Technologies

    The main technological innovations characterising smart packaging are presented in a taxonomy organised by category (active, connected, and intelligent packaging) and based on the needs each solution meets.

    Technologies serving packaging

    In the contemporary context, characterised by the convergence of digital and ecological transitions, technologies play a structural role in the evolution of packaging, contributing to its shift from a material artefact to a complex, informational, and systemic device.
    Within this perspective, the notion of smartness cannot be reduced to the mere integration of technological components; rather, it should be understood as an emergent condition affecting the entire system of relationships in which packaging is embedded.

    Packaging today operates as an advanced interface between product, user, and supply chain, capable of activating data flows, enabling traceability processes, and supporting extended forms of communication throughout the entire lifecycle.
    The integration of physico-chemical components (such as active materials and performance-oriented structures) with electronic and digital elements (including sensors, codes, and connected platforms) allows packaging to move beyond its traditional functions of containment and protection, expanding its role towards informational, relational, and decision-making dimensions.

    In this configuration, packaging can be interpreted simultaneously as:
    • an intelligent device, capable of monitoring environmental conditions, interacting with its contents, and responding to external stimuli;
    • an informational interface, enabling access to data related to the product, its origin, its impacts, and its use and end-of-life management;
    • a node within the supply chain, connecting actors, processes, and systems, and contributing to the development of infrastructures for traceability and transparency.

    Technologies therefore act as enablers of new packaging performances across multiple dimensions. From a performative perspective, they allow real-time monitoring of storage and transport conditions; from a communicative perspective, they expand interaction between brands and users; from a systemic perspective, they enable the collection, management, and sharing of data across the supply chain; and from an environmental perspective, they support resource optimisation strategies and the activation of circularity.

    Within the Extended Packaging System, packaging thus becomes a relational infrastructure capable of mediating between material and digital dimensions, contributing to the development of more transparent, traceable, and responsible systems.
    In this sense, technologies do not represent an additional layer, but an integrated component of the design process, which must be governed critically and systemically, taking into account the implications generated across the entire lifecycle and within different contexts of use.
    Subcategories of smart packaging and their definitions. Adapted from FuturE-Pack project
    Smart packaging: definitions, types and responsibilities

    The term smart packaging assumes a broad and articulated meaning. According to ISO 6608-1:2024, it refers to a heterogeneous set of solutions that integrate technologies to provide advanced functionalities, going beyond the traditional roles of containment, protection, transport, and product presentation. Smart packaging can therefore be understood as a functional and informational extension of packaging, capable of activating processes of monitoring, communication, and interaction throughout the entire lifecycle.

    Within this general definition, three main typologies can be identified, representing complementary configurations within a technological and systemic continuum.


    Active packaging

    Active packaging is a solution designed to interact directly with the product and/or with the internal environment of the package, with the aim of extending shelf life and improving product characteristics. This interaction is enabled through functional components capable of modifying internal conditions, such as:
    • oxygen, carbon dioxide, or moisture absorbers;
    • oxygen, carbon dioxide, or water vapour emitters;
    • antimicrobial and antioxidant agents;
    • gas and UV barriers;
    • heating and cooling systems.

    These solutions operate primarily on a performative level, contributing to product safety, quality, and stability over time.


    Intelligent packaging

    Intelligent packaging, by contrast, is designed to monitor and provide information on the state of the product and/or environmental conditions, without physically interacting with the contents. Intelligent packaging typically integrates:
    • sensors that detect parameters such as humidity, gases, temperature, or movement;
    • indicators that provide information on product conditions through systems that convert chemical and physical signals into optical signals (e.g. colour change).

    Through sensors, indicators, or detection devices, it generates analogue or digital signals that make otherwise imperceptible parameters visible, such as temperature, freshness, or gas presence. In this case, packaging acts as a system of reading and interpretation, supporting decision-making along the supply chain and enabling distributed forms of quality control. It may also integrate data carriers that provide additional product information (e.g. barcodes, QR codes, RFID tags, etc.).


    Connected packaging

    Connected packaging introduces a further dimension, extending packaging functionalities into the digital domain. Through data carriers such as QR codes, RFID, or NFC, it enables access to additional and dynamic information, fostering traceability, transparency, and interaction between supply chain actors and end users. In this sense, packaging becomes an interface between the physical and digital realms, enabling distributed information systems and supporting integration with emerging infrastructures such as the Digital Product Passport.


