Benefits of Differing Materials and Types for the Packaging of Dietary Supplements

Summary:  The document discusses the importance of selecting appropriate packaging materials for dietary supplements to ensure product safety, efficacy, consumer appeal, and regulatory compliance. ​ It highlights various types of packaging materials such as amber glass bottles, HDPE bottles, PET bottles, aluminum foil pouches, desiccants, child-resistant packaging, and recyclable/biodegradable materials. ​ Additionally, it mentions the significance of caps and closures, detailing basic liners, pressure-sensitive liners, and induction liners, with induction liners being the most secure option for achieving tamper-evident seals. ​ The document emphasizes the role of packaging in protecting supplements from light, moisture, and oxygen, maintaining their quality over time, and reducing environmental impact through the use of recyclable and biodegradable materials. ​ Ultimately, the choice of packaging materials plays a crucial role in ensuring the overall quality and marketability of dietary supplements. ​

When starting a dietary supplement product line or expanding a current one, great care should be taken in choosing what products you want to sell, the ingredients used in the formulas, and ultimately the type of packaging you want to use to sell your product.  In the dietary supplement market, you see all kinds of shapes, sizes, and colors in bottles, jars or gusseted bags, whether on store shelves or sold on websites like Amazon.

When choosing the right manufacturer for your dietary supplement, the cost of packaging components, and their associated minimum order quantities (MOQ), will also play a role in the decision-making process.  For example, colored bottles and caps normally have higher costs, longer lead times and larger MOQ’s. This is primarily due to packaging material manufacturers not keeping stock on hand stock and these types of materials requiring special ordering.

Generally, white bottles and jars are chosen most frequently, and the supplement manufacturers normally have these in their inventory.  Since they order these at higher volumes, they are usually acquired at lower costs, and these savings are passed on to customers. You might think that white bottles are unimpressive compared to using colored bottles, but the product label covers most of the bottle anyway. That’s where the design of your label plays a big part in catching the consumer’s eye.

Different types of bottles and packaging materials offer various benefits for dietary supplements. Here are some specific examples:

• Amber Glass Bottles: These bottles provide excellent protection against light, especially UV rays, which can degrade the potency of certain supplements, such as vitamins and probiotics. Amber glass is also inert, meaning it won’t interact chemically with the supplements, ensuring their stability and efficacy over time.
• HDPE (High-Density Polyethylene) Bottles: HDPE bottles are lightweight, durable, and resistant to impact, making them ideal for packaging supplements intended for everyday use. They offer good moisture barrier properties and are generally considered safe for storing a wide range of supplements.
• PET (Polyethylene Terephthalate) Bottles: PET bottles are lightweight, shatterproof, and offer good clarity, allowing consumers to see the contents of the bottle. They are commonly used for encapsulated powder supplements. PET is also recyclable, making it a more environmentally friendly option.
• Aluminum Foil Pouches: Foil pouches provide superior barrier properties against moisture, oxygen, light, and odor, making them suitable for packaging sensitive supplements like powders and effervescent tablets. They are also lightweight and flexible, and can hold larger volumes, which reduces shipping costs and storage space.
• Desiccants and Oxygen Absorbers: These are not packaging materials per se, but they are often included in packaging to enhance shelf life by absorbing moisture and oxygen, which can degrade the quality of supplements. Desiccants like silica gel or molecular sieve and oxygen absorbers help maintain the integrity and efficacy of the supplements.
• Child-Resistant Packaging: For certain supplements, especially those containing potentially harmful ingredients or high doses, child-resistant packaging such as safety caps or locking mechanisms provides an extra layer of protection to prevent accidental ingestion by children.
• Recyclable and Biodegradable Materials: Packaging made from recyclable materials such as PET or HDPE, or biodegradable materials like PLA (Polylactic Acid), appeals to environmentally conscious consumers and contributes to reducing the environmental impact of packaging waste.

Caps and closures are also necessary components in packaging that play a crucial role in sealing and securing containers.  Additional considerations should be taken when considering cap liner types for supplements packaged in bottles and jars.  Generally, there are three types used:

• Basic Liners: Basic liners are made from materials like foam, pulp (pressed board), or other barrier materials like foil or PET.  These liners typically consist of a single layer that is inserted into a closure to create an initial seal and to help reseal the container. They do not provide any tampering evidence and are not recommended for supplements.
• Pressure Sensitive Liners: Pressure sensitive liners use adhesive to adhere to the rim of a container when pressure is exerted onto the cap upon the initial seal. This press-and-seal type of cap liner is designed to remain sealed onto the lip of the container (after its initial application) even when the cap is removed.

Pressure-sensitive liners are only good for a one-time seal and once the seal is broken it cannot be resealed onto the container. Although this one-time seal creates a level of tamper evidence, pressure-sensitive liners do not comply with FDA tamper evident requirements without a corresponding outside seal on the cap. These liners are a cost-effective option due to not needing additional sealing equipment to be applied.

• Induction Liners: Heat Induction Liners (HIS) or Heat Induction Seals provide tamper-evident security. These Induction liners utilize heat to create an effective seal on the containers. Like pressure sensitive liners, induction liners will adhere to the lip of the container to seal the product inside. The difference between pressure sensitive liners and induction liners is that to achieve a proper seal, heat induction liners must be applied utilizing a heat induction machine.

With precise parameters for the application, induction liners are the most secure option for dietary supplements, achieving an airtight seal, and meeting FDA-approved tamper-evident requirements.

In summary, by choosing the right packaging material for their products, customers and manufacturers can ensure that dietary supplements remain safe, effective, and appealing to consumers while meeting regulatory requirements and minimizing environmental impact.