Packaging Design in 2026: Balancing Brand, Information, and Safety

When a new product is being prepared for launch, packaging conversations often begin with the enjoyable questions.

How large should the logo be?

Which colour will stand out?

Should the product photograph dominate the front panel?

There is another question worth asking much earlier:

How much space is actually available once the product, information and regulatory requirements are understood?

Two BPOM regulations introduced in 2026 make that question increasingly relevant. Regulation 11/2026 updates Indonesia's food-packaging safety framework, while Regulation 10/2026 updates nutrition information on processed-food labels.[1][3]

For designers and brand owners, this does not mean creativity has less room.

Well-understood constraints often produce better design.

Packaging and labelling are different layers

One distinction is useful before discussing layout.

Food packaging concerns the material and physical structure containing a product.

Labelling concerns information displayed on or accompanying that package.

Packaging design brings both together with brand identity, communication and usability.

Indonesia's broader processed-food labelling framework continues to be governed by BPOM Regulation 31/2018 and its subsequent amendments. Among its principles, information needs to be visible, readable, durable and not misleading.[6]

A package therefore needs to work outside a large presentation mockup.

It has to work at its actual printed size.

Material is also a design decision

BPOM Regulation 11/2026 strengthens requirements surrounding food-packaging materials.

Materials coming into direct contact with food are subject to relevant safety requirements, including migration limits governing the transfer of substances from packaging into food. The framework covers materials including plastic, paper and board, glass, metal and multilayer structures.[1][2]

That means decisions such as:

multilayer pouch or another structure;

bottle or cup;

paperboard with an internal layer;

single-use or reusable;

are not simply aesthetic or cost questions.

Designers do not need to become packaging chemists.

But material and structural decisions should be made alongside people who understand the product, supplier, filling process, storage conditions and food-contact requirements.

Do not finish the artwork before adding the information

Another common problem occurs when the front and back panels are almost completely designed before regulatory and product information is inserted.

The outcome is predictable.

Typography shrinks.

Spacing disappears.

Important information competes for attention.

Hierarchy collapses.

The answer is not to make everything equally prominent.

It is to design an information hierarchy.

What should customers recognise first?

What should they find when they turn the pack over?

Which information must be available?

What helps a purchase decision, and what is merely decorative?

The information architecture should help shape the layout—not be forced into whatever space remains.

Nutrition information increasingly affects packaging space

BPOM Regulation 10/2026 updates Indonesia's Nutrition Information framework. On 13 August, BPOM's registration directorate confirmed that eReg-RBA had already incorporated adjustments involving nutrition-value rounding and updated reference values.[3][5]

For designers, this means a nutrition panel should not be treated as placeholder copy.

Final regulatory data and formatting need to come from whoever is responsible for the product's compliance.

BPOM has also issued a separate 2026 decision concerning reference nutrient values for certain processed foods produced by micro enterprises.[7]

A more efficient workflow therefore allows design development and regulatory information to progress in parallel.

Nutri-Level will make the front panel more strategic

Another important change is Nutri-Level.

The system uses A, B, C and D categories to communicate levels derived from sugar, sodium/salt and total fat. Under the current phase, the requirement applies to specified categories of ready-to-consume beverages, powdered drinks and concentrates.[4]

The transition period runs until 17 June 2028.

It would therefore be inaccurate to suggest that every packaged food must carry Nutri-Level today.

For beverage brands with long packaging cycles, however, 2028 is not particularly distant.

A visual identity developed in 2026 may still underpin the product line when the front-of-pack requirement becomes effective.

Some future-proofing today may cost less than an urgent redesign later.

Brand still matters—but hierarchy matters more

Regulation does not turn the front of a package into an information board.

Brand still has essential work to do.

It makes the product recognisable.

It distinguishes competitors.

It communicates personality.

And it builds memory.

As information requirements grow, however, brand hierarchy becomes more—not less—important.

Designers need to identify the assets that genuinely make a brand distinctive: its name, typography, colour, packaging structure, illustration or visual system.

A brand that depends on making every element large will struggle as information density increases.

Distinctive does not mean crowded.

Five layers of stronger packaging design

As a GATICORP editorial framework, packaging projects can be reviewed through five layers.

Safety

Are the material and structure appropriate for the product, process and intended use?

Compliance

Which regulatory information and elements apply to this specific product category?

Clarity

Can customers find important information without unnecessary effort?

Brand

Is the product still recognisable, distinctive and visually coherent?

Production

Can the design realistically be printed, filled, stored, distributed and updated?

This is not an official BPOM checklist.

Its purpose is to help designers and business owners discuss the same product as one system.

The best packaging works in the real world

Packaging lives far longer than an Illustrator file or presentation mockup.

It enters production machinery.

It touches food.

It travels inside cartons.

It is handled by customers.

It is read at actual size.

And it may need to absorb changes in product information and regulation over time.

That makes it increasingly difficult to separate packaging into a “creative part” and a “compliance part”.

Both eventually occupy the same physical surface.

Strong packaging does not choose between being beautiful or informative.

It builds a hierarchy where the brand is visible, information can be understood, materials are appropriate and the product remains realistic to manufacture.

That is where packaging stops being decoration.

And becomes part of the business system.