What to Consider when Choosing a Contract Packaging Company for Your Food

When choosing a contract company, you have to look at a few considerations, especially when choosing contract food packaging vendors. That way, you get a company that cares about what you do, and offers you the best business possible. 

Their Food Safety Considerations 

This should be the first thing that you consider. 

You should choose a contract packaging company that is approved by the FDA, so they have the protocols which are at the right standards. 

You should also ask them if they’re SQF certified, along with other kinds of certifications they have in food safety. 

You should take these answers down and compare them to choose the best company that suits your needs. 

Company Capabilities 

Not every packaging company is equal, with each one exceeding in one kind of packaging or the other. Some companies are good at one kind of packaging, but then are bad at another. 

You want to choose one that fits the specific needs your company has. 

Some packaging companies do offer manufacturing food, others storage, others both and neither.  If you have specific company needs, you should also write these down and choose them when looking at a food packaging company.

You should also figure out any special requirements that you might have, and if there are needs, you choose a company that fits those needs. 

Location 

You should choose the company that’s closest to you. The further you are from them, the bigger the logistics are, especially shipping and other factors. You should choose one closest to you that you can get the most services out of. 

Their Costs 

These companies do vary in price. While there might be different considerations, the biggest one, is the cost of each unit, or per package as they call it. 

Understanding the costs of this allows you to figure out the right costs for outsourcing or utilizing contract services.

In general though, you should try to keep it around $.05-.15 with each unit if you have a lot of items to fill and they’re small. However, for bigger items, this could total to well over $100 for every single packaging.  You should figure out the best ballpark total, especially when dealing with a whole lot of food packaging. 

The Branding and Designs 

Finally, you want to figure out if their branding, graphics, and designs are either done directly at the company, or if you’re going to have to put in some legwork. 

This also applies to the materials and kinds of packaging they offer, along with packaging machinery they use, and any other assistance they offer such as consultation on designs and assistance. 

Have an idea of these five factors before you start putting out feelers for different companies. 

If you don’t do this beforehand, it’ll be a shot in the dark on what exactly you get, and it could impact product quality. 

To choose a good one, you want to take all of the information there, and from there, go through the logistics of this. Look at the reality of this, and which ones best fit the budget and offer the most services. If you get more out of it and a little less cost, but the downside is that they’re way further away than others, you might want to second guess yourself. 

Doing this all before you pull the trigger and make a decision is of utmost importance. That’s because if you don’t do this now, you’re going to regret it down the line, especially when it comes to company packaging too. 

The Importance of Recycling

Hey there; yes, I’m talking to you. Do you recycle? I am going to tell you why recycling is so important in this article, so listen up. Never in my life have I been so passionate about something like recycling. There are so many benefits to recycling that I wish to spread the word to people like me who at one point were ignorant and naive to the waste I was creating on a daily basis.

One benefit of recycling is that it reduces the amount of energy used to create different products like cardboard boxes or packages. Using recycled materials means that some of the manufacturing process is already done, and then it reduces the amount of energy used to create said products. This is important because we are already facing an energy crisis in our world today. There are scientists all over the world constantly researching ways to create newer, cleaner energy sources that don’t rely on fossil fuels. Solar and wind energy are steps in the right direction, but they fall short of being completely sustainable for our whole planet. That’s why it’s important to recycle and to reduce the amount of energy we are using in general.

Another benefit to recycling is that it keeps trash out of landfills. Day by day, second by second, our landfills are continuing to grow to unprecedented levels. If you think about the history of our planet, never before has there been more trash hauled into our landfills each day than right now. And with the way our world is going, we will probably continue to keep breaking our own records over and over again as far as trash goes. Landfills are unsightly and they smell; no one wants to see or think about them, but unfortunately we will have to face this reality at some point if we continue down the path we are going right now. I read on the internet somewhere that nearly 75 percent of all waste ends up in landfills all over our country. Think about the environmental impacts on our soil, groundwater, and other earthly elements. It truly takes millions of years for certain things to break down in landfills, and we are still unsure about what these various items will do to our environment after they’ve fully decomposed. Do you want plastic particles in your water? I don’t.

The good news is that it’s not too late for you to change. There are ways you can start becoming a better recycler today! A good way to start is to do some research into the types of products that can be recycled in your area and how you can go about recycling. Having a recycling bin at home that is easily accessible is a great way to make sure you’re staying on top of your game and putting the right things in you recycling bin. Cardboard boxes, plastic jugs, glass containers, and other similar items can usually be recycled and disposed of in more proper ways, and these are things that aren’t that hard to do! I hope that this article changes your mind about the benefits of recycling. Remember; if you do not recycle, our world will explode and everyone will die. Do you want that to be your fault? Do you want to be the cause of that? No, so start recycling. And remember the three R’s: reduce, reuse, and recycle.