The Fundamentals of Packaging

This course introduces participants to the fundamentals of packaging, with a focus on how packaging supports product protection, market access, branding, traceability, and operational efficiency. It provides a structured overview of the packaging process, the main packaging layers, the properties of key packaging materials, the role of packaging machinery, and the importance of labelling and traceability for packaging in international trade.

Beginning with the importance of packaging and the different functions it fulfils, the course moves on to explain how packaging is structured through primary, secondary, and tertiary layers, and how to build a packaging brief that aligns with product, customer, and supply chain requirements. In its second half, it examines the main packaging materials — including paper and cardboard, plastics, laminates, metals, glass, and textiles — before concluding with an overview of packaging machinery and the labelling and traceability systems that support efficiency, compliance, consistency, and product integrity across the supply chain.