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Food Packaging Technician

Designing, developing and manufacturing of packaging for a range of food and drink products

How this role makes a difference

Food and drink packaging serves many important purposes. It stops contents from being damaged, ensures food and drink are safe to consume by preventing contamination, and carries important product information about ingredients and where they’re sourced from. It is also designed to attract customers. 

Packaging equally needs to be manufactured easily and should use materials that are biodegradable or can be recycled. This helps to stop packaging going to landfill, reduces greenhouse gas emissions and limits litter pollution on land and in the sea. You could be the technician that helps to produce informative, attractive, safe and environmentally-responsible packaging, to protect products, people, and the planet.

Different types of food packing

The kind of work you’ll do

  • Produce sample packaging to a brief to try out different materials and designs
  • Make sure the packaging meets quality and environmental standards
  • Meet with production line engineers to work out the best way to make the packaging
  • Work with graphic designers on the artwork to make sure it is suitable for the brand
  • Find ways to make packaging more environmentally friendly
  • Write technical reports and resource plans
Useful skills
Critical thinking
Skills & attributes
Useful skills
Logical thinking
Skills & attributes
Useful skills
Precise
Skills & attributes
Useful skills
Technologically minded
Skills & attributes

What you can bring to the role

A range of design knowledge and skills.

An interest in engineering and technology.

A natural ability to look at a problem logically, consider different possibilities and create new ways of doing things.

The ability to think carefully about a subject or idea, ask questions and act on what you’ve learned.

Confidence using computers and the main software packages and an aptitude for learning new software.

The maturity to use tools and machines properly, paying attention to procedures and small details.

You could also be right for this role if you have any of the following interests:

- food and drinks

- sustainability

- art, film, fashion and design

£ 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 , 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Average salary per year *
£ 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 , 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Average salary per month *

Data powered by LMI for all
*according to ONS

Future career opportunities

As your experience grows you will be responsible for designing new packaging or finding ways to improve existing packaging for all kinds of food and drink.

With technology improving all the time, you could also be involved in enabling further automation and making sure packaging is consistently produced wherever it’s made, anywhere in the world.

How to get into this role

There’s no perfect career path or ideal way into your dream job.

But if you’re interested in education and training options that could be relevant to this role, you might want to consider: 

Schools and colleges each have their own career guidance plan and can provide detailed information, advice, and guidance on options and next steps.

A little more about the role

Exciting features...

You’ll use your creative and technical skills to develop ideas for improved or new packaging and build examples to test whether your ideas will work. Part of your time will be office based and the rest will be on production lines, overseeing tests in collaboration with packaging engineers. You’ll also work with graphic designers and see your final packaging on the supermarket shelves every day.

Discover
technicians who
do this role

Niall Burns

Food Packaging Technician

Niall Burns
Dani Keep

Food Packaging Technician

Dani Keep
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