Cannabis edibles are trending – and challenging conventional packaging processes. In this Q&A, Eric Aasen, product group sales manager – Horizontal, Robotics and Systems Portfolio at Syntegon Packaging Technology, discusses some of the most popular trends, production requirements and packaging technology solutions.
As an alternative to smoking cannabis, cannabis-infused sweets are growing in popularity. Though these edibles pose certain challenges for packaging processes, they also offer attractive growth opportunities for the cannabis market.
Many countries and US states are now legalising cannabis. What trends can you identify for cannabis products?
For a long time, cannabis was forbidden and also taboo in many countries. This didn’t prevent people from using it for medicinal and recreational purposes, although secretly. Thanks to legalisation, cannabis is more widely accepted and hence trending around the world. Especially in the United States the market is growing, as cannabis was legalised in 2012, initially in Colorado and Washington. Consumers not only enjoy smoking cannabis, but are also seeking other forms of consumption, including cannabis-infused sweets. These so-called edibles offer relaxation and enjoyment at the same time, and include cannabis-infused chocolate, popcorn, hard candy and gummies. A few years ago, chocolate was favoured, but has since taken a backseat to gummies. In the US, gummies made up 60 per cent of cannabis edibles sales in the first quarter of 2021. Other types of cannabis confectionery, such as chocolate, hard candy and taffy, represent less than 25 per cent of the market.
What production challenges do edibles pose?
Cannabis products are expensive and often have a short shelf life, so consumers only buy small quantities. Accordingly, edibles manufacturers not only need to package small batches, but to protect the delicate products in the best possible way, e.g. via air-tight packages. Band sealing machines and small flow wrappers lend themselves to these tasks. Band sealers preserve the flavour and help maintain a long shelf life, while flow wrappers have been a mainstay for confectionery packaging for decades, ensuring air-tight seams and processing even small product sizes and batches. The main reason for low production volumes is legislation and correspondingly low levels of automation: since the legal requirements for cannabis production in the United States vary widely, manufacturers – mostly start-ups – have to build small production facilities in individual states, which is a considerable financial burden. As a result, they can’t invest in large-scale equipment, keeping the industry’s automation level low.
What about the products themselves? What are the challenges involved in packaging the edibles?
The products are very small and also differ in shape and structure. In addition, they are quite demanding because of their often-sticky texture. Many variants are also coated with sugar, which has a tendency to fall off during the handling and packaging process. This situation adds to the packaging challenges and can lead to package integrity issues if it is not handled properly. An issue like this must be avoided to preserve product integrity and appeal.
Which equipment capabilities can help manufacturers overcome these challenges?
Cleanability is a major factor. Sugar often sticks to the machine parts, disrupting the production process. This calls for properly designed equipment which allows for the fines to fall through without contaminating the mechanical parts. Easy cleaning is another major requirement to keep the equipment and the packagers safe. Product protection, as with all foods, is another priority. Many manufacturers request an integrated gas flushing system to increase the shelf life of the products and keep them fresh. Similarly, packaging machines have to deliver bags with tight seams to prevent product oxidation and contamination with foreign particles.
Product protection is important, but what about preventing misuse by children, for example?
That’s an important point. The packages have to be child-resistant to avoid misuse. At the same time, customers often want resealable bags to keep their products fresh longer. Therefore, machines must be able to produce packaging that combines these two important features.
Speaking of combinations, what about versatility?
Given the wide variety of cannabis-based sweets, manufacturers also need flexible platforms that can process products the size of a small breath mint. As I said, the products can be quite small, so machines need to be designed to handle these small products properly. Machines that can be easily upgraded, for instance, to gradually increase the automation of production, are a good choice as well.
How do you expect the cannabis market to develop within the next few years?
According to a November 2021 Gallup poll, just over two-thirds of all Americans are in favour of legalising cannabis. And 60 per cent of adults surveyed in the US by the Pew Research Center in April 2021 feel that cannabis should be legal for both medical and recreational use. Strong public support and the projected market development point to a favorable business environment for cannabis edibles manufacturers: the market research company BDSA expects legal cannabis sales in the US to break the 30-billion-dollar mark in 2022.
What about the Australian market?
The Australian legal cannabis market is currently small in comparison to the US, as usage is only medicinal based and stringently controlled. This is however expected to grow significantly over the next decade due to factors including increasing public knowledge of cannabis health benefits, decreasing regulations, and growing government support. This is reflected in the industry forecast which predicts compound annual growth of 30.1% from 2022 – 2030.
As the Australian market matures and demand increases the requirement for automation and high quality processing and packaging machinery will be necessary.
Syntegon’s Australian partner Nupac Industries provides such solutions across the food, confectionery and pharmaceutical industries and has been in ongoing discussions with manufacturers planning for future cannabis processing and packaging automation.
As the cannabis market develops, Nupac’s managing director Peter Pontikis believes that manufacturers will need to look at automation across their whole production line, from processing and packaging through to end of line palletising.
With over 45 years’ experience working with pharmaceutical and food manufacturers, Nupac understands the complexities and requirements in these industries, which in turn translate to the potentially challenging products within the cannabis industry.
Whatever the market dictates, Syntegon can be agile and is well equipped to meet a wide range of customer needs with its modular machines concept.
This article was first published in the September-October 2022 print issue of PKN Packaging News, p36.
