Secondary packaging is the outer layer that groups primary packs together, such as a printed carton around retail bags or jars, providing structural protection, case-level labelling and warehouse logistics information.
In trade practice
In food and agri trade, buyers specify secondary packaging dimensions, board grade and print requirements in purchase orders or packaging specifications. Cartons must carry barcodes, batch codes and case-count information for warehouse scanning. A common mistake is under-specifying board strength, leading to pallet collapse in transit. Suppliers are expected to provide samples for approval before production runs.
In a specification
Specifications typically state carton dimensions, board grade, print colours and mandatory label fields such as batch number, net weight and country of origin.