Classifying Raw vs. Packing Materials in Thermoforming Operations

Hello, today I am looking for some help in understanding what is considered a material and which type of material.

We take a roll of PET plastic and thermoform it into a food contact tray or clamshell. Those trays are packed into a food safe liner and then into a cardboard box. The cardboard box is taped closed, labeled, and placed onto a pallet. The pallet has a sheet of cardboard as a protective layer between the wood and the cardboard box. The pallet is then stretch wrapped.

So all the materials we use are:

PET

Liner

Cardboard box

Tape

Label

Sheet of cardboard

Pallet

Stretch wrap

Which are considered raw materials, which are considered packing materials? They cannot be both at once right?

Based on the BRCGS Packaging Materials Issue 7 glossary, it defines a raw material as: "The basic material or work in progress used by the organisation for the manufacture of a product."

Packing materials: "Materials used for wrapping either raw materials or the finished product for protection during storage and distribution"

Based on these definitions I would say the PET is raw material and the liner is packing material? The box contains the liner so it is like an indirect packing material so does that also count? But then the stretch wrap is like an even more indirect packing material so does that also need to be included as one? Does the pallet count as a packing material? What about the cardboard between the pallet and the box? 

I guess I don't know how far is too far..

Its all packaging.

Its all packaging.

Could you explain a little more? This is not helpful because it's a 3 word response to like 4 questions. Thanks?

Here is my take on definitions from your list provided. 

PET - Raw material - Once thermoformed this is your finished product.  

Liner - Food contact packaging

Cardboard box - General packaging

Tape - Supplies

Label - Supplies 

Sheet of cardboard - Supplies

Pallet - Supplies

Stretch wrap - Supplies

Could you explain a little more? This is not helpful because it's a 3 word response to like 4 questions. Thanks?

Context is important.

Consumers think the contained food is product, PET trays are direct food packaging.

Your customers consider your PET tray is one material, specifically speaking: packaging material.

For you:

- 'PET tray': product; 'PET film roll': materials.

- Liner: packaging material for YOUR PRODUCT

- Cardboard box & sheet: packing material

- Pallet: secondary packing material

- Other: supplies.

Hi WorkingFromWork,

I think BRCGS use the term Packing to avoid confusion on whether the standard refers to product or packaging. The glossary doesn’t refer to Packing Materials it states:

Packing

'Materials used for wrapping either raw materials or the finished product for protection during storage and distribution.'

For me I would describe the items as follows:

PET Roll - Raw Material

PET Tray - Product

Liner - Primary Packaging

Cardboard box - Secondary Packaging

Label - Secondary Packaging

Tape - Secondary Packaging

Sheet of cardboard - Tertiary Packaging

Pallet - Tertiary Packaging

Stretch wrap - Tertiary Packaging

You could substitute Packing for Packaging if you preferred to use that term.

Kind regards,

Tony

Hi everyone, thank you for your responses. They all are making sense to me, but I still need some clarity with these questions:

1. When the BRCGS standard refers to raw materials in a requirement, in my case it only refers to the PET then?

2. When the BRCGS standard refers to packing materials (packaging materials for our packaging products), such as in the Supplier Approval requirements, should I be including everything all the way to tertiary packaging? So would I need to approve suppliers of pallets, stretch wrap, tape, etc.? This could be difficult if so.

Thank you!