2026 Packaging regulations in the food industry
This year, many food companies will need to look at their packaging from a different perspective. It will no longer be enough for packaging simply to protect the product: it will also need to be more sustainable, better documented, and aligned with safe and efficient production processes.
From August 2026, Regulation (EU) 2025/40 will apply, introducing new requirements related to materials, waste management, and traceability. For canning, filling, and seaming lines, advance preparation will be essential to ensure compliance without disrupting production performance.
Key changes in packaging regulations
Packaging and packaging waste regulations aim to reduce environmental impact without compromising food safety. Within the food industry, packaging remains essential for protecting products from moisture, oxygen, light, impacts, and contamination.
The new European regulation establishes common rules across all Member States, introducing obligations related to waste prevention, recyclability, reuse, and the reduction of unnecessary packaging.
For food manufacturing plants, adapting packaging does not simply mean changing materials. Every modification may affect shelf life, filling performance, seaming processes, quality controls, storage, and safe transportation.
Main requirements and obligations
The regulation introduces new obligations affecting both packaging design and operational and documentation processes within manufacturing plants. To ensure compliance, companies will need to review materials, processes, and internal responsibilities.
Among the most relevant aspects are:
- Reducing packaging weight and volume by eliminating unnecessary or oversized formats.
- Improving recyclability and reuse by adapting materials and designs to meet new European requirements.
- Controlling substances and technical documentation through the review of labeling, declarations of conformity, suppliers, and internal records.
- Assumed extended producer responsibility by analyzing primary, secondary, and tertiary packaging, as well as downstream management systems.
- Maintaining production line efficiency by ensuring accurate filling, stability during internal transportation, and reliable seaming processes to prevent leaks, deformation, product loss, or rejected units.
Food safety and packaging regulations
Food safety regulations within the food industry continue to prioritize consumer protection. Therefore, any packaging modification must balance sustainability, product preservation, and safety throughout the entire production process.
Some key aspects that should be considered include:
- Ensuring food safety by preventing lighter or more recyclable packaging solutions from compromising product preservation or durability.
- Selecting suitable materials according to the food type, acidity, fat content, temperature, storage conditions, seaming requirements, and intended use.
- Controlling auxiliary components such as inks, lacquers, adhesives, rubbers, coatings, and indirect contact materials.
- Ensuring airtight and secure seaming, especially for metal packaging, where correct seaming is essential to prevent leaks, contamination, and product deterioration.
- Maintaining accurate filling and seaming processes, since final product quality depends not only on the packaging itself but also on how efficiently the production line operates.
Materials, seaming, and product shelf life
Food packaging regulations require manufacturers to verify that packaging maintains its properties throughout the product’s entire shelf life. In canned and sterilized products, seams must withstand thermal processes, storage, and distribution without losing hermetic integrity. For this reason, double seam quality, machine adjustment, and preventive maintenance directly impact food safety.
Additionally, packaging selection must be coordinated with available machinery. At Ezquerra, we work with metal packaging seamers for cylindrical, square, rectangular, oval formats among others… This flexibility helps production lines adapt to new requirements without compromising productivity or operational stability.
Packaging traceability and documentation
Traceability should not be limited solely to food products. It should also include can batches, lids, auxiliary materials, critical spare parts, and line adjustments. If an incident occurs, companies must be able to identify the materials, batches, operating parameters, and controls involved.
This documentation facilitates audits, inspections, and certifications. It also demonstrates that companies are not only purchasing compliant packaging, but are also filling and seaming it under controlled conditions.
Hygiene and process control
The filling and seaming area is a sensitive zone within any food manufacturing facility. It must be integrated into the HACCP system, including controls for cleaning, foreign bodies, temperature, allergens, lubricants, and maintenance activities. Any deviation may compromise both food safety and packaging integrity.
For this reason, machinery should facilitate hygienic processes, precise adjustments, and simple maintenance procedures. Additionally, each product may require different speeds, formats, or filling conditions, meaning that having solutions adapted to the specific needs of each production line is essential to maintaining food safety, final product quality, and process stability, as we do at Ezquerra Group.
Cleaning regulations in the food industry
Food industry regulations require documented, verifiable processes adapted to each production area. Within packaging lines, proper cleaning not only protects food products but also prevents incidents that may affect packaging performance, production efficiency, and food safety.
To ensure compliance, it is important to control aspects such as:
- Critical cleaning areas: hoppers, nozzles, conveyors, tables, guides, seamers, and transport systems.
- Accumulation and contact points: identifying areas where residues, dirt, or cross-contamination may occur.
- Defined procedures: specifying products used, frequencies, responsibilities, verifications, and records.
- Hygienic design and maintenance: facilitating access to components, spare parts, and cleaning areas helps reduce risks, avoid unexpected downtime, and maintain line efficiency.
Food industry compliance in Spain
Food industry regulations in Spain combine European legislation, national requirements, and customer demands, together with audit and private certification requirements.
To prepare before August 2026, companies should map their packaging formats, review technical documentation, identify risks, and plan validation tests.
It is also important to involve purchasing, quality, production, maintenance, and management teams. If a new packaging reference requires modifications to seamers or fillers, decisions cannot be made solely by purchasing departments. Their impact on changeover times, precision, cleaning, maintenance, waste generation, and safety must also be evaluated.
Adaptation challenges for companies
The main challenge will be balancing sustainability, safety, and productivity.
Many manufacturing plants operate on tight margins, maintain intensive production schedules, and handle multiple packaging formats. Any packaging modification may require machine adjustments, validations, employee training, and new operational procedures.
However, adaptation also represents an opportunity to modernize production lines, reduce waste, improve maintenance practices, and increase reliability. Machinery refurbishment, equipment upgrades, and the use of suitable spare parts can help companies meet new requirements without replacing entire installations.
Ezquerra Group: production lines ready for packaging regulations 2026
At Ezquerra Group, we develop solutions for the food industry and packaging manufacturing sector through the design, overhauling, and maintenance of specialized machinery. Our experience in seamers, fillers, filling and seaming groups, spare parts, and technical assistance allows us to respond effectively to the new demands of an increasingly complex regulatory environment.
Our philosophy is based on combining mechanical precision, reliability, hygiene, innovation, and technical support to design production lines tailored to different products, production capacities, and operational requirements.
Packaging Regulations 2026 represent much more than a regulatory obligation: they are an opportunity to optimize processes, improve food safety, and increase production efficiency.
Would you like to adapt your packaging lines to the new requirements of the food industry? Contact us and discover how to optimize your processes with solutions tailored to your specific needs.
