Food packaging

File:No-carb pork.jpg

A sealed pack of diced pork from Tesco. It shows the cooking time, number of servings, 'display until' date, 'use by' date, weight in kg, price, price to weight ratio in both £/kg and £/lb, freezing and storage instructions. It says 'Less than 3% Fat' and 'No Carbs per serving' and includes a barcode. The Union Flag, British Farm Standard tractor logo, and British Meat Quality Standard logo imply that it is British pork.

Food packaging is the enclosing of food that requires protection from tampering, whether by physical, chemicals, or biological needs. It also shows the product that is labeled to show any nutrition information on the food being consumed.

Functions of food packaging

Food packaging serves many important functions. They may be broken down as follows.

1. Containment: For items that are granulated, paper-based packages are the best, with a sealing system to prevent infiltration of moisture into the product. Other products are packaged using metal cans, plastic bags and bottles, and glass containers. Another factor in containment is packaging durability—in other words, the packaged food has to survive transport from the food processing facility to the supermarket to the home for the consumer.
2. Protection: The packaging must protect the food from (a) biological agents such as rats, insects, and microbes; (b) mechanical damage such as product abrasion, compressive forces, and vibration; and (c) from chemical degradation such as oxidation, moisture transfer, and ultraviolet light.
3. Communication: Packaged food must be identified for consumer use, mainly with label text and graphics. It can also be done by using special shapes for the food package, such as the Coca-Cola bottle or the can of Spam. Other well-known food package shapes include potato chip bags and milk bottles. These packages also detail nutritional information, and whether they are packaged according to kosher or halal specifications. The label may also indicate whether it is safe to put the packaged food (such as a TV dinner) through a microwave process. Other items included pour spouts already on the bottles are other methods to ease dispensing of the product.
4. Environmental issues: To protect the environment, we must be willing to reuse or recycle the packaging or reduce the size of the packaging.
5. Package safety: Before using a particular type of package for food, researchers must ensure that it is safe to use that packaging for the food being considered, and that there are no adverse interactions between the package and the food. This includes any metal contamination issues from a can to the food product or any plastic contamination from a bottle to the food product.

Food packaging types

The materials mentioned above can be fashioned into different types of food packages and containers. Examples are given below.

Packaging type	Type of container	Examples of foods packaged
Aseptic packages	Primary	Liquid whole eggs
Plastic trays	Primary	Portion of fish
Bags	Primary	Potato chips
Bottles	Primary	Bottle of a soft drink
Boxes	Secondary	Box of soft drink bottles
Cans	Primary	Can of tomato soup
Cartons	Primary	Carton of eggs
Flexible packaging	Primary	Bagged salad
Pallets	Tertiary	A series of boxes on a single pallet, to transport packaged food from the manufacturing plant to a distribution center.
Wrappers	Tertiary	Used to wrap the boxes on the pallet for transport.

Primary packaging is the main packaging that holds the food that is being processed. Secondary packaging combines the primary packages into a single box. Tertiary packaging combines all of the secondary packages into one pallet.

In addition, there are special containers that combine different technologies for maximum durability:

• Bags-In-Boxes (used for soft drink syrup, other liquid products, and meat products)
• Wine box (used for wine)

Packaging machines

A choice of packaging machinery includes, technical capabilities, labor requirements, worker safety, maintainability, serviceability, reliability, ability to integrate into the packaging line, capital cost, floorspace, flexibility (change-over, materials, etc.), energy usage, quality of outgoing packages, qualifications (for food, phamaceuticals, etc.), throughput, efficiency, productivity, ergonomics, etc.

Packaging machines may be of the following general types:

• Blister, Skin and Vacuum Packaging Machines
• Capping, Over-Capping, Lidding, Closing, Seaming and Sealing Machines
• Cartoning Machines
• Case and Tray Forming, Packing, Unpacking, Closing and Sealing Machines
• Check weighing machines
• Cleaning, Sterilizing, Cooling and Drying Machines
• Conveying, Accumulating and Related Machines
• Feeding, Orienting, Placing and Related Machines
• Filling Machines: handling liquid and powdered products
• Package Filling and Closing Machines
• Form, Fill and Seal Machines
• Inspecting, Detecting and Checkweighing Machines
• Palletizing, Depalletizing, Pallet Unitizing and Related Machines
• Product Identification: labelling, marking, etc.
• Wrapping Machines
• Converting Machines
• Other speciality machinery

See also

• Bacterium
• Drying
• Food chemistry
• Freight
• Flexography
• Glass
• Packaging engineering
• Packaging and labelling

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Barron, F.H., and J.D. Burcham. 2003. "Glass Containers." In Encyclopedia of Agricultural, Food, and Biological Engineering. D.R. Heldman, Ed. New York: Marcel Dekker. pp. 436-439. ISBN 978-0824709372.

• Barron, F.H., and J.D. Burcham. 2003. "Metal Containers." In Encyclopedia of Agricultural, Food, and Biological Engineering. D.R. Heldman, Ed. New York: Marcel Dekker. pp. 636-642. ISBN 978-0824709372.

• Bourque, R.A. 2003. "Secondary Packaging." In Encyclopedia of Agricultural, Food, and Biological Engineering. D.R. Heldman, Ed. New York: Marcel Dekker. pp. 873-879. ISBN 978-0824709372.

• Chinnan, M.S., and D.S. Cha. 2003. "Primary Packaging." In Encyclopedia of Agricultural, Food, and Biological Engineering. D.R. Heldman, Ed. New York: Marcel Dekker. pp. 781-784. ISBN 978-0824709372.

• Hanlon, J.F., R.J. Kelsey, and H.E. Forcinio. 1998. Handbook of Package Engineering. 3rd ed. Lancaster, PA: Technomic Publishing. ISBN 1566763061.

• Potter, Norman N., and Joseph H. Hotchkiss. 1998. Food Science. 5th ed. Food Science Texts Series. Gaithersburg, MD: Aspen Publishers. ISBN 083421265X.

• Steven, M.D., and J.H. Hotchkiss. 2003. "Package Functions." In Encyclopedia of Agricultural, Food, and Biological Engineering. D.R. Heldman, Ed. New York: Marcel Dekker. pp. 716-719. ISBN 978-0824709372.

External links

• Food Packaging Division. Institute of Food Technologists. Retrieved June 22, 2008.
• Food and Beverage Packaging Task Force. Institute of Packaging Professionals. Retrieved June 22, 2008.
• Packaging News - Food. packexpo.com. Retrieved June 22, 2008.

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