Food packaging is something that every person is familiar with. Modern life is full of processed foods – and packaging technology plays a big part in food safety by preserving food products and extending their shelf life.
If you observe your trip to the grocery store, you will find out that almost all processed foods you bring home are packaged.
In this article, you will learn more about food packaging technology.
So let’s dive into the intriguing world of food packaging:
What is Food Packaging?
Food packaging refers to how food items are packed, the materials used, and the technology that makes it possible.
Food is packed for various purposes, such as extending the shelf life of items. But food packaging is not modern science. In fact, its history might surprise you.
Food packaging has been around in various forms throughout history. According to the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, Napoleon played a significant role in its development, offering a prize of 12,000 francs to anyone who could invent an effective packaging method for food. Napoleon needed a new method to prevent his army’s food from getting spoiled.
The Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry explains that this prize was unclaimed until 15 years later when Nicholas Appert came forward with the canning method. His process involved boiling food and sealing it in airtight glass containers, giving birth to the modern canned food we see in grocery stores.
Food packaging history goes way back! The Chinese were instrumental in developing paper and wrapping paper, which was used for food storage.
In Egypt, the developments took place in the form of glass blowing and molding techniques. Glass was molded into different forms to store food and water.
Since then, developments kept evolving through revolutionaries such as Nicholas Appert. Modern metal cans evolved from Appert’s glass ‘canning’ method. Cardboard cereal boxes were used by the food manufacturer Quaker Oats to pack their oats in the 1880s.
What are the major functions of food packaging?
There is a lot more to creating food packages than meets the eye. Here are some of the essential functions of food packages:
What are the different types of food packaging?
The different types of food packaging include:
What are the most commonly used food packaging materials?
Some of the most used food packaging materials are paper and paperboard packaging.
Paper and thick paperboard material have an approximate market share of 34% when it comes to usage as food packaging materials.
This material is used to pack dry food items like rice, lentils, and flour. It is cheap and biodegradable.
Plastic packaging for food containers is classified into two categories: Rigid plastic material and Flexible packaging plastic material.
They have a 27% and 10% market share, respectively. The benefits of plastic containers are their low cost, ability to mold into any shape, low weight, and ease of processing.
However, plastic food containers face a lot of criticism due to the challenges of recycling them.
Due to their nonpermeable nature, glass bottles are the method of choice for many liquid food items.
It is a chemically safe method and can be recycled endlessly.
However, one downside of this food packaging is its heavy weight. It also breaks easily.
Metals can carry solid and liquid food products. You can see this method used for beverages and canned foods.
Metals offer similar benefits to glass, without the heavy weight or the delicate nature of glass.
Metals used in the food industry are tin coated steel and aluminum – the latter is becoming more popular due to its barrier properties.
What are the different types of food packaging machines?
The scale of modern food processing is so large that it is no longer feasible to pack every food product by hand. This job is now done automatically by food packaging machines.
Some common examples of automation in food packaging include:
These pick a food product from one place and place it somewhere else. Pick and place robots are commonly used for handling chocolates, snack crackers, and processing similar food products.
PWR has flexible packaging robots that can be used to pack food into any tray, case, basket, or crate. Case packing systems can also reject any defective product as programmed.
Cutting machines are used to slice bread or other food items into smaller pieces. Innovative cutting solutions like food cutting robots can create precise cutting shapes on food items.
Smartline is an economically feasible automation solution to speed up the workflow of your food packaging line while reducing labor costs.
It has very low costs, and can do product loading, case loading, and loading into the flow wrapper.
These come in different types like blister, skin, and vacuum packaging. Each has a different application.
For instance, blister packs are used for medicines, while vacuum bags are used for items that have a smaller quantity.
Cartoning machines handle making folding cartons and packing food items into them. Folding cartons generally come as flat cardboard pieces, and a cartoner converts the folding cartons into their intended shape.
These machines are used to create pouches or sachets and pour the food item into them. For instance, milk pouches are made using form, fill, and seal machines.
These machines are installed at the end of a food packaging line. They check the weight of the final packed food item. If the weight is incorrect, the food item is rejected.
Autocoding machines create and install labels on food packets. The labels contain details like manufacturing date, weight, relevant codes, etc.
The food packaging sector is large and includes many niche machines. There are also a lot of different variations of the machines we mentioned above.
What are the characteristics of good food packaging?
Packaging professionals know that high-quality food packaging should have the following characteristics:
The material and packing method should ensure that no food leaks out after the packing is done.
