By Bernie C. Cangrejo

Engr. Bernie Cangrejo (2nd from right) and CPU Faculty Member, Ron Adiran Dionaldo (1st from right) attended the Plenary Meetng of the ISO TC122

CPU Packaging Engineering Department Head, Engr. Bernie C. Cangrejo, and Faculty, Ron Adrian Dionaldo, CPP, attended the 25th Plenary Meeting of the ISO/TC122 – Packaging and its working groups held from September 5 to 8, 2023 in Makati Diamond Residences, Manila, Philippines.

The meeting concerns international standardization on packaging, with current topics being discussed like ecodesign principles, parcel systems, cold chain logistics, and active and intelligent packaging.

Cangrejo is a member of the DTI-BPS Technical Committee on Packaging and Materials (BPS/TC 40) with Dionaldo as his alternate.

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is a worldwide federation of national standards bodies. As a member of ISO, the Department of Trade and Industry – Bureau of Philippine Standards (DTI-BPS) hosted this year’s Technical Committee 122’s hybrid meeting, the first with a face-to-face format since the pandemic. TC122 is ISO’s committee in charge of packaging standardization.

International participants include representatives from Korea, Japan, Jordan, Russia, France, Sweden, USA, and Germany among others. Local participants include DTI and DOST representing the government, the Packaging Institute of the Philippines (PIP) representing the industry, and CPU representing the academe since CPU is the first and only school in the Philippines to offer a degree in packaging engineering.

The meeting opened opportunities for the Packaging Engineering Program to be actively involved in the drafting of packaging standards both locally and internationally.

Also recently, the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), another standards organization, signified interest in partnering with the program and setting up a student chapter in Central Philippine University.