Innovations in Food Packaging

Jung H. Han

• Publisher: Academic Press
• Year: 2005
• Print ISBN: 9780123116321
• eBook ISBN: 9780080455174
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Food Science
• Index: Technology & Engineering

Innovations in Food Packaging addresses selective topics of functions of food packaging to modify the traditional notion of this process. This book is organized into five parts. Part I focuses on the fundamental theories covering physical chemistry background and quality preservation of foods. Parts II and III discuss active packaging research and development and modified atmosphere packaging of fresh produce, meats, and ready-to-eat products, respectively. Part IV talks about edible and biodegradable coatings and films, whereas Part V discusses commercialization aspects of packaging technologies. Each part is divided into chapters of subject review and detailed technical information. This text will benefit those who are interested in innovative technology of food packaging in general, and experienced field packaging specialists and graduate-level food scientists in particular. This book will be useful as a textbook not only for extension programs of food packaging development in food industry, but also for advanced graduate-level food packaging courses.Covers four major food packaging topics: * Theories in food packaging* Active packaging* Modified atmosphere packaging* Edible films and coatings

Part 1

Fundamental theories regarding the physical and chemical background and quality preservation of foods

Outline

Chapter 1: New technologies in food packaging: Overiew

Chapter 2: Mass transfer of gas and solute through packaging materials

Chapter 3: Quality of packaged foods

Chapter 4: Surface chemistry of food, packaging and biopolymer materials

1

New technologies in food packaging: Overiew

Jung H. Han

Publisher Summary

The quality of packaged food is directly related to the attributes of the food and packaging material. Most food products deteriorate in quality due to mass transfer phenomena, such as moisture absorption, oxygen invasion, flavor loss, undesirable odor absorption, and the migration of packaging components into the food. These phenomena can occur between the food product and the atmospheric environment, between the food and the packaging materials, or among the heterogeneous ingredients in the food product itself. Besides the traditional thermal treatments for food preservation, many other new thermal and nonthermal processing technologies have been developed recently. These include irradiation, high-pressure processes, pulsed electric fields, UV treatments, and antimicrobial packaging. Some of these processes have been commercially approved by regulatory agencies for food packaging purposes. These new technologies generally require new packaging materials and new design parameters in order to have optimum processing efficiency. For example, packages that undergo an irradiation process are required to possess chemical resistance against high energy to prevent polymer degradation, those that undergo UV treatments require UV light transmittable packaging materials, and retortable pouches should resist pressure changes and maintain seal strength.

Introduction

Developments in food processing and packaging

Food packaging technologies

New food-processing technologies

Future trends in food packaging

References

Introduction

Packaging is one of the most important processes to maintain the quality of food products for storage, transportation and end-use (Kelsey, 1985). It prevents quality deterioration and facilitates distribution and marketing. The basic functions of packaging are protection, containment, information and convenience (Kelsey, 1985). A good package can not only preserve the food quality but also significantly contribute to a business profit. Beyond the major function of preservation, packaging also has secondary functions – such as selling and sales promotion. However, the main function of food packaging is to achieve preservation and the safe delivery of food products until consumption. During distribution, the quality of the food product can deteriorate biologically and chemically as well as physically. Therefore, food packaging contributes to extending the shelf life and maintaining the quality and the safety of the food products.

Yokoyama (1985) suggested the conditions necessary to produce appropriate packaging:

1. Mass production

2. Reasonable and efficient packaging material

3. Suitable structure and form

4. Convenience

5. Consideration of disposal.

Therefore, according to these conditions, packaging design and development includes not only the industrial design fields, creativity and marketing tools, but also the areas of engineering and environmental science. Preservation, convenience and the other basic functions of packaging are certainly important, but its disposal should be treated as an important aspect of packaging development. This is a problem in package development that may confront us in the future.

The food industry uses a lot of packaging materials, and thus even a small reduction in the amount of materials used for each package would result in a significant cost reduction, and may improve solid waste problems. Packaging technology ha...

Table of contents

• Cover image
• Title page
• Table of Contents
• Contributors
• Preface
• Part 1: Fundamental theories regarding the physical and chemical background and quality preservation of foods
• Part 2: Active packaging research and development
• Part 3: Modified atmosphere packaging of fresh produce, meats, and ready-to-eat products
• Part 4: Edible and biodegradable coatings and films
• Part 5: Commercial aspects of new packaging technologies
• Index
• Food Science and Technology: International Series