    These three typologies should not be interpreted as rigid or separate categories, but as integrated configurations within smart packaging, which often coexist within the same system.

    From a design and systemic perspective, smart packaging responds to a plurality of needs across multiple levels. At the product level, it contributes to preservation, safety, and quality. At the user level, it enhances access to information and user experience. At the supply chain level, it enables traceability, monitoring, and optimisation of logistics processes. At the environmental and social level, it supports circular strategies and promotes more responsible behaviours, acting as a lever for the transition towards sustainable models.

    Within this perspective, the value of smart packaging does not lie solely in its technological capabilities, but in its capacity to activate responsibility. Packaging is required to simultaneously address the needs of product, user, brand, supply chain, environment, and society, configuring itself as a mediating device between different interests and scales.
    The integration of advanced technologies therefore requires a conscious design approach, capable of balancing performance, accessibility, sustainability, and systemic coherence, avoiding purely technological solutions and orienting innovation towards forms of shared value.

    Components and devices integrated into the packaging

    Within smart packaging systems, technologies materialise as a set of integrated components that operate directly on the artefact, contributing to its transformation into an active, informational, and interactive device. These elements should not be interpreted as simple technological additions, but as constitutive parts of the design, whose integration affects performance, user experience, and the systemic dynamics of packaging.
    From a functional perspective, it is possible to distinguish different categories of devices according to the role they perform within the system.

    1. A first category concerns monitoring devices (sensing), including sensors and indicators. Sensors are capable of detecting and measuring physical, chemical, or biological parameters (such as temperature, humidity, gas presence, or microbial load), providing quantitative data, often in real time. Indicators, by contrast, provide qualitative information through easily interpretable visual signals, such as colour change, making otherwise invisible conditions accessible. These devices extend the packaging’s ability to “read” its contents and surrounding environment, contributing to quality control and safety along the supply chain.

    2. A second category includes acting devices, typical of active packaging, such as absorbers and emitters. These components intervene directly in the internal conditions of the package, removing or releasing specific substances in order to stabilise the product and slow down its degradation. These are complemented by functional agents embedded within materials, as well as temperature control systems or selective barriers, which contribute to regulating the internal environment and improving preservation performance.

    3. A third category is represented by information transmission and management devices (informing), including so-called data carriers. Barcodes, digital watermarks, QR codes, RFID and NFC tags enable the storage, transfer, and accessibility of information related to the product, its origin, storage conditions, or instructions for use and disposal. These elements do not directly detect the state of the product, but convey data that may be static or dynamic, and potentially integrated with information from sensors or external systems.

    4. A fourth category concerns interaction devices (interacting), which enable forms of relationship between packaging, users, and digital environments. These include physical and digital interfaces, activation elements (e.g. scanning, touchpoints), display systems, or integration with applications and online platforms. In this case, packaging becomes a space of interaction that extends the user experience beyond the physical object.

    5. Alongside these categories, there is a family of advanced and hybrid components, which further expand packaging capabilities by integrating localisation, communication, and visualisation functions. These include:
    • tracking systems such as GPS, enabling product geolocation along the supply chain;
    • short-range communication modules such as Bluetooth, allowing dynamic interaction with external devices;
    • integrated displays or active surfaces, enabling the direct visualisation of updated information on the packaging itself.

    These elements, often combined with sensors and data carriers, contribute to configuring packaging as an active node within connected digital ecosystems, reinforcing its capacities for monitoring, communication, and interaction.

    Taken together, these components configure packaging as a multi-layered system in which material, informational, and digital dimensions overlap and integrate. Their design requires a systemic approach, capable of considering not only the specific performance of each device, but also the interactions between components, compatibility with materials and production processes, and implications across the entire lifecycle.

    The integration of technological devices introduces a set of significant design implications. On the one hand, it enables a substantial expansion of packaging functionalities, improving monitoring, traceability, and communication. On the other hand, it increases the complexity of the artefact, with potential impacts on recyclability, material separability, costs, and accessibility.
    In this sense, the design of integrated components cannot be addressed in isolation, but must be framed within a balance between performance, sustainability, and systemic coherence.

    Core technologies: enabling infrastructures and data integration

    Alongside the components embedded within packaging, the development of smart packaging is enabled by a set of technologies operating at a systemic level, forming the digital infrastructure necessary for the collection, management, and valorisation of data.
    These core technologies do not necessarily reside within the artefact itself, but extend its capabilities by connecting it to networks, platforms, and distributed information systems.
    These technologies include the Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), blockchain, cloud computing, big data, and advanced connectivity infrastructures (e.g. 5G). Their role is to enable an ecosystem in which packaging is no longer an isolated element, but an active node within complex information flows, capable of interacting with other systems and actors across the supply chain.

