If a plastic container is being used inside a cardboard master to hold berries and keep them in good condition during transport, does this plastic container need to be labelled?

In this case, the plastic containers would fall under ‘trays’ within the definition of packaging accessories. Packaging accessories are used to fasten, contain, protect, or identify product or packaging material. These flexible plastic containers used for berries would be similar to cardboard trays that are placed in apple boxes to ensure apples are not bruised.

The plastic containers used inside cardboard masters to hold berries during transport are not the same as the usual, often more rigid plastic pints or quarts used to sell berries to the end consumer; therefore, they do not need to be considered as primary market ready packaging materials.

Since these plastic containers used inside cardboard masters are considered as packaging accessories, they are NOT required to be labelled with anything (unique identifier, lot code, name, address, etc.). Instead, the traceability requirements would apply only to the cardboard master.