Packaging company BossPack Co. has been selected as next year’s winner of the WorldStar Packaging Award, presented by the World Packaging Organization, for inventing unique water-absorbing package film, the company said on Thursday.

To be presented in May at an award ceremony in Australia, the 2013 WorldStar Packaging Award is conferred to globally competing firms that demonstrated innovative packing technologies in seven sectors: electronics, household, pharmaceutical and medical, health and beauty, food, beverages and other. 

“The global packaging industry is seeking packaging technology to keep the products’ freshness and ensure safety for the body,” said BossPack chief executive and president Lee Seung-gon.

“The packing industry is a business sector in which Korea’s small and medium-sized companies can exert strong global competitiveness even during the present economic slowdown. Winning the WorldStar Award makes a good demonstration,” the Korean CEO said.

For the first time, BossPack has invented a packaging film product dubbed “Mosspack,” which is filled with super-absorbent materials. Mosspack does not use traditional water-absorbing agents such as silica gel, which is harmful to the human body.

Mosspack is about four to six times more efficient than silica gel, yields less carbon and is easily recycled, BossPack said, citing the product’s test results. Its major components are certified as “GRAS,” or generally recognized as safe, in the United States.

Mosspack can be used in a wide variety of packaged moisture-sensitive products, such as dried foods, electric products, medical apparatuses and military equipment.

The World Packaging Organization is a nonprofit, nongovernmental, international federation of national packaging institutes and associations, regional packaging federations and other interested parties including corporations and trade associations.

Having 40-some member countries worldwide, the international packaging organization has hosted the WorldStar award ceremony for the past 43 years.

By Chung Joo-won (joowonc@heraldcorp.com)