How Food & Beverage Businesses Can Prepare for the EU’s New PPWR Now

For private-label and F&B manufacturers, PPWR translates regulatory ambition into concrete operational obligations across the full product lifecycle. A critical milestone is the Declaration of Conformity required by August 2026, which obliges companies to demonstrate at product and packaging level that PPWR requirements are met based on verifiable data, requiring organizations to start acting now.

Meeting the Declaration of Conformity is not a one-off exercise, but requires structured data, traceability, and governance to be embedded across product design, sourcing, compliance and reporting. Establishing this foundation today is essential to ensure products can continue to be placed on the EU market and to identify where corrective actions are needed across the portfolio, for example:

All packaging needs to be recyclable at end-of-life, in addition there are reusability targets for certain beverage categories, and up to 100% reusability targets for transport packaging depending on type and destination.

Design for reuse and recyclability

Action Item: This means that product and packaging engineers must rethink materials, infrastructure , and product lifecycles and start tracking recyclability and reuse performance at packaging level today.

Recycled material requirements

Minimum recycled content thresholds apply across packaging types and increase over time, with the requirement that recycled content is post-consumer recycled.

Action Item: sourcing teams need to validate suppliers, manage traceability of recycled material sources and build confidence in declared specifications.

Substances of concern

Packaging must comply with strict limitations on substances of concern, including hazardous chemicals impacting health, food safety, and recyclability.

Action Item: Greater transparency on material composition, supplier disclosure and control at packaging-component level.

Harmonized labeling

Uniform labeling requirements and recyclability scores make reporting both more structured and more demanding.

Action Item: Compliance functions require better data governance and oversight.

EPR and economic responsibility

Producers share financial and operational responsibility for the management of packaging waste under harmonized EPR schemes across the EU, with eco-modulated fees increasingly linked to packaging characteristics and recyclability performance.

Action Item: Cross-functional alignment between product, supply-chain and finance is essential, as packaging decisions directly influence cost, compliance and margin.

For many F&B companies today, key product information is fragmented across spreadsheets, ERP reporting forms or systems, siloed databases and manual processes. This lack of a “single source of truth” leads to:

• Unclear visibility into packaging specifications
• Slow cross-functional collaboration
• Manual (compliance) reporting that is prone to error
• Reactive rather than proactive risk mitigation

In the face of PPWR’s new requirements, these legacy approaches simply won’t scale.

The regulatory demands of PPWR aren’t just data requirements, they’re business transformation catalysts. Organizations that invest in a modern Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) platform, enabled by AI, advanced workflow orchestration and real-time data integration, unlock strategic advantages:

360° visibility across product & packaging data

• Centralized control over product specs, packaging attributes, sustainability metrics and compliance documentation.
• Enable real-time visibility for all stakeholders.
• Automatically flag packaging that fails PPWR criteria before it reaches production or the market with AI-assisted data validation and classification.

Faster collaboration between teams

• AI-powered workflows accelerate engagement between R&D, procurement, quality & regulatory, supply chain, marketing and external partners
• Packaging choices become transparent and traceable from inception to launch.

Continuous compliance & risk mitigation

• Modern PLM embeds regulatory tracking and reporting into everyday processes
• Automated alerts, version control and audit trails make reporting efficient and defensible.

Innovation with resilience

• Assess implications of packaging innovations before committing to materials or suppliers with AI-powered predictive analytics and scenario planning.

Centric Software®’s PLM solution provides a centralized system for managing product and packaging information across the entire portfolio. By creating a single source of truth for specifications, materials and sustainability data, Centric PLM™ enables organizations to:

• Consistently assess PPWR requirements across products, categories and markets
• Configure workflows
• Automate validations
• Integrate audit trails
• Reduce manual reporting effort
• Improve cross-functional collaboration
• Embed PPWR compliance into day-to-day product development
• Maintain agility
• Support ongoing innovation

Deloitte’s market expertise in regulatory strategy, product compliance frameworks and packaging sustainability provides practical guidance on:

• Interpreting PPWR’s phased deadlines and obligations,
• Translating compliance risks into operational strategies
• Optimizing cross-functional readiness across the enterprise.

Combining Deloitte’s business advisory insights with Centric’s product data management and AI-augmented PLM technology creates a powerful, practical roadmap for PLMAs navigating this transition.

PPWR represents a watershed moment for the private-label industry. Organizations that treat it as a “compliance task” will struggle. Those that embrace it as an impetus for digital transformation and stronger product governance will thrive.

The future of the food & beverage won’t be shaped by packaging alone — it will be shaped by how companies manage product data, collaboration, compliance and continuous innovation.

Modern PLM solutions make that future attainable right now.

In May 19 at Huis Bartolotti in Amsterdam, Centric Software and Deloitte are hosting an exclusive event for F&B leaders to:

• Explore the full implications of PPWR for the private label sector
• See real use cases for centralized PLM in managing compliance and innovation
• Hear from peers, analyst and PLM practitioners
• Walk away with actionable strategies for 2026 and beyond

Date: May 19th, 6:00 — 10:00 p.m.

Location: Huis Bartolotti, Amsterdam