A new report from Business Insights -The Plastic Packaging Market Outlook in Food and Drinks—pegs the value of the plastic packaging market at $142 billion, with food and drink packaging representing 37.4 percent of the market by value in 2009. This segment of the plastic packaging market is forecasted to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 3.9 percent to reach $172 billion by 2014.

Highlights from the report show that plastic was the leading packaging material used in new product launches in 2010, with a growth of 6.4 percentage points over 2007. Most of the innovations in plastic packaging took place in Europe, accounting for a share of 44.2 percent of new product launches globally in 2010

Technological advancements appeared to have helped packaging manufacturers to extend the use of plastic to sensitive food and drinks categories such as alcoholic drinks which could not be catered to earlier, due to low barrier properties of the material. Stringent standards for recycling as well as reducing contribution to landfill are causing a shift in favor of flexible plastic packaging. Flexible packages such as pouches reduce waste contribution to landfill, and are in most cases completely biodegradable.

The full report, which is distributed by MarketResearch.com , tracks recent innovations and new product developments (NPD) in the global plastic packaging market for food and drinks. It includes market dynamics, drivers, resistors and trends in the plastic packaging market for food and drinks. The report contains summaries of novel and innovative products launched in plastic packaging between September 2006 and August 2010.