The Hidden Costs of Fiber Drums for Food & Feed Manufacturers

A Guide to Flexible Packaging for Food & Feed Ingredients 

For decades, food and feed ingredient manufacturers have relied on fiber drums simply because that’s what their filling equipment was built for. But as ingredient quality standards rise and supply chains stretch across the globe, fiber drums are increasingly falling short — especially for high-value powders like probiotics, proteins, and functional additives that can’t tolerate even brief exposure to moisture or oxygen.

This guide breaks down why manufacturers are rethinking fiber drums, what to weigh when comparing flexible vs. rigid packaging, and the flexible packaging alternatives built specifically for sensitive ingredient powders.

Four Trends Pushing Ingredient Manufacturers Toward Flexible Packaging

• Global expansion is raising the stakes on product integrity: As more US-based ingredient manufacturers sell internationally, products spend more time in transit and customers abroad often have different packaging expectations than domestic buyers.
• Ingredient demands are getting more sophisticated: The clean label and functional nutrition movement requires ingredients that hold their potency and purity from production to shelf. On the feed side, functional additives and plant-based extracts need the same level of protection from oxidation and moisture.
• Sustainability pressure isn’t slowing down: Whether it’s shareholder expectations, customer demand, or regulatory requirements, manufacturers are looking for packaging that shrinks their carbon footprint without compromising performance.
• Product integrity is the constant: No matter what’s changing around it, packaging still has one core job: protecting high-value powders from oxidation, moisture, dehydration, and infestation over any distance, for any length of time.

Is Your Product Better Suited to Flexible or Rigid Packaging?

The guide walks through six factors that should drive this decision:

• Protecting Product Integrity and Quality: How do fiber drums really stack up against flexible packaging when it comes to moisture vapor transmission rate (MVTR) and oxygen transmission rate (OTR)? The guide breaks down the numbers.
• Sustainability: The size and shape of fiber drums can work against your sustainability goals. See what kind of impact switching to flexible packaging can actually have.
• Transportation Requirements:The further your product travels, the more shipping efficiency matters. Find out how much more product you could fit in a single shipment with flexible packaging.
• Total Cost of Ownership (TCO): Purchase price is only one piece of the puzzle. The guide walks through the other costs — storage, quality claims, transportation — that factor into a true TCO comparison.
• Workplace Safety: Heavy, awkward fiber drums come with real injury risk. See how flexible packaging changes the safety equation for your team.
• Ease of Use: From filling to sealing to palletizing, see how each format performs on the production floor.

Download the Guide: Flexible Packaging for Food & Feed Ingredients

Making the switch from fiber drums to flexible packaging is easier with an experienced partner. The guide covers what that partnership looks like with Fres-co, a Goglio Group company, from custom bag sizing based on your product’s technical data, to in-house 10-color printing, to hands-on training for your operations and logistics teams during the transition.

Ready to see the difference for yourself? Download the guide and learn how flexible packaging compares to fiber drums.

For more than 40 years, Fres-co System USA, Inc., a Goglio Group Company, has manufactured high-performance flexible packaging systems and invented dozens of innovative breakthroughs including degassing valves, modified atmosphere technologies, and reclosure systems.

Topics: Flexible Packaging, food and feed ingredients

Guide to Flexible Packaging for Food and Feed Ingredients

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