Food packaging

Food packaging refers to any supplies for the transportation and sale of food products. Food packaging is considered necessary for protecting contents from contamination, tampering, and damage, and it can determine portion sizes and display product information. This can include protecting a product from being dropped or crushed and transportation vibration. It also can protect against the climate, including high temperatures, humidity, light, and gases in the air. The packaging used differs based on the needs of various types of food and the kinds of material available.

Packaging is seen as reliable way of guaranteeing safe and cost-effective delivery to the final consumer in an optimum condition of the food product. Food packaging offers a system for preparing product for transport, dissemination, storage, retailing, and use for which it is intended, and food packaging is ultimately aimed at optimizing the cost of delivery while reducing overall food waste to maximize food sales.

The most common types of packaging include aseptic packaging, bags, boxes, cans, cartons, flexible packaging, pallets, trays, and wrappers. The type of packaging used will depend on the food type, the intended application of the food, and the possible duration of the food, as well as common types of contaminants of a food stuff.

The materials used for food packaging come in many varieties. These are based on the technical requirements throughout the supply chain, as well as based on marketing needs, among other criteria. For some types of packaging, the food contact material determines the name. Food contact material is a term that applies to the material that comes into contact with food, either during storage, processing and filling, or consumption.

In general, and by regulation dependent on country, food contact materials should not release chemicals into the food at quantities that can harm human health. Therefore, the assessment of health impacts related to food packaging is considered essential, and to do so, the chemical composition of the packaging material needs to be understood, and the level at which these compounds can partition into foodstuffs—a process known as migration—has to be understood. The most common types of materials include ceramics, glass, metal, paper and board, plastics, printing inks, wax, and wood.

Often, food packaging is thought of most at the point of retail, but packaging is used at all stages of the food system. This includes at inputs, farm and fishery, processor and distributor, restaurant and food service, to retail. The main packaging materials used at any point in the supply chain will depend on the usage, with each material offering specific advantages and disadvantages related to the lifecycle of the product. However, most packaging decisions are also made on full lifecycle cost accounting, as the market prioritizes convenience, cultural and sanitary acceptance, and product marketing.

As well, the packaging industry refers to primary, secondary, and tertiary packaging. Primary packaging is considered packaging in direct contact with the food. Secondary is for an additional layer of protection for bulk movement and selling, creating stock taking unit, or for branding. And tertiary is for business-to-business transit, such as pallets, shrink wrap, packaging materials, and large cardboard boxes containing smaller cardboard boxes. Many types of packaging through the supply chain involve multiple links in the chain. For example, packaging employed at processing often ends up being waste at retail establishments, food service, and the household. The most common types of packaging and uses by supply chain stage include the following:

• Inputs: this can include pesticide containers; fertilizer bags and totes; feed, seed, and grain bags; fishing lure and bait containers; animal health product packages; machinery maintenance products; and drums.
• Farm: this can include plastic mulch; greenhouse film; nursery containers; bale wrap; silage bags; twine; irrigation piping and trickle tubes, packing crates, plastic covers and tarps.
• Fishery: this can include gear, traps, rope, nets, boat maintenance products, and related packaging.
• Processing: this includes thousands of packaging materials that are in contact with food, including controlled atmosphere gases, glass, paper, cardboard and metal containers, lids, plates, bowls, trays, pouches, bags, glues, foils, creams, films, coatings, liners, pads, adhesives, labels, fabrics, sticks, skewers, picks, and utensils; and includes tertiary packaging such as shipping containers, bags, tags, wraps, and netting.
• Distributors: often distributors pass on goods without repackaging them; however sometimes they do disaggregate and repackage, and in doing so, use similar materials as processors.
• Cafes, restaurants, and food service: depending on the level of service of the operation, the packaging differs; for example, fine dining operations would receive goods from farmers and manufacturers and dispose of the packaging; whereas, quick service and takeout operations have their products wrapped in plastic, paper, or aluminum foil, placed in cardboard, plastic, or Styrofoam containers, and placed into paper or plastic bags; and take-out food can also include plastic cutlery, wooden chopsticks, napkins, and condiments in small plastic pouches.
• Supermarkets: this includes packaging material such as grocery bags, produce bags, paper bags, deli counter, and grab-and-go packaging.
• Household: often the last stage in the lifecycle, this includes cooking and consumption equipment and packaging, storage containers, bags and wraps, compost and food waste bags, and containers.

The principal roles of food packaging include protecting food products from outside influence and damage, containing the food, and providing consumers with ingredients and nutritional information. Traceability, convenience, and tamper indication tend to be secondary functions, but are becoming of increasing importance. However, the main function of food packaging remains a cost-effective way that satisfies industry requirements and consumer desires, maintains food safety, and minimizes environmental impact.

Food packaging is used, in many cases, to slow product deterioration while retaining the beneficial effects of processing, extending shelf-life, and maintaining or increasing the quality and safety of the food. In doing so, packaging provides protection from three major classes of external influences: chemical, biological, and physical.

Chemical protection minimizes compositional changes triggered by environmental influences, such as exposure to gasses (typically oxygen), the gain or loss of moisture, or exposure to light, be it visible, infrared, or ultraviolet. Many different packaging materials can provide a chemical barrier. Glass and metals provide a near absolute barrier to chemical and other environmental agents, but few packages are purely glass or metal since closure devices are added to either for filling and emptying, and these closure devices can contain materials allowing permeability.

Biological protection works to provide a barrier to microorganisms, whether pathogenic or spoiling agents, or insects, rodents, and other animals, in order to reduce the possibility of spreading disease and spoiling food. In addition, biological barriers maintain conditions to control ripening and aging and increase food lifetime. Such barriers use different mechanisms to achieve this, including preventing access to the