The packaging should be sturdy enough to handle the stress it will undergo during transportation, loading, and unloading.
Some food packers use low-end materials to minimize costs. However, these materials can chemically react with food and harm the integrity of the food item. Therefore, the packaging material should be food-grade.
While ensuring food doesn’t leak, the food packaging should also guarantee that air or moisture doesn’t enter.
A good food packaging solution should minimize material wastage. It should use the precise amount of material required to efficiently seal the product.
Today, there is more focus on environmental factors related to packaging. Efforts are being made to create packaging solutions for food that are environmentally friendly. Good food packaging nowadays contains recycling information on how to dispose of the used material.
What is the difference between primary and secondary food packaging?
Primary food packaging refers to the packaging the end-user sees and touches. Secondary food packaging holds the primary food packages together during transportation and storage, for example, boxes, pallets, etc. Let’s examine each in more detail.
Primary food packaging is in direct contact with the food item. It is final packaging that the end-user has to open to access your product. For instance, candy bar wrappers or cans containing soft drinks.
This type of packaging places emphasis on appearance as well as purpose. In cases of defective packaging, the user will almost always discard the product, as the food item may have perished or spoiled. Primary packaging also contains any marketing information the brand intends to convey to the user.
Secondary packing holds together different items of primary packaged food items. Secondary packages ensure the safe transportation of the items from the packaging origin to the end-user.
An example of this packing is the corrugated cardboard box that carries multiple cans or a big plastic box or bag that contains numerous candy bars.
Secondary packaging such as corrugated cardboard can be removed without harming the food quality. The appearance isn’t as important as the purpose of secondary packaging, because it is not even seen by the end-user in most cases.
Does food packaging come with any downsides?
There are some cons associated with food packaging. Here are some of them:
Food packaging creates a lot of plastic packaging waste that we cannot recycle. This waste has led to the aggregation of plastic garbage in oceans and elsewhere, resulting in a negative impact on the environment.
Some types of food packaging, like active packaging and intelligent packaging, can add cost to the food item. Prime examples include complex packaging or processes that use costlier materials like aluminum.
Creating food packaging materials uses up a lot of essential resources. For instance, creating a half-pound of styrofoam uses one pound of petroleum. You might be surprised to know that the plastic required to make water bottles in the US uses up about 10 million barrels of oil each year.
There are several ways to reduce different types of food packaging waste, both as a packager and an end-user. Some of these things are:
The essential step is to use sustainable packaging. Sustainable packaging implies packaging solutions using eco-friendly materials, without harming the environment. One of the materials that are very sustainable and recyclable is cardboard.
Using industrial shredders creates a lot of shredded paper and cardboard, which can be used instead of styrofoam or bubble wrap in packaging.
Including information about how the end-user can recycle the packaging is another step to reduce food packaging waste considerably. Most end-users throw the packaging in the trash, which generates the most waste.
Choose the right size of packaging to fit the item to be packed. Using excess packaging is a simple no-no. Additionally, use an efficient packaging process that seals the package without waste material.
What are the requirements for food packaging?
Food packaging has specific requirements that packagers must fulfill. These requirements vary from place to place, and violating them may be a legal offense. Some of the requirements include:
Necessary information
The food packing must disclose all the necessary information for that particular food item. The information that the FDA requires to be added is:
What does the future hold for the food packaging industry?
Due to the wide application and high demand for plastics packaging, the food packaging industry is constantly evolving. Some of the recent trends that are shifting the industry are:
More and more packers are shifting towards automated robotic food packing solutions like those provided by Pwrpack. These significantly reduce the cost and time taken to package while increasing efficiency.
Utilizing robotics in the food industry significantly reduces the cost and time taken to package, while increasing efficiency.
Brands seek to engage customers emotionally by using food packaging effectively.
In fact, with proper emotional engagement, some brands can create a need in the mind of the customer, instead of being used only by customers who need the product already.
Customers like to know what they are eating. Providing more transparency about the contents of the food items can lead to more trust by the customers, and many brands are leaning this way.
Endnotes
Food packaging is something we encounter countless times every day. Unless you live on a farm, most of what you consume will come in packaging of some sort, which makes transporting food easier.
This is why the industry holds a bright future for anyone willing to invest. PWR Pack is an industry-leading food packaging solutions provider that many high-end packers trust.
Browse through our list of solutions and discover more about the various machines you can utilize for your food packaging endeavor.