See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/275715544

Food Packaging

Research · May 2015

DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.1.1160.8489

CITATIONS READS

0 9,491

1 author:

Miguel Costa
University of Lincoln
6 PUBLICATIONS   1 CITATION   

SEE PROFILE

All content following this page was uploaded by Miguel Costa on 02 May 2015.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

Food Packaging Miguel A Da Cunha E Costa (14473656)

Food
Packaging

Page 0 of 7
Food Packaging Miguel A Da Cunha E Costa (14473656)

Abstract
Packaging of foods is essential in preservation of quality attributes of the product and
important in establishing shelf life. This paper describes the major packaging groups in use
by the UK Food manufacturing sector. Food packaging has evolve and continue to evolve
over the years. Food manufacturers have a need to balance cost and versatility while
ensuring quality, safety and legality of food stuff. Food packaging has a functionality of
containment, protection, convenience and brand communication.

Introduction

For centuries packaging has been used for preserving and contain foods. From glass jars,
through metal tins, paper or paperboard wrap or arguably the most common packaging
material plastic compounds. Derived from natural sources, mainly crude oil, various
compositions and combinations are possible to achieve the best characteristics for its
intended use. But being derived from chemicals pose several question not only for food
safety, quality and legality but also, and recently more important, the environment.

Major packaging groups

Food business operators have various material choices when comes to primary packaging.
The choices made will depend upon various issues, from customer requirements, product
quality and safety and inherent costs. Primary packaging are categorised in four mainstream
material types: paper and board; glass; metals and plastics (Stewart, 2007).

Paper and board:

Paper-based packaging advantage to other materials in relation to its environmental aspect

because it is produced from sustainable and renewable resources. Natural materials like
paper-based papers also are biodegradable and composting well without polluting the soil
or watercourses and are suitable for recycling.

Page 1 of 7
Food Packaging Miguel A Da Cunha E Costa (14473656)

Glass:

Although rigidity is one of glass characteristics, it is actually a super cooled liquid. It is inert
to most materials and therefore able to contain a wide range of materials without
contamination. Furthermore, in glass packages, it is suggested to not use colours other than
brown or green since these cannot be recycled because of contamination exists in their
pigments (Stewart, 2007).

Metal:

Mostly used in the form of cans for drinks and food products, steel and aluminium have an
extensive field of usage. As 100% barrier properties with respect to the permeation of gases,
liquids, solvents and UV light have helped metal material to become the most protective
packaging since the 1880s (Stewart, 2007).

Plastics:

According to Stewart (2007), among all the materials available to packaging designers,
plastics have the most variety not also in terms of type but also in processing methods. The
choice of container material, in many packaging studies, may be made based on rigidity as in
the case of a bottle of mayonnaise or flexibility as demonstrated by a pouch or sachet of the
same mayonnaise. Packages like bottles and jars are named as rigid plastic containers.

Plastics as food packaging

Plastic materials are a significant part of food packaging market. At the beginning of the
1990’s it was valued at 28% of the market (Parisi, 2013). According to the British plastics
federation 50% of all Europe’s food is packed in plastic packaging (Coles and Kirwan, 2011).
Plastics can occur naturally in trees. Today numerous different plastics are available. Some
are still made from natural materials but most modern plastics are manufactured from
chemicals obtained from crude oil. Plastics manufacturers convert chemicals into plastics.
Plastic packaging has revolutionised the packaging industry. Polyethylene is the most widely
used form of plastic packaging used today. The characteristics inherent to plastic makes it
the favourable form of packaging. Plastics are a wide range of polymers made from simple
organic chemicals. Each polymer have specific characteristics. This characteristics range

Page 2 of 7
Food Packaging Miguel A Da Cunha E Costa (14473656)

from strength and toughness to temperature tolerances or permeability to gases and water
(British Plastics federation, 2015). By combining different polymers it is possible to achieve
the desirable combination for the least cost. In the food industry various types of plastics
are used. Polyethylene (PE) represents over 50% of the European packaging market with
polypropylene (PP), polyesters (PET) and polystyrene (PS) the bulk of the remaining market
(Coles and Kirwan, 2011). Below, fig.1 shows some of the most common types of plastic
packages and their applications and solutions for the food industry.

Fig 1: Plastic packaging and its applications/ solutions

Source: Parisi, S. (2013) Food Industry and Packaging Materials: Performance-oriented Guidelines
for Users.

Food and beverage applications Most known and used plastic packages

General uses • Expanded polystyrene (EPS) containers

Macro category: rigid containers • Multi-use and re-use boxes

• Single-use containers (boxes, cups, trays

and re-usable materials)

General uses • Industrial bags

Macro category: flexible packages • Plastic films for coupled packages

• Single-use bags

• Thermoretractable and extensible films

• Wrapping films

General uses • Hybrid (plastic/metallic) ends

Macro category: accessory packaging

materials

Beverages and liquid/ fluid foods Macro • Barrels

category: rigid containers • Plastic bottles

Beverages and liquid/ fluid foods Macro • Caps

category: accessory packaging materials

Page 3 of 7
Food Packaging Miguel A Da Cunha E Costa (14473656)

Specification, product safety, quality and legality of plastics as primary packaging

Plastics are synthetic materials derived from crude oils and are easily moulded or formed
into desired shape. Plastic packaging have a wide range of use in the form of flexible bags or
rigid containers. Although the composition of plastic polymers such as polyethene or
polypropylene are organic chemicals, plastics are less reactive to external influences than
paper or paperboard.

