With the recent death of the Tylenol suspect, I thought this an appropriate topic. Is anyone aware of standards for tamper-evident seals on consumer goods such as foods and medicines? Specifically, why do different products in similar packaging have different seals? Some bottles and jars have a seal across the top of the bottle under the cap. Some have a seal around the outside of the cap. Some have both. I have not been able to figure out any standards for why one product might have one or the other.
For example, yesterday I opened new containers of oats and raisins. Both were in cardboard cylinders with plastic lids. The raisins had a clear plastic seal on the outside of the plastic lid, and another seal across the top of the container under the lid. The oats had only a rubbery-plastic seal under the lid.
I experience the same inconsistency with bottles of sauces/dressings. Some have a brittle plastic around the outside of the twist-off cap. Some a foil seal stuck under the cap with adhesive. Some both.
For whatever reason I would have thought that packaging machinery and practices would be more standardized.
Thanks. Pretty lengthy. Have you digested that material such that you can address my questions more concisely?
The first seems to concern medicine only, rather than foods (and I could not readily open beyond page 5). Both seem to discuss various methods, but don’t seem to explain WHY 2 similar products might choose 2 different approaches (such as the examples in the OP.)
Perhaps my use of the word “standard” in the OP was imprecise. I apologize. I guess I was more interested in why practices differ.
I wasn’t aware those plastic and cardboard seals under the lid were for tamper-resistance. I assumed they were for freshness, preventing bacteria getting in etc., and spill-proofing. Tamper resistance is most important in medicines because unlike foods, pills are mostly swallowed whole without tasting; and of course, we expect them to taste awful, unlike food where we generally know what it looks and tastes like.
Plus, it’s usually easy to see when a fresh container of peanut butter or yoghurt or something has been disturbed. Although my understanding is that when looked at closely, the poisoned tylenol capsules did look odd.
I felt the same. I thought maybe the exterior seal was for tamper, and the interior for freshness. But the variation I perceive does not seem to consistently explain.
There are some USDA and FDA tamper evident seal requirements and recommendations. They don’t specify the exact method of sealing and it’s a competitive market for the devices that started with voluntary use in industry. The Tylenol poisonings were a major incentive, as was loss prevention from theft. Packages that could be opened, emptied, and reclosed without obvious evidence used to be common for food and many other products. The latter is a big reason we have so much packaging to dispose of and why so often the packages are difficult to open.
And, while I’m complaining - why do they differ so much WRT ease of removal? I just opened a store-bought container of Panera soup. Under th eplastic lid is a clear plastic seal. The tab is too small to get a sufficient grip to break the very strong adhesive. I invariably have to use my teeth. There are other bottles such as barbecue sauce, where the foil inner seal tears, and I end up cleaning it up with a knife or something to fully remove it. Whereas others are logical and easy to fully remove.
Is it cheaper to have pain-in-the-ass seals? Wouldn’t you want to prevent your customers from having a frustrating experience just opening the damned container?
Those perforated screw tops - open and it leaves a ring of plastic behind - are easy to defeat. I saw an article on them - simply cut off the top part of another bottle with the ring intact and unpoened, collapse the plastic bottle screw top part so you can pull it out of the lid. Those lids perforate off the ring when opening, but not when being screwed back down onto another bottle.
(This was how to smuggle your own alcohol onto a cruise ship as a water bottle.)
Pay attention to those rings, though. There was a mention that some third world countries, random street vendors selling bottled water to tourists simply refill discarded bottles with (questionable) tap water. A few tiny dabs of glue could simulate the perforations.
AIUI the real tamper resistant items are thin plastic seals that are basically impossible to remove without completely tearing the plastic.
By the time they encounter the ir-removable seal, the customer has already bought the product, so the seller doesn’t need to care any more.
And for repeat sales, they are likely to have forgotten this minor annoyance by the time they need to buy another. (Or studies show that this is less important in the buying decision than product quality, taste, or price.)