Smithers Pira published new report which provides an in-depth, long-term assessment of the rapidly evolving market for smart packaging that includes both active and intelligent packaging technologies. The global smart packaging market value is forecast to grow during the five-year period to 2021 at an annual rate of 7.5% to 7.6 billion dollars (6.9 billion euros).

Active packaging is an extension of the protection function of a package and is commonly used to protect against oxygen and moisture. Intelligent packaging is an addition of the communication function of traditional packaging, and communicates information to the consumer based on its ability to sense, detect, or record external or internal changes in the product's environment and information about the status of the product and other information useful to supply chain managers or consumers.

The global active packaging market value is forecast to grow during the five-year period to 2021 at an annual rate of 4.9% to 5.6 billion dollars, while intelligent packaging is forecast to grow 18% per annum to almost 2 billion dollars. Intelligent packaging is the dynamic and potentially high-growth market with developments in printed electronics, cloud computing and the internet of things driving the adoption of intelligent packaging technologies. Whereas active packaging is a relatively mature market in comparison, although there are good growth opportunities for several technologies in niche markets.

The growing consumer concern regarding food waste and food safety is being met by both active and intelligent components. Active technology can now routinely double the effective shelf life of many perishable products, while intelligent packs offer clear signals about the condition of the product, removing the need for arbitrary “best before” labels.