Introduction to Food Packaging
In today’s society, packaging is pervasive and essential. It surrounds, enhances and protects the goods we buy, from processing and manufacturing, through handling and storage, to the final consumer. Without packaging, materials handling would be a messy, inefficient and costly exercise and modern consumer marketing would be virtually impossible. The packaging sector represents about 2% of Gross National Product (GNP) in developed countries and about half of all packaging is used to package food.
The historical development of packaging has been well documented elsewhere and will not be described in depth. However, an appreciation of the origin of packaging materials and knowledge of the early efforts in package development can be both instructive and inspirational and for this reason they are discussed briefly in this book. Suffice to say, the highly sophisticated plastic packaging industries which characterize modern societies today are far removed from the simple packaging activities of earlier times.
Very few books can lay claim to be the first to expound or develop a particular area, and the present work is no exception. A number of books already exist with the words “food” and “packaging” in their titles 3,5-8,12,15,17,22,24-27 and this article complements the efforts of these earlier authors. The whole field of food science and technology has undergone tremendous development over the last 30 years and this has been reflected in a plethora of books, many if which address quite specific subject areas, In addition, there is the standard reference article on packaging 4 which is an essential resource for anyone working in the area of food packaging.
Food packaging lies at the very heart of the modern food industry and successful food packaging technologists must bring to their professional duties a wide-ranging background drawn from a multitude of disciplines. The interdisciplinary nature of food packaging is evident from the chapter headings of this book. Sufficient material has been included in the text for it to stand alone as a textbook for undergraduate and graduate students who are taking a two-semester course in food packaging. However, key references are included at the end of each chapter so that those who wish to pursue particular aspects in move depth in more depth will have some guidance to start them on their way.