The proceedings of a conference on beverage packaging, held in Schwerin on 7/8 December 2010, are outlined and summaries of papers read at the event are presented. Topics covered include (1) the findings of quality evaluations of glass bottles, carried out at the Research and Teaching Institute for Brewing (Versuchs- und Lehranstalt fuer Brauerei (VLB)) in Berlin, (2) the results of an investigation into the feasibility and effectiveness of the pasteurisation of various beverages in PET bottles, (3) the return of canned beer to the German market, (4) the characteristics and respective advantages and disadvantages of the available systems for the individual identification of beer kegs and the like, (5) a single trip plastic draught container intended as a substitute for kegs, (6) some recent developments in bottle closures, (7) the activities, products, etc., of the plastic pallet and bottle crate manufacturer Schoeller Arca Systems, (8) methods and equipment for securing pallet loads of beverage crates in place on distribution vehicles, (9) the extent to which purportedly standardised types of containers may vary in their dimensions, (10) the controversial issue of bisphenol A (BPA) (a compound found in the linings, etc., of some beverage containers and closures, which is claimed by some to constitute a potentially serious consumer health hazard and by others to be perfectly safe) and the exposure of beer consumers to it, (11) recent developments relating to labels and labelling adhesives, (12) an improved apparatus for measuring total package oxygen (TPO), i.e. the dissolved oxygen in a bottled or canned beverage plus the oxygen content of the container headspace, (13) applications of near infrared (NIR) spectroscopy in the analysis of beverage packaging materials and (14) the evaluation of the permeability of PET (and other plastic) containers to gases.
