Chemicals In Packaging Research Articles

Monitoring freshness of chicken using intelligent pH indicator packaging film composed of polyvinyl alcohol/guar gum integrated with Ipomoea coccinea extract

With enormous amounts of food being wasted at every level of consumption, the future of food security is in jeopardy. The confusion aroused due to “best before” or “use by” can be eliminated by intelligent colorimetric indicators which communicate the quality of food. pH indicators have gained their attention because they are simple and visually informative. Using natural pigments to fabricate pH indicators can help reducing use of carcinogenic chemicals in packaging. In this work, anthocyanins extracted from a novel flower source named Ipomoea coccinea (ICE) were added to polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and guar gum (GG) matrix in varying amounts and was applied as antioxidant and intelligent pH indicator film to monitor the freshness of chicken fillets and to visually communicate the quality of chicken. The pH indicator was characterized for halochromism, antioxidant activity, thermogravimetry, water solubility, water contact angle, surface morphology, colorimetry and X-ray diffractograms. The color change of the extract was observed from orange to red to yellow. Film with highest amount of anthocyanin extract has increased thickness of 150.5 ± 17.86a (μm), decreased water vapor transmission rate of 4.95 ± 0.29a (mg day−1 cm−2) and has a crystallinity of 52.35%. Anthocyanins started to degrade at 65 °C according to thermogravimetric analysis. The film with 20% ICE showed an excellent color change in pH solutions and the highest antioxidant activity of ∼91%. The food study results suggested that the developed film has the potential to be employed as an active and intelligent visual indicator in poultry packaging.

순환경제 관점에서 본 플라스틱 식품포장재 재활용의 안전성에 관한 고찰

Advances in food packaging play an important role in keeping food manufacturing and food supply safe. Food packaging facilitates the storage, handling, transportation and preservation of food, and also contributes to the minimization of food waste. On the other hand, food packaging materials have high production volumes, short usage times, and accelerate the occurrence of environmental problems related to waste. The circular economy has already been introduced to pursue sustainability through resource conservation and recycling, and to reduce waste and carbon emissions. By activating an eco-friendly economic system that minimizes resource depletion and environmental pollution, reducing, reusing, recycling and redesigning the goals of the circular economy will reduce the impact of food packaging on the environment. This review focused on the safety aspects of recycled food packaging as recycling is currently considered an important means of packaging waste management. Assessing the safety of recycled packaging is very important because recycling can increase the levels of potentially hazardous chemicals in packaging and in the food after they are migrated. Various food packaging materials such as plastic, paper and cardboard, aluminum, steel, and multi-material multi-layers packaging are commonly used, but only the recycling safety of plastic food packaging materials, which is the most used and has a significant increase in post-use problem, is discussed in this review.

Challenges of including human exposure to chemicals in food packaging as a new exposure pathway in life cycle impact assessment

Limiting exposure to potentially toxic chemicals in food packaging can lead to environmental impact trade-offs. No available tool, however, considers trade-offs between environmental impacts of packaging systems and exposure to potentially toxic chemicals in food packaging. This study therefore explores the research needs for extending life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) to include exposure to chemicals in food packaging. The LCIA framework for human toxicity was extended for the first time to include consumer exposure to chemicals in food packaging through the product intake fraction (PiF) metric. The related exposure pathway was added to LCIA without other modifications to the existing toxicity characterization framework used by USEtox®, i.e., effect factor derivation. The developed method was applied to a high impact polystyrene (HIPS) container case study with the functional unit of providing 1 kg of yogurt in single servings. Various exposure scenarios were considered, including an evidence-based scenario using concentration data and a migration model. Human toxicity impact scores in comparative toxic units (CTUh) for the use stage were evaluated and then compared to human toxicity impact scores from a conventional LCIA methodology. Data allowed toxicity characterization of use stage exposure to only seven chemicals in HIPS out of fourty-four identified. Data required were the initial concentration of chemicals in food packaging, chemical mass transfer from packaging into food, and relevant toxicity information. Toxicity characterization demonstrated that the combined CTUh for HIPS material acquisition, manufacturing, and disposal stages exceeded the toxicity scores related to consumer exposure to previously estimated concentrations of the seven characterizable chemicals in HIPS, by about two orders of magnitude. The CTUh associated with consumer exposure became relevant when migration was above 0.1% of the European regulatory levels. Results emphasize missing data for chemical concentrations in food contact materials and a need to expand the current USEtox method for effect factor derivation (e.g., to consider endocrine disruption, mixture toxicity, background exposure, and thresholds when relevant). An LCIA method was developed to include consumer exposure to chemicals in food packaging. Further study is required to assess realistic scenarios to inform decisions and policies, such as circular economy, which can lead to trade-offs between environmental impacts and potentially toxic chemicals in packaging. To apply the developed method, data regarding occurrence, concentration, and toxicity of chemicals in food packaging are needed. Revisiting the derivation of effect factors in future work could improve the interpretation of human toxicity impact scores.