A Guide to Effective Food Packaging

If you are in the food industry and you want to do something good about the packaging of your products, there are a few things that you are going to have to take into consideration. The main purpose here to make sure that your packaging makes the product attractive for the customers.

And since we are talking about the food packaging, you have to make sure that the packaging your use for your product is able to protect the food items for as long as possible. In other words, food packaging has two jobs to do; i.e. making the product attractive and attracting attention from the customers.

Know your product

You may have the knowledge about your product but you need to see if you can tell everything about your product. Simply put, you need to know your product well. This knowledge is going to help you a lot when you package the product. A few things that you need to keep in mind about your product are:

• Ingredients of your food products
• Preservatives that you use in order to keep the product fresh
• Existence of any allergens which you want the customers to know about

Existence of allergens is a bigger concern. Therefore, you have to make sure that your production and packaging facilities are free of any allergens that can be harmful for your customers. In recent years, there has been a greater emphasis on the food safety. Make sure that you comply with the Food Allergen Labeling Act if allergens comprise a portion of the main product you have packaged.

Protection

Of course you are going to have to ensure maximum protection for the foods that are being packaged. Protection mainly involves resistance from damage and longevity of freshness which the packaging needs to provide.

Another thing that you have to ensure is that the person packing the product should know about the product as much as you know about the product. And since you are packaging foods, you need to keep in mind that the type of packaging required for every type of foods is different.

Budget

This one is an important thing that you will have to consider. Product packaging is expensive. It may cost you 10% of the cost of your product. Adding other costs into the equation reduces the profit margin, and you may not like it at all.

First, you are going to have to understand the total cost of production. Then, you can handover the job of packaging to the packaging team. If you are not able to afford ideal packaging of your products, you don’t have to give up on it. You can do a little research to find the best packaging solutions.

A Timeline of Long Distance Move

Long distance move is never easy. The tasks can pile up and there is going to be overwhelming amount of them for you to deal with. Even if you plan everything, you are going to have a lot on your plate and it could get stressful at times. In this scenario, dividing tasks in a timeline can be quite beneficial. What that timeline can be; let’s discuss.

2 months before moving day

• You will need to create an inventory of the items you have in your home. You can divide things in 3 categories, i.e. keep, sell and donate. Make sure that you have fewer items to move with.
• Keep the layout of new home in mind so that you will be able to know where your furniture items are going to be placed.
• Collect important documents of all of your family members and place them in a bag. To keep them in easy access, you can buy several bags for each of your family members and then place all those bags in a bigger bag.
• Get information about the schools in new locality. This is for the purpose of ensuring enrollment in the next day of moving in.
• Get information about the storage options which you will be able to utilize in case you would need to put your items somewhere safe.
• Start looking for the moving companies. Look for the companies through web searching.

One month before moving day

• Update your address everywhere.
• You will need to manage the utilities for the new home one month before the moving day. When you arrive in the new home, you will be able to get everything running in a day or two.
• Start packing the items which you are going to use in the new home but you do not require them to be kept in their places in this last month.

Two – three weeks before moving day

• Make arrangements to deal with the medical needs in the new place. You never know when you are going to need these services. So you need to contact the right medical service providers in the new place to pick the one that could work for you.
• If you are moving out to state, you will need to update your driver’s license.
• Start proper packing but make sure that you are not packing the items which you are not going to require in the next two weeks.

Night before moving

Although you have been packing and making arrangements for the move, it is not over yet. There are some things that you will need to do; for instance, disassembling the beds and other furniture parts, disconnecting the appliances, defrosting the refrigerator, and packing the items which you are going to need in the moving day. This bag or box is going to stay with you.

Moving day

You will need for have an overview of every corner of the house to make sure that you have packed everything. If you have moved out of the home before the arrival of movers, you must have hired someone to deal with the movers. Stay in contact with that mover. If it was the rented home, you will need to hand over the keys to the landlord. If it was the purchased home, you will need to hand over the keys to the real estate agent. Say goodbye to your neighborhood.

Confirming Legitimacy of a Moving Company

Although it’s a fact that relocation industry is reputable because most of the moving companies are legitimate, the scammers still exist that always tend to spoil that name of this industry through several fraudulent activities. Furthermore, the number of complaints against movers has risen in the current year according to Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA).

So, if you are about to hire a moving company for your home relocation, the responsibility of checking legitimacy of the company would be on none other than you. Nevertheless, it’s not as difficult as you may think. There are a number of easier ways you can check the credibility of a moving company. Some of them are mentioned as under.

Check license and insurance documents

The license and insurance related documents should be among the very first things to ask from a mover. If you are shown complete sets of documents, you can proceed with further dealings with the company.

Here, it is worth mentioning that interstate movers are regulated by the federal government, and hence they can be checked in the US DOT system. However, the local movers are bound to work under the regulations set by concerned state. Hence, if you want to hire a local moving company, you will need to read the rules and regulations implemented by the state where that local moving company works.

To get information about regulations regarding interstate movers, you can contact FMCSA by phone or web.

Check for the complaints

Bad services give rise to the complaints. Hence, if you are able to check the track record of a company and there are number of complaints you can find against that company, you should be wary about it.

To check complaints about both intrastate and interstate movers, you can check Better Business Bureau. BBB is a non-profit organization that works only to develop recommendations about different businesses. If a mover is recommended by BBB, it means that mover works right according to the standards set by BBB.

Check the reviews

The reviews about a company can tell about the quality of service that company retains. While you are able to confirm about legitimacy about a company by ensuring that company works right according to set regulations, you will also need to make sure that the deal you are doing to make with the company is actually beneficial for you. At this point, you will need to check the reviews about that company. Suppose two companies work in the same way with respect to professionalism, price and other factors. If one of these two companies provides cheap moving boxes while the second one doesn’t, you will definitely be able to find this difference through reviews.

To check the reviews about a company, you can look into the websites that are dedicated to provide reviews. Another way is to seek recommendations from your friends and relatives.