When most people think of food packaging, they picture the box, bottle, pouch, or film they hold in their hands. But what’s often invisible is the science that makes packaging safe, durable, and effective. One of the most important—and sometimes misunderstood—parts of this science is additives.

Far from being optional, additives are essential for modern packaging. They protect food safety, extend shelf life, improve manufacturing efficiency, and enable recycling. Without them, many of the packaging formats we rely on every day simply wouldn’t work.

What Are Additives in Food Packaging?

In packaging, additives are substances blended into materials like plastics, coatings, or adhesives to enhance performance. They’re carefully selected, tested, and regulated for food-contact use to ensure both safety and effectiveness.

There are several main categories of additives used in food packaging:

Antioxidants protect plastics from breaking down when exposed to heat and oxygen. During both processing and storage, polymers are vulnerable to degradation, which can lead to discoloration, brittleness, or loss of performance. Antioxidants prevent these reactions and help packaging maintain its strength and integrity.
Stabilizers help packaging materials resist changes over time. For example, they can protect against ultraviolet (UV) light, heat, or mechanical stress that could otherwise weaken the structure of a package. Without stabilizers, many plastics would deteriorate quickly and fail to keep food safe.
Plasticizers are used to make certain packaging materials more flexible and less brittle. They are especially important in films, wraps, and coatings that need to bend without cracking. By improving elasticity, plasticizers allow packaging to serve functions that rigid plastics cannot.
Processing aids make it easier and more efficient to manufacture packaging. They can improve melt flow in extrusion, reduce buildup on processing equipment, and minimize defects in the finished product. This not only reduces waste but also allows packaging to be produced at the high speeds required by modern supply chains.

Each of these additive categories contributes to making packaging reliable, efficient, and safe for the foods it holds.

Why Additives Are Essential for Packaging Performance

Additives are sometimes thought of as “extras,” but in reality, they are the enablers that make modern packaging possible. They support performance at every stage of the packaging lifecycle.

Food Safety

Additives help create effective barriers that protect food from outside contaminants. By strengthening packaging materials and preventing premature breakdown, additives ensure that products remain sealed and safe throughout their shelf life. This protection is essential for meeting regulatory standards and consumer expectations.

Shelf Life

The presence of stabilizers and antioxidants allows packaging to maintain its protective qualities for longer periods of time. Without them, materials could become brittle, cloudy, or weak, potentially compromising food quality. By keeping packaging functional, additives support longer shelf life and help reduce food waste.

Processing Efficiency

High-speed packaging lines depend on materials that can be shaped and sealed without frequent stoppages or defects. Processing aids help improve flow during extrusion and molding, reduce gel formation, and prevent buildup on die lips and rollers. This leads to more consistent production, lower energy consumption, and fewer rejected products.

Design Flexibility

Today’s consumers expect packaging that is lightweight, resealable, clear, and sometimes even compostable or recyclable. Additives allow manufacturers to design packaging with these properties while still maintaining safety and performance. They enable thinner materials that reduce resource use, as well as functional formats like stand-up pouches or resealable films that would not be possible without chemical enhancements.

In short, additives are what make packaging both practical for industry and convenient for consumers.

Illustrative example of how additives support packaging performance: without additives, materials can degrade quickly; with additives, packaging becomes safe and reliable; with next-generation additives, packaging becomes safer, materials are stabilized for more efficient recycling, and higher-quality recycled content. Additives are the invisible tools that keep food safe, packaging strong, and recycling possible. Next-gen solution: Doverphos® LGP-12 — Antioxidant + Processing Aid.

Balancing Additives and Safety

Because additives are present in materials that come into direct contact with food, their safety is carefully monitored.

Regulatory Oversight

Every additive intended for food-contact use must be evaluated and approved by regulatory authorities such as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). These agencies set clear specifications for how additives may be used, including concentration limits and conditions of use.

Migration Concerns

A central focus of regulation is migration—the movement of small amounts of additives from packaging into food. While all packaging has the potential for some migration, regulators establish strict limits to ensure it remains well within safe levels. Manufacturers conduct extensive testing to confirm compliance with these standards.

Consumer Trust

Consumers may sometimes view additives with suspicion, equating them with unnecessary chemicals. In reality, additives are safeguards that preserve food safety, extend freshness, and make packaging recyclable. Greater transparency about the role of additives helps shift perceptions, showing that these substances are not hidden dangers but critical enablers of food quality and safety.

Additives in the Circular Economy

As the packaging industry works toward a circular economy, additives play a vital role in ensuring that recycled materials can be safely and effectively reused.

Migration Profile

Low-migration additives reduce the likelihood that substances will transfer into recycled resins, making it easier to reuse those resins in food-contact applications. This directly supports industry goals to increase post-consumer recycled (PCR) content.

Stability During Reprocessing

Recycled plastics go through multiple heating and cooling cycles during collection and reprocessing. Without stabilizers and antioxidants, polymers can degrade quickly, resulting in weaker materials that cannot be used for demanding applications. Additives help maintain the quality of recycled resins, allowing them to perform similarly to virgin materials.

Regulatory Confidence

By using food-contact-approved additives, converters and brand owners can ensure that packaging with recycled content continues to meet safety standards. This regulatory assurance is essential for expanding the use of recycled materials in food packaging.

Doverphos® LGP-12: A Next-Generation Additive

Doverphos® LGP-12 is a polymeric phosphite antioxidant developed by Dover Chemical to meet the performance, safety, and sustainability demands of modern packaging.

Polymeric Structure = Low Migration

Unlike traditional small-molecule additives, LGP-12 has a large polymeric structure that makes it far less likely to migrate into food. This design improves compliance with migration limits and supports safer use of recycled plastics.

Dual Functionality

LGP-12 acts as both an antioxidant and a processing aid. This means it not only protects polymers during processing but also enhances efficiency by improving melt flow and reducing die buildup. The result is higher productivity with fewer interruptions.

Supports Circularity

By stabilizing recycled resins and reducing additive carryover, LGP-12 helps converters incorporate more recycled content into their packaging while still meeting performance and regulatory requirements.

Future-Ready Compliance

As global regulations tighten, additives must do more than meet today’s standards—they must anticipate tomorrow’s. LGP-12 was designed with evolving compliance needs in mind, making it a forward-looking choice for converters and brand owners.

Conclusion: Additives as Enablers, Not Extras

Additives are often invisible to consumers, but they are indispensable to the packaging industry. They protect food safety, extend shelf life, enable recycling, and make manufacturing efficient. Without them, modern food packaging would be weaker, less reliable, and far less sustainable.

Next-generation solutions like Doverphos® LGP-12 highlight how innovation in additives can reduce migration, stabilize recycled resins, and anticipate future regulatory demands. Far from being an afterthought, additives are the foundation of packaging performance and a key to building safer, smarter, and more sustainable systems.

By understanding the science of additives, we can better appreciate packaging not as a simple wrapper, but as a carefully engineered system designed to protect both our food and our future.

Inside Food Packaging Science: Why Additives Are Essential in Food Packaging