New packaging scenarios

In the food sector, the role of packaging - which was, until recently, limited to protecting the contents from external contaminations and to providing support to convey information to consumers - is now the subject of research in the field of materials and technologies.

The use of new materials and of nanotechnologies in this sector has become significant and several companies have implemented research schemes on the issue to highlight its perspectives, both in order to improve existing products and to develop new ones and expand the acquired market shares. The most significant innovation is functional packaging, or smart packaging.

The term refers to packaging options that provide for the use of a material, a surface treatment, a packaging technique, or other approaches capable to ensure an additional function vs. traditional containment and general protection of products.

Innovative studies are also carried out on the use of preservatives that act at need, and on so-called interactive foodstuffs. Food packaging plays a central role to preserve the quality and safety of foodstuffs upon storage and transport: for minimally processed products, it also helps expand the shelf-life by preventing the onset of unfavourable factors or conditions. These functions are performed by basic packaging materials, such as cellulose-derived ones, polymers, glass, metal, or their combinations, in order to leverage on their physico-chemical properties to provide physical protection and establish the appropriate physico-chemical conditions for products, which are crucial to ensure a satisfactory preservation term and unchanged food quality and safety.

These functions should obviously add up to the basic properties (mechanical, optical, and thermal) of the packaging materials and comply with strict national regulations.

Technical and scientific research connected with the science and technology of materials has developed different types of packaging materials in order to improve their ability to preserve food, with special focus on the possibility to reduce microbial contamination and its impact on product shelf-life, as well as to develop nanotechnological materials for direct contact with food.