This is an excerpt from the session "Meet the Press: CPG Perspective on Packaging Trends" that Packaging Digest directed at Pack Expo 2010.

PD: What about materials development? Is there anything out there that you are excited about? What about biodegradability and nanotechnology?

Rob Weick, vp packaging, ConAgra: A number of material developments are progressing. One of the more dynamic areas is around foaming technologies or technologies that allow you to reduce the density of the materials as a way of creating weight reduction.

Perfecto Perales, director, packaging R&D, Kraft Foods: The price of oil drives a lot of development in the materials space. Degradability, near nano-to-nano...we've researched some of that in the past and continue to look at those.

But you have to ensure that your products are safely produced for the consumer. So you've got to have the science first.

Joe Keller, packaging section head, Procter & Gamble: To go on Perfecto's comment on science, for P&G that's critical. We've had so many people make promises about this material and that material. When we start to scratch the surface just a little bit, everything falls apart because the science isn't there.

You also have to have an understanding of how it's going to affect the recycling stream or other end-of-life systems that that package is going to end up in. A lot of times you get front-end benefits but if you look at how it might impact things on the back end or how it's going to affect the consumer, then things again start to crumble or they cause some serious issues that we would not want to pursue.

Sarah Grare, director, packaging innovation, Stryker Orthopaedics: We're looking for sustainability alternatives. But we've got some added challenges: Our products need to go through a sterilization process, whether it's gamma or gas plasma or EtO. I haven't seen any science on what happens to some of those newer materials after they've gone through sterilization. When the test methods are there, we may consider it. But as of right now, we're sticking with what we know.

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