Child safety is an important factor to consider when designing your packaging. Supplements, vitamins and medications can look like candy to children, and they may consume multiple doses of a product that isn’t intended for them, the consequences of which can be dire. The good news is, manufacturers can prevent harm with child-resistant packaging.
Key Components of Child Resistant Packaging
So what makes a container child-resistant? Packaging is considered child-resistant if it meets CR certification. To do so, it must be difficult or impossible for children to open the container but easy for seniors and people with disabilities to open it. This is a fine line to walk, but a few components can help you balance these requirements.
Visual Cues
Visual cues can be helpful in packaging that doesn’t contain potentially dangerous products. Strategically placed colors and shapes can subconsciously direct consumers where to place their fingers to open the containers. However, the same features that communicate this information can be appealing to kids, which may draw them to products that could hurt them.
If a pouch contains something dangerous, you should also include warning labels. These will let consumers know to store them out of easy reach.
Resealing
Ensuring your packaging is child-resistant when it’s fresh off the line is important, but you also need to verify that the container is just as impenetrable once it’s resealed. A previously opened container is arguably more dangerous for children since it’s more likely to be within reach and line of sight. A great option is to transfer your products to grip seal bags (aka resealable bags) and place them out of reach and sight of children.
Developing Effective Child Resistant Pouches
Developing child-resistant containers is a long process with several steps. You don’t want to sacrifice branding, but you may need to make compromises to ensure your packaging is effective in terms of marketing and child safety. As you work and rework your designs, here are two tips to help you create the most effective pouches.
Put Your Packaging to the Test
The only way to get CR certified — and determine if your pouches are really child-resistant — is to test them. In most cases, this is done in a safe, regulated environment by literal children.
What happens if your packaging doesn’t pass the test? Then it’s back to the drawing board. Honestly, it’s best if you find out during a test, as it not only keeps children safe but also saves you the cost of manufacturing or ordering thousands of pouches, only to find them flawed.
Customize for Adults
If you intend only adults to access your product, you should customize the packaging for adult hands. For example, you can make levers sized for adult thumbs or cap circumference for adult palms. If kids physically can’t hold the packaging correctly, they won’t be able to open it.
Combine Features
Finally, don’t rely on just one child-resistant feature. Including multiple strategies decreases the likelihood that kids can open your pouches or even get ahold of them in the first place.
When considering materials for your child-resistant pouches, you should consider custom printed mylar bags. This packaging not only offers several child-resistant features but provides many branding and design opportunities. Whether you want stand-up or lay-flat pouches, mylar can deliver.
