Environmentally Compatible Food Packaging

E. Chiellini

• Publisher: Woodhead Publishing
• Year: 2008
• Print ISBN: 9781845691943
• eBook ISBN: 9781845694784
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Food Science
• Index: Technology & Engineering

Food packaging performs an essential function, but packaging materials can have a negative impact on the environment. This collection reviews bio-based, biodegradable and recycled materials and their current and potential applications for food protection and preservation.The first part of the book looks at the latest advances in bio-based food packaging materials. Part two discusses the factors involved in choosing alternative packaging materials such as consumer preference, measuring the environmental performance of food packaging, eco-design, and the safety and quality of recycled materials. Part three contains chapters on the applications of environmentally-compatible materials in particular product sectors, including the packaging of fresh horticultural produce, dairy products and seafood. This section also covers active packaging, modified atmosphere packaging and biobased intelligent food packaging. The book finishes with a summary of the legislation and certification of environmentally-compatible packaging in the EU.With its distinguished editor and contributors, Environmentally-compatible food packaging is a valuable reference tool for professionals in the food processing and packaging industries. - Reviews bio-based, biodegradable and recycled materials and their current and potential applications - Discusses consumer preference, environmental performance, eco-design and the quality of recycled materials as factors involved in choosing alternative packaging materials - Summarises EU legislation and certification of environmentally compatible packaging

Part I

Biobased food packaging materials: new directions

Outline

Chapter 1: State-of-the-art biobased food packaging materials

Chapter 2: Types, production and assessment of biobased food packaging materials

Chapter 3: Thermoplastic nanobiocomposites for rigid and flexible food packaging applications

Chapter 4: Improved fibre-based packaging for food applications

Chapter 5: Starch-based edible films

Chapter 6: The use of chitin and chitosan for food packaging applications

1

State-of-the-art biobased food packaging materials

G. Robertson, University of Queensland, Australia

Publisher Summary

Bio-based food packaging materials have been defined as ‘materials derived from renewable sources’. The development of bio-based packaging materials is predicated on a widely held belief that such materials will have lower environmental impacts than existing petroleum-derived materials. Biodegradable polymers constitute a loosely defined family of polymers that are designed to be degraded by biological agents. Despite considerable research and development, the use of the newer bio-based packaging materials for the packaging of food remains limited. Polylactic Acid (PLA) can be made into films, co-extruded into laminates, thermoformed and injection stretch blow molded into bottles. A major application to date has been as food service containers. PLA products are fully compostable in commercial composting facilities. Provided that production costs can be reduced, PLA is expected to find packaging applications in areas such as candy twist wraps, coatings for paperboard beverage cartons, plastic film wraps for foods, blister packs, and plastic windows in boxes. The challenge for the successful use of biodegradable polymer products in food packaging is achieving the desired shelf-life followed by efficient biodegradation after disposal. Premature biodegradation and insect infestation must be avoided. In addition, it is imperative that biodegradable plastics do not contaminate the recycling stream for non-biodegradable, petroleum-derived plastics.

1.1 Introduction: biobased packaging, the food industry and the environment

Biobased food packaging materials have been defined (van Tuil et al. 2000) as ‘materials derived from renewable sources’. A narrower definition (Haugaard & Mortensen 2003) which will be used in this chapter is ‘materials derived from primarily annually renewable sources’, thus excluding paper-based materials, since trees used for papermaking generally have a renewal time of 25–65 years depending on species and country. Paper-based materials have been used for food packaging for decades and account for approximately 50% of all municipal solid waste (MSW) in developed countries (wood accounts for a further 10%); they will not be discussed further in this chapter.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, most non-fuel industrial products such as inks, dyes, paints, medicines, chemicals, clothing, synthetic fibres, flexible packaging and also plastics were made from biologically derived resources (Weber et al. 2002). During the twentieth century, petroleum-derived chemicals replaced these to a major extent, due largely to their better physical and chemical properties such as, in the case of packaging materials, strength, lightness and resistance to water and waterborne micro-organisms. Now at the beginning of the twenty-first century, increasing attention is being given to sustainability and the replacement of non-renewable resources (particularly those derived from petroleum) with those from renewable sources, essentially plant-derived products and byproducts from their fermentation (Mohanty et al. 2005).

It has become almost commonplace for introductory chapters in books on biobased polymers to include dire warnings about the consequences for life on Earth if a switch is not made immediately from conventional to biobased polymers. For example, Scholz and Khemani (2006) wrote ‘there is a growing general awareness among consumers and government agencies in most countries around the world that conventional plastic products, although useful, are causing tremendous damage to the environment, water supplies, sewer systems (sic) as well as to the rivers and streams’. Mohanty et al. (2005) wrote that ‘persistence of plastics in the environment, the shortage of landfill space, the depletion of petroleum resources, concerns over emissions during incineration, and entrapment by and ingestion of packaging plastics by fish, fowl and animals have spurred efforts to develop biodegradable/biobased plastics’.

There is not space here to rebut these statements; a more balanced discussion of the issues can be found in Robertson (2006). A recent article (Royte 2006) questioned whether biodegradable packaging is really the answer to America’s throwaway culture and addressed various concerns about poly(lactic) acid (PLA) and in particular its inability to break down in home composting operations. Environmentalists such as Lester Brown, president of the Earth Policy Institute, question the morality of turning a foodstuff into packaging when so many people in the world are hungry. The recent increase in bioethanol production in the United States has resulted in the price of corn reaching the highest level in a decade and, as a consequence, a dramatic rise in the cost of the tortilla, a food staple in Mexico.

The reality is that plastic packaging materials from petroleum sources are well established and play an essential role in the packaging of food. The global annual pr...

Table of contents

• Cover image
• Title page
• Table of Contents
• Related titles
• Copyright
• Contributor contact details
• Preface
• Dedication
• Part I: Biobased food packaging materials: new directions
• Part II: Using environmentally compatible packaging technologies in the food industry
• Part III: Environmentally compatible food packaging for particular applications
• Index