Chapter 26 - Food packaging

Abstract

This chapter covers only some of the aspects of food packaging, related to food process engineering and technology are discussed. These aspects refer mainly to the packaging materials and packaging systems, to the protective function of packaging and to some environmental issues of food packaging. Packaging usually consists of a number of levels. The first level, known as the primary package, is the package in direct contact with the food. The primary package is the package in which a unit of the product is presented to the retail market. A can of tuna, a bag of peanuts, a jar of jam or the wrap around a chocolate candy are examples of primary packages. A number of primary packages are usually contained in an outer or secondary package for transportation, storage and delivery. A case of tuna is a carton box containing, say, 24 or 48 individual cans of tuna. A number of secondary packages may be collated into a lot contained in a tertiary package, and so on. Food packaging is, by itself, a vast multidisciplinary area of studies, research and development. Entire academic departments and laboratories devoted exclusively to food packaging are in operation.