By Helena Moring-Vepsäläinen, product safety manager, Metsä Board
PACKAGING is more than a protective layer. It is a critical part of product safety and brand trust. For food and other sensitive applications, safety should guide material choices from the very beginning.
As regulations evolve and consumer expectations rise, brand owners benefit from a clear understanding of how packaging materials perform in real‑world use and how safety can be built in proactively throughout the value chain.
Trust is something I think about a lot in my daily work. Consumers expect what they buy to be safe to use and consume, which means that every product on store shelves carries an invisible promise. For brand owners, it is their packaging that stands behind that promise.
That expectation of safe packaging, from both consumers and brand owners, translates into a complex set of requirements that goes well beyond a packaging’s ability to move from point A (the factory) to point Z (the customer). When packaging is designed for food or other sensitive products, safety should always be the starting point.
Based on a decade of experience working with packaging materials and safety regulations, here are three key insights I believe companies should always keep in mind when choosing their packaging material.
1) Safety regulations and expectations are constantly evolving
Packaging safety is closely tied to regional regulations, and we are currently seeing significant changes in this area. Across Europe and globally, new regulations and amendments are now being introduced to strengthen requirements for food contact materials and other sensitive applications. At the same time, consumer expectations are also increasing.
In practice, this means compliance should not be viewed as a one-time exercise. Brand owners have to continuously monitor, interpret, and adapt to the shifting regulatory landscape we are facing. It also requires a deeper understanding of the next two points on my list: how specific materials perform in real-world conditions over time, and how different points in the value chain can introduce product safety risks.
2) Material choice starts with understanding the raw material
Material choice is where I believe some of the biggest safety gains can be made. For food and other sensitive products, it is essential to understand what a packaging material is made of, where it comes from, and how it is processed. The consistency and purity of the raw material play a critical role in preventing unwanted substances from reaching or impacting the product.
Packaging materials made from fresh wood fibre, such as Metsä Board’s products, offer a high level of purity and traceability compared to recycled fibres, which may have been recycled multiple times. When the origin and composition of a material are well understood, managing potential risks and maintaining a consistent level of quality becomes significantly easier.
3) Collaboration across the value chain makes a real difference
One of the most important lessons my colleagues and I have learned is that product safety depends on constant collaboration and open communication across the entire value chain. Raw material suppliers, packaging producers, converters, brand owners, and retailers all play a key role and need to work together. Any gaps in communication or understanding have the potential to create safety risks.
It is equally important that all parties share a common understanding of the requirements, intended use, and potential risks. This means clear specifications, transparent information sharing, and ongoing dialogue between partners.
One good example of how we pursue this collaboration and transparency at Metsä Board is our Material Circularity Statement, which we published for the first time last November. It provides clear, structured information about the end-of-life management of our products, such as PPWR compliance, as well as compostability and recyclability properties. We published it because we wanted that data to be readily available to all our stakeholders, and the response has been overwhelmingly positive.
As a product safety team, we noticed that this kind of transparency leads to better decision-making for our customers and for other actors across the value chain. It also helps ensure that safety is considered from the very start of the packaging design process. And when that is the case, we have seen that it protects more than just the product. It protects the brand too.
