gravure printing presses dedicated to this work
often have 10 or more print stations so that all of the special
colours and effects can be printed, alongside four colour

4.
health warnings. Off-line effects and special laminates are
often used.
This area of print has, in my opinion, seen more
advancement and innovation in the visual appearance of the
product than any other. As the tobacco companies have
looked for new and interesting ways to differentiate their
packaging, they have worked with printers to develop new
effects. It is thought that smokers may ‘dwell’ on the product
for longer, find it interesting, perceive the quality of the
product, and are therefore more likely to buy the product.
The future for tobacco packaging printers is going to be
‘interesting’. Their markets have opened up to include
eastern European countries, Asia is always expanding, and
Africa is a continent that has not yet been served by many
larger companies. However that is contrasted by legislation
that limits their activities (in Australia and UK) with no
doubt more to follow, and so some of the large multi-station
printing presses many not now be so important.
I predict that their focus will be widened to include other
areas of primarily boxboard packaging and so confectionary
(eg. High end chocolate) and high value goods such as cell
phones will benefit from many of the innovative techniques
developed for tobacco packaging.
About 12 years ago the Canadian government legislated that
colour health warnings would be added to tobacco
packaging. At that time the designs used perhaps 6 or seven
special colours or effects, printed onto 8 colour presses. As
the colour health warnings used CMYK, suddenly the brand
graphics needed to be produced much more simply out of
process, or a reduced number of special colours.

5.
The legislation was challenged in the courts but the
legislation went ahead. The industry woke up, with about 6
months before the deadline, and realized that every design
would need to be changed in a very short period of time. As
the tobacco packaging was produced using gravure, every
gravure cylinder would need to be re-engraved. Not only
that, but additional health warnings meant that more
cylinders were needed.
The logistics involved were incredible. More cylinders need
to be manufactured, graphics need to be created, tests run,
and cylinders engraved. Printers needs to sort inventory,
manage the logistics, develop new inks, run tests, approve
graphics, and then meet their delivery commitments. It was
to say the least chaotic.
What it did to the prepress industry was firstly create a
slowdown, then maximum production capacity was required
(with the addition of staff and shifts) for 6 months, and then
another slowdown followed. For printers it was an event
that caused production and quality problems. Previously
CMYK had not been used much for tobacco products. The
need for CMYK images was a challenge as presses needed to
be colour profiled and fingerprinted, and it was not an
elegant process given the time constraints.
Anyone with knowledge of lean manufacturing will know
that it is very difficult to gear up for ‘events’ such as this.
When the Canadian government decided to increase the size
of the health warnings on packs (from 50% to 75%) in 2008
they consulted with the industry. The sessions held were
mostly directed at educating the govt representatives in
printing techniques, in an attempt to simplify the demands
of the new legislation on the industry.

6.
This time around more planning went into the overall
process of design, and complex critical paths were created.
This ensured that designs were aligned so that the ones that
were created first, were engraved first and then printed first.
This meant that the production flow was kept more
constant, with less extreme ‘peaks and valleys’.
This time around the whole industry was much more adept
at printing CMYK and colour profiling techniques had
advanced to provide the tools needed to accurately predict
the final results.
The difficulty for companies involved is that one year they
can see their New Product Development and Life Cycle
Management activity increase dramatically one year, and fall
the next. Staffing and resourcing is very difficult, and it is
difficult on the companies, employees and families who find
themselves affected by these short term events.
The recent European FIR regulations placed a huge demand
on the food packaging industry. Firstly consumer product
companies needed to review all ingredients used and decide
if specific allergens were necessary. Then they needed to
analyse and verify all products so that the correct nutritional
information was obtained. This was then used on new
packaging.
As all package graphics needed to change, many brands
were refreshed at the same time. This ‘brought forward’
much work that would normally have been undertaken in
the following years.
Some designs previously only required a few colours.
Therefore the designs would have used perhaps four or five
spot colours. The new legislation means a ‘traffic light’
system is used to convey food content such as fat and sugar,

7.
with ‘Green’ meaning Low (eg. Low Fat, Low Sugar) Amber
meaning Medium, and Red meaning High.
Additional print colours were needed, in some cases more
colours than a printing press will allow. Colour separation
techniques such as Extended Gamut were used in many
cases. This is when CMYK plus Red, Green and Blue (for
instance) are used on press and tints of each used to make
up any other colours required.
Such ‘events’ due to legislation changes challenge a
production plant’s ability to manage the process.
A sign of a weak system is when, during these times of
maximum production, the process not followed because
‘there isn’t enough time’. Work is processes ‘rush’, QC checks
are skipped, people unfamiliar with the process are used
and mistakes are made, then complaints and claims follow.
A sign of a strong system is when production works in the
same way, perhaps for longer hours. Additional equipment
may be implemented, but essentially it is the same process.
Reaching this state is normally only achieved by adopting
Lean Manufacturing techniques (plus the many tools such as
Six Sigma, Just In Time, Continuous Improvement, ISO9001
etc).
It is often difficult to challenge a process when everything
appears to work fine. However a system is not necessarily
robust if it works well when at average production
throughput. Continuous improvement and the development
of new techniques whose success can be measured in time
saved, costs saved, improved products, must be an ongoing
process. Companies that become complacent can struggle
through the ‘peaks’ that our industry sees, resulting in lost
opportunity, and lost customer confidence. Companies who

8.
continually strive for excellence become more effective and
efficient, make more money, and can use busy times to
underpin their businesses and make more money.
Further regulatory changes are coming, to every region of
the globe, it is just a matter of time. Health concerns, green
concerns, concerns over the effects of products on people,
will always be there and develop based on new information
and political pressure. Packaging is the best, and ultimate,
communicator, and so it is inevitable that we will see far
more legislation affecting our industry in time.