The EU Regulation 1935/2004 (THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL, 2004)
defines plastics as “organic macromolecular compounds obtained by polymerisation,
polycondensation, polyaddition or any similar process from molecules with lower molecular
weight or by chemical alteration of natural macromolecular compounds”. Food contact
plastics guidelines EC Regulation 10/2011 (EUROPEAN COMMISSION, 2014) sets out rules
concerning the following aspects:

 List of authorised substances that can be used in the manufacture of plastic layers of
the plastic materials and articles described in the scope.
 Types of substances are covered by the Union list and which are not.
 Restrictions and specifications for these substances.
 Which part of the plastic materials the Union list applies and to which not.
 Specific and overall migration limits for the plastic materials and articles.
 Specifications for the plastic materials and articles.
 Declaration of compliance (DoC).
 Compliance testing requirements for plastic materials and articles.

The production of plastic packaging can be summarised by the following processes:

calendaring; extrusion; extrusion blow moulding; injection blow moulding; injection
moulding; moulding; rotational moulding roto-moulding, roto-casting); stretch blow
moulding and thermoforming (Parisi, 2013). Other processes are used to improve certain
characteristics/ aspects of plastics. Coatings are applied to the surfaces of plastic films to
improve heat-sealing and barrier properties. They are also applied to rigid plastics to
improve barrier properties. Lamination is an alternative to co-extrusion, where two or more
layers of molten plastic are combined during film manufacture with shelf life improvement

Page 4 of 7
Food Packaging Miguel A Da Cunha E Costa (14473656)

as a result (Robertson, 2012). Printing of plastic films and containers is another example of
processes used in manufacturing plastic packaging reducing food manufacturing labelling
costs. Not only the packaging integrity such as closure systems and physical protection
during storage and distribution, plastics as a primary packaging needs to ensure that food is
protected in order to not endanger health and quality does not deteriorate during shelf life.
The interaction between food and primary packaging material is of relevant importance to
maintain food safety, quality and legality. Several aspects of packaging manufacture (Coles
and Kirwan, 2011) may detriment those:

 migration of additives, residues and monomer molecules from the packaging

material into the food
 permeation of gases, vapours and permeant molecules from the environment into
the pack headspace and vice versa
 sorption of components, including volatile flavour compounds and lipids, into the
packaging in a process often referred to as scalping

Packaging acceptance

When conducting packaging acceptance testing it is vital to understand the needs of the
product. The product nature, shelf life, distribution and storage conditions, consumer and
disposal of packaging needs to be considered. Primary packaging has to account the needs
for the protection of the product in terms of quality and safety, product appearance in
terms of design and appeal to the consumer and its method of manufacturing. It is
necessary to consider the type of plastic combination that best meet the end product needs.
Plastic offers a flexible, inexpensive packaging solution. Various combinations are possible
due to its nature providing different solutions for different problems. This form of packaging
provide barriers to external environment in a hermetically sealed pack. The extent of
protection will depend on its thickness, temperature and humidity range during food
product shelf life. Plastic packaging can be heat sealed or heat resistant some are suitable
for deep freeze storage. Food manufacturing needs can be met by this versatile packaging
solution (Coles and Kirwan, 2011). By considering all aspects of the food production process
is possible to establish the type of packaging necessary to ensure food safety, quality and

Page 5 of 7
Food Packaging Miguel A Da Cunha E Costa (14473656)

legality. Considering a particular type of packaging is no different than considering a specific

type of ingredient. Packaging specification should form the basis for acceptance, approving
supplier and continuously monitoring that specifications are met. When selecting a
particular material as packaging for food, manufacturers need to consider the
environmental conditions both in storage and distribution. Food manufacturers need to
assess the effectiveness of shelf life preservations while being environmentally friendly and
affordable. Migration of substances could be harmful for the consumer and so the control of
additives needs to be ensured at the point of manufacturing. The food production process
and machinery needs to be taken into account for optimisation. Other measures include the
design of the packaging as a tool for marketing communication (Vaclavik et al., 2008).

Conclusion

While protecting raw and processed foods against spoilage and/ or contamination it also
offers convenience and information to the consumer. When selecting a type of packaging
food attributes, its intended use and consumer, storage and distribution are key essential
parts of the process. Plastics and their various combinations are, perhaps, the most used
and know type of food packaging. The possibility of the designing of appearance and its
attributes depending on the requirements of the food type make plastic are the material of
choice. The issues with use of plastic packaging arise due to the fact of the methods used in
manufacturing and the possibility of migration of chemicals to food. Another issue is the
ever increasing pressure to ensure the environmental sustainability of food packaging.

Page 6 of 7
 Food Packaging Miguel A Da Cunha E Costa (14473656)

Reference List

British Plastics federation (2015) BPF - British Plastics Federation. [online]. Available
from http://www.bpf.co.uk/ [Accessed 31/03/15].

Coles, R. and Kirwan, M.J. (2011) Food and beverage packaging technology. John Wiley
& Sons.

EUROPEAN COMMISSION (2014) Union Guidelines on Regulation (EU) No 10/2011 on

plastic materials and articles intended to come into contact with food.

Parisi, S. (2013) Food Industry and Packaging Materials: Performance-oriented

Guidelines for Users.

Robertson, G.L. (2012) Food packaging: principles and practice. CRC press.

Stewart, B. (2007) Packaging design. Laurence King.

THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL (2004) REGULATION (EC) No

1935/2004 on materials and articles intended to come into contact with food. OJ L 338:.

Vaclavik, V.A., Christian, E.W. and Christian, E.W. (2008) Essentials of food science. Springer.

Page 7 of 7

View publication stats