    IoT enables the connection between physical devices and digital platforms, allowing packaging to collect and transmit data related to the product and its context. AI and machine learning systems support the processing of large volumes of data, enabling advanced, predictive, and adaptive decision-making processes. Blockchain technologies introduce high levels of security, transparency, and data immutability, proving particularly relevant for traceability and the certification of information along the supply chain. Cloud computing and big data, in turn, provide the infrastructure for scalable storage, processing, and sharing of information.

    The integration of these technologies allows packaging to become a point of access to and generation of data, contributing to the development of interoperable information systems. In this scenario, packaging acts as an interface through which it is possible to access up-to-date product information, monitor its journey, verify its authenticity and condition, and support decision-making throughout the entire lifecycle.

    This dimension is closely connected to the development of emerging regulatory and operational instruments, such as the Digital Product Passport (DPP), which requires the availability of structured, accessible, and traceable data. From this perspective, core technologies not only support the functionalities of smart packaging, but also define its role within European policies oriented towards transparency, sustainability, and circularity.
    From a design perspective, the introduction of these infrastructures significantly expands the scope of design. It is no longer a matter of designing only the physical object, but of configuring systems of relationships between data, devices, and actors. Packaging thus becomes part of a broader informational architecture, in which material and immaterial dimensions are integrated and mutually influential.

    However, this integration also raises critical issues related to data management, security, accessibility, and the energy impacts of digital infrastructures. The design of smart packaging therefore requires a conscious and systemic approach, capable of balancing the opportunities offered by technologies with the implications they generate, avoiding purely technological solutions and orienting innovation towards responsible and sustainable models.

    Smart packaging trade-offs

    The integration of technologies into packaging introduces a set of critical issues that cannot be addressed in a sectoral or reductionist manner, but require a systemic perspective and a conscious design approach. Smart packaging does not represent a linear enhancement of packaging performance; rather, it constitutes a field of tension between often conflicting requirements, which must be negotiated within the design process.

    1. A first area of criticality concerns the relationship between smartness and circularity. The introduction of electronic components, sensors, or functionalised materials may compromise recyclability, making material separation and end-of-life processing more complex. In this sense, the increase in technological performance may conflict with the simplification and mono-material requirements promoted by circular economy strategies and emerging regulatory frameworks. 

    2. A second tension lies between complexity and accessibility. While the integration of advanced technologies can enhance packaging functionalities, it may also result in systems that are difficult for end users to understand or use. Non-intuitive interfaces, excessive information, or dependence on external devices can reduce communicative effectiveness and inclusiveness, limiting accessibility to specific user groups.

    3. A further trade-off concerns the relationship between digitalisation and energy impact. The digital infrastructures supporting smart packaging, such as cloud systems, blockchain, or data transmission networks, entail significant energy consumption and environmental impacts. In this context, digitalisation cannot be considered inherently sustainable, but must be assessed in relation to the actual benefits it generates across the product and system lifecycle.

    4. Similarly, a tension emerges between traceability and data management. The ability to collect and share large amounts of information along the supply chain raises issues related to data security, ownership, and governance. Packaging design must therefore engage with challenges that extend beyond the artefact itself, encompassing regulatory, ethical, and infrastructural dimensions.

    5. Finally, the relationship between costs and scalability becomes relevant. Many smart packaging solutions involve high implementation costs, limiting their large-scale adoption, particularly in highly competitive industrial contexts. The design challenge lies in making these technologies economically viable while ensuring adequate performance and compatibility with existing production systems.

    These critical issues should not be interpreted as constraints to be eliminated, but as design spaces, within which designers are required to make informed and situated decisions. In line with Advanced Design approaches and the concept of Design Endless Responsibility, packaging design becomes a process of mediation between technological, environmental, economic, and social dimensions, oriented towards the construction of dynamic balances.

    From this perspective, smart packaging is not defined solely by the technologies it integrates, but by the capacity to govern their implications across the entire system. Design therefore assumes a strategic and anticipatory role, addressing not only immediate performance, but also the medium- and long-term effects of design choices, contributing to the development of more responsible, transparent, and sustainable packaging systems.



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