USPP Drops EPS Transport Packaging from Problematic Materials List: Healthcare Packaging

How do you ensure a medication arrives at the proper temperature and uncompromised when its trip takes place by air rather than by delivery vehicle?BayCare Health System, a not-for-profit academic healthcare system in West Central Florida, is partnering with autonomous delivery company Zipline to build a healthcare drone delivery network for medications. Temperature testing must verify medications remain within required ranges throughout the entire delivery cycle, including scenarios where packages sit unattended for 18-20 hours.This is an AI-generated episode. Read the full featured article on Healthcare Packaging.

What do a rash of hacked freezers say about the state of cybersecurity in food and cold storage?Editor-in-chief, Derrick Teal, sits down cybersecurity expert Kristen King to discuss the recent freezer incidents. She says the equipment was exposed to the internet without proper security controls, and that this was as much a people-and-process failure as a technology one. She also lays out what cold chain and manufacturing operators can do now, including auditing connected devices, questioning whether each one needs internet access, and building a culture where employees speak up.

How does a direct-to-consumer package system translate to the retail shelf?Direct-to-consumer brands like Harry's and Glossier successfully transitioned to retail by redesigning their packaging to work within retail constraints while maintaining their brand identity. Rather than abandoning their design principles, both brands adapted their packaging to grab attention in three seconds on crowded shelves, replacing the unboxing experience with shelf-ready designs that told their brand story visually.This is an AI-generated podcast episode. Read the full featured article on Packaging World.

What do Walmart’s automated pallet-building and a string of hacked freezers mean for packaging and food plants?In this week’s End of the Line, Healthcare Packaging’s Liz Cuneo is joined by Derrick Teal, Sean Riley, and Matt Reynolds for a post-PACK EXPO roundup. Reynolds explains why Walmart’s tighter pallet specs are bringing adhesive layer-locking back, and the group looks at AI showing up inside labeling and inspection tools as a recommendation engine for humans. Teal closes with reports of hacked freezer systems and a cybersecurity expert’s advice on response plans and an “if you see something, say something” plant culture.

Why would a chewing gum brand put a holographic serial number on every pouch?Enamio, a remineralizing chewing gum, is packed in a high-barrier stand-up pouch carrying a tamper-evident authentication sticker, a unique serial number verifiable on the company’s website, and a scannable QR code—even though the company says it hasn’t identified a single verified counterfeit to date. This is an AI-generated podcast episode. Read the full featured article on Healthcare Packaging.

A plant that can’t get more power from the grid still found room to electrify. Where did the headroom come from?This podcast episode looks at how Royal Avebe, a farmer-owned starch and plant-protein cooperative in the Netherlands, electrified part of production at its Foxhol plant without adding grid capacity. Working with Schneider Electric, the site paired a new industrial electric boiler with unified power and process control, real-time energy visibility, and dynamic load management across more than 1,000 data points—shifting load during peak demand and absorbing excess renewable energy when it’s available. This is an AI-generated podcast episode. Read the full featured article on ProFood World.

A country that recycles about 30% of its glass isn’t going to hit a 90% bottle return rate this decade. So what does a reuse system that works in the meantime actually look like?Senior Editor Anne Marie Mohan sits down with Adam Rack, co-founder and COO of Revino, on building a refillable wine bottle system in Oregon and expanding it into California with a CalRecycle grant. He explains why standardizing the bottle had to come before everything else, the three return pipelines the company runs, what the glass industry hasn’t said out loud about the limits of lightweighting, and why treating EPR and bottle bill materials as separate policy worlds is a missed opportunity for reuse.

Is it smarter for big brands to pay EPR fees than to redesign packaging for every state?On this week’s End of the Line, ProFood World Editor-in-Chief Derrick Teal is joined by Liz Cuneo, Sean Riley, and Matt Reynolds. Reynolds and Riley break down how EPR fees, eco-modulation, and early signs of state-to-state harmonization are shaping brand strategy. Cuneo also shares what bacterial cellulose facial masks could mean for packaging and drug delivery.

Materials don't usually come off a problematic list. So how did EPS transport packaging become the first one to manage it?This episode unpacks the US Plastics Pact's decision to remove EPS transport packaging from its Problematic and Unnecessary Materials List, the first delisting since the list was created. It covers which three categories the carve-out actually covers and which EPS formats are untouched, why commercial distribution centers rather than curbside bins drive the recycling rate, how densification turned a material that's mostly air into a shippable commodity, and why none of it changes a thing about state law.This is an AI-generated episode. Read the full featured article on Healthcare Packaging.

If a plant is reporting OEE above 100% while living with daily downtime and weekly quality losses, what exactly is that number measuring?This episode argues that OEE has become a scoreboard when it should be a diagnostic. It covers how manipulated baselines produce impossible scores, why a packaging jam is easy to count but a humidity-driven drop in powder flowability isn't, what real-time PLC data exposes that a clipboard never will, and why the shift with the worst number is sometimes the one that actually fixed something.This is an AI-generated episode. Read the full featured article on ProFood World.