The EU demands that bottles and caps become inseparable from the summer of 2024. Food manufacturers are gradually adapting their products on the basis of this regulation. This irritates the consumer. But dairy companies and co are also struggling with it.
For disposable plastic containers with a capacity of up to three litres, the closures must be firmly attached to the bottle, packaging, etc.! This is regulated in an EU regulation that will come into force in July 2024 and will make consumers and manufacturers shake their heads. Especially among customers, there is agreement: “The thing is totally impractical.”
The bottlers of milk, soft drinks, mineral water and co. have no choice, they have to meet the requirements and are gradually converting their systems, which is also noticeable on the supermarket shelves.
“The caps should no longer be lying around, they should remain on the packaging,” explains Josef Braunshofer, CEO of Berglandmilch. Austria’s largest dairy, which has been affected by milk, lattella and also PET bottles for whipped cream and Milchtraum products, is getting a lot of feedback from customers about the change – and it’s anything but positive.
“When drinking, she constantly interferes”
“If I want to empty something from the milk carton, I somehow stabilize the cap, but it’s a constant nuisance when I drink – that doesn’t increase comfort or heels,” says the manager ruefully. And further: “We had to explain a lot. Many people think we came up with that.’ Braunshofer says of the EU: ‘I don’t know if the MPs have thought it through to the end.’
According to Berglandmilch’s boss, the demand is costing the food industry in Europe “an insane amount”. The closures and machines they produce had to be redesigned and built.
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
