Types of Milk Packaging

Milk packaging can be very varied and the types of packaging have increased over time. The aim of packaging is both practical and commercial, which means there is much for packaging suppliers to think about. It must carry the milk and keep it fresh, while keeping the cost down and marketing the product. Glass bottles, cardboard cartons and plastic bottles are all used as milk packaging. There are three main types of milk in the UK, skimmed milk (low fat), full fat milk, and semi-skimmed, which is in between skimmed and full fat. Packaging needs to tell customers which type of milk a particular bottle or carton is.

Glass Bottles

Glass bottles are the traditional milk packaging. They originally had necks that started relatively low on the bottle, although these have now developed to they are narrower and shorter. The lettering appears directly on the bottle. This was originally built into the bottles during manufacturing, but were then started to be painted on directly. This was due to painting the lettering being cheaper while also allowing for stronger marketing. The main advantage of using glass bottles for the packaging of milk is the cost; it is generally cheaper. These days they are most commonly used where milk is delivered directly to people’s homes. The colour of bottle lids signifies the type of milk. With glass bottles, a blue and silver lid is skimmed milk, red and silver is semi-skimmed and silver is whole milk.

Milk Cartons

Cardboard milk cartons came along later than glass bottles, with the main benefit being marketing. It is easier to get more information onto packaging as it is essentially one large label. The entire carton can be printed on if necessary. This gives marketers more licence; they can basically do what they want. Glass bottles can only carry the brand and the type of milk, whereas cartons can carry all sorts of information. They can include graphics (further branding than just the brand name) and nutritional information, for example.

Plastic Bottles

Plastic bottles have been used more and more in recent years. They have some of the advantages of both glass bottles and cartons. They are cheaper than cartons but can carry more branding on them and be more colourful than glass bottles. Another advantage is that this type of packaging can be easily manufactured into a variety of sizes. With plastic bottles skimmed milk is usually signified by red, semi-skimmed by green and full fat milk by blue.
Milk packaging is something that has developed a lot over the last 130 years from when glass bottles were first manufacturer in the last 1800’s. Marketing has become more important and this has meant going away from glass bottles to some extent and heading towards cartons and plastic bottles. There are also many different types of milk these days. As well as full fat, skimmed and semi-skimmed milk, there is now also organic milk and other variants available. Milk manufacturers also want to carry more information.

Andrew Marshall (c)