Active Packaging as an Opportunity to Create Package Design that Re¯ects the Communicational, Functional and Logistical Requirements of Food Products By Anna Meroni* via Santa Maria Fulcorina 20, 20123 Milano, Italy The packaging of industrial food products is the most important means of transmitting a product's image and taste value. When the nature of its interface and its contents are the product of carefully planned imaging, the product has notable advantages in de®ning its image and product identity. Modern food trends dictate an ever-increasing amount of services: The so-called `functional packa- ging' and `active packaging' are prime examples of this service. The greatest innovation within this category of products consists literally of their interaction with food. These features create numerous fallbacks within all stages of the life- cycle of a product, requiring a complex and multidisciplinary evaluation. The evaluation strategy of services which this packaging will offer to the consumer is still to be de®ned, and still to be identi®ed within the key applications are the interests of the intermediary links of the production process. This requires the evaluation of the semantic and communicative aspects of the packaging which tend to be confused with the foodstuffs, the individualization of appropriate user pro®les, control of logistical and location aspect of production, and a careful analysis of a comprehensive environmental balance, all issues that are parts of the objectives of the European project, Actipak. It is hoped, therefore, that the elaboration of these packaging systems will become a motive to try out a more knowledgeable and systematic design process for foodstuffs, in which innovative technology is used to provide effective bene®ts to the consumer. Copyright O 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Received 21 February 2000; Accepted 20 October 2000 KEY WORDS: active packaging; package design; consumer acceptance; consumer trends INTRODUCTION Packaging is a medium between producer and consumer whose aim is to guarantee a product with a ®xed qualitative standard from the produ- cer and at the same time offers to the consumer a product which corresponds to the illustrated standards, in terms of hygiene, organoleptic and nutritional characteristics and quality of use. To- day it is clear that, as well as the primary functions of protecting and containing food, packaging also has the secondary role of informing and commu- nicating what are literally refered to as `commu- nicative artefacts'. Through these one is able to read in detail into the eating habits of a culture, and the evolving of a society and its relationship with food. This is an important factor in the forming of an identity for a modern food product. PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY AND SCIENCE Packag. Technol. Sci. 2000; 13: 243±248 Copyright  2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. * Correspondence to: A. Meroni, via Santa Maria Fulcorina 20, 20123 Milano, Italy. Email: anna.meroni@usa.net