IN Brief:
- TraceGains and Esko have demonstrated a Source-to-Shelf workflow that moved a product change into finished packaging within 48 hours.
- The Big Easy project connected product development, compliance, packaging artwork, approvals, and production workflows.
- The approach is positioned for food and beverage manufacturers facing reformulation, PPWR, sustainability, and ingredient-supply pressure.
TraceGains and Esko have demonstrated a connected Source-to-Shelf workflow that moved a product change from concept to finished, shelf-ready packaging within 48 hours.
The demonstration was delivered through The Big Easy project at Esko World in New Orleans, using a fictional product update to reflect a familiar operating challenge in food and beverage manufacturing. The project involved reformulating a product, updating label and nutritional information, redesigning packaging, approving artwork, and delivering finished pouches inside two days.
A new ingredient was added to create a flavour change, after which the product and packaging update moved through connected data, AI-enabled workflows, artwork management, review, approval, and production. Finished pouches were delivered to event attendees within the 48-hour window, showing how quickly product, compliance, and packaging processes can move when the underlying data is aligned.
The operational significance sits in the connection between product data and packaging execution. Reformulation rarely affects only the recipe. It can change ingredient declarations, nutrition panels, allergen information, product claims, supplier documents, pack formats, artwork, barcodes, sustainability statements, and market-specific compliance requirements. When those elements are managed in separate systems, speed and confidence both suffer.
Paul Bradley, Senior Director of Product Marketing at TraceGains, said food and beverage manufacturers are increasingly treating reformulation and packaging change as strategic necessities. “Companies regularly adjust recipes to address changing consumer preferences, evolving regulations, sustainability commitments, ingredient shortages and cost pressures. These projects can often become trapped in fragmented workflows, with teams working across disconnected systems and datasets.”
The approach is especially relevant as manufacturers prepare for the EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation. PPWR will require many businesses to review materials, formats, recyclability, labelling, and sustainability claims. Those changes may also trigger product and specification updates where packaging claims, pack size, ingredient declarations, or market requirements are linked.
The regulatory pressure around packaging is already visible across the wider manufacturing base. European debate over contact-sensitive plastics and PPWR implementation has placed reuse systems, documentation, food-contact materials, and compliance standards higher on the industrial agenda. Packaging workflow is becoming a supply chain issue rather than a design-office issue, because manufacturers will need to make more changes across more markets with stronger evidence.
The Big Easy project used the TraceGains network alongside Esko packaging and artwork management tools to maintain a continuous flow of trusted information from sourcing and product specifications through to packaging execution. That single source of truth sits at the core of the Source-to-Shelf model. When product information changes, the packaging content and approval process need to change with it, without teams manually reconciling conflicting data.
Jan De Roeck, Esko Marketing Director, said the pace of change facing brands is increasing. “Whether the driver is new regulation, sustainability commitments, supply chain disruption or changing consumer expectations, companies need packaging processes that can keep up,” he said. “The Big Easy demonstrated how rapidly brands can move from change to execution when packaging workflows are connected to trusted product and compliance data.”
The industry problem is not a lack of data. Product, supplier, compliance, artwork, and production data often sit in separate tools owned by separate teams. A regulatory update may start in compliance, a material substitution in procurement, a reformulation in R&D, and a packaging change in artwork management. Each function can move quickly on its own while the total process remains slow.
Source-to-Shelf is intended to remove that handoff drag. If supplier documentation, approved specifications, ingredient data, claims, label content, artwork, and production workflows remain aligned, companies can reduce rework and avoid late-stage errors. That is especially valuable where products move across multiple markets with different regulatory, language, and labelling requirements.
The 48-hour timeline is not a normal benchmark for every product change. Complex reformulations, validation requirements, retailer approvals, sensory testing, shelf-life work, and market-specific rules will still take time. The value lies in removing avoidable delay from the parts of the process that should not be slow: data transfer, artwork update, review routing, and approval evidence.
Packaging is becoming one of the most visible points where supply chain, compliance, and brand execution meet. Ingredient shortages, sustainability targets, retailer requirements, and regulation all create change pressure. Businesses that can execute those changes accurately will have more room to respond to disruption and market opportunity. Those still relying on disconnected spreadsheets, artwork emails, and manual checks will find every update more expensive than it needs to be.
