The Packaging Innovations Show at the NEC this year showcased several cutting-edge new products and technologies coming to market in their Start-Up Village. Here we look at a selection of these products to understand what’s new in packaging innovations and also what to look out for in the next 12 months.

Glancy 3D

Glancy 3D provides the first artificial intelligence that predicts how customers are going to perceive a new product. With only 3 seconds to win a consumer’s attention, holding on to that attention is crucial for business and Glancy 3D’s technology helps take into account the human visual system to compute a Visual Attractiveness Score. In other words, they compute the visual attractiveness power of packaging.

Glancy 3D Visual Attractiveness Scores allow companies to quickly compare, rank and choose the product design that will grab the customers visual attention and ultimately lead to higher sales. It also allows comparison of a product’s visual attractiveness against its competition to get an objective ranking of that product. With this information you can find out who is outperforming you in attracting a customer’s visual attention and how to turn this trend around.

Envopap

Envopap are a sustainable materials company based in the UK which use green technology to create sustainable products that save the environment. Instead of wood-fibre and fuel-based plastics, they innovate by using reclaimed agricultural waste as the raw material to make a wide variety of printing and packaging products in a carbon-neutral process.

Their products perform the same functions as their unsustainable counterparts, but at a fraction of the environmental cost. By putting people and the planet before profits, they create extra income for local farmers, help countries and corporations reduce their carbon footprint and play an active part in the global effort against climate change.

They use locally sourced agricultural waste from sugarcane, wheat straw and wild grass fibres which are blended together to create the fibres of their premium quality paper and packaging materials. These include Envocopy which is the world’s most eco-friendly and commercially viable office paper. Conventional paper is made from 100% virgin wood fibres that can only be obtained by deforestation while Envocopy is made using sugarcane fibres that would otherwise end up as waste.

Combi Shots

Combi Shots is a multi-container connection system for mixing two or more substances at the point of use. Their engineered connector system can be used with all manner of cartons and bottles, regardless of size, material and contents.

An example to consider is smoothie drinks. What if you could select two, three or even more flavoured "shots" to combine to create your own personalised smoothie carton? Their Combi Shots product allows you to do this by just being able to click, twist and shake the product to achieve a smoothie cocktail.

Combi Shots can be used in other sectors whereby a container system is needed to mix substances at the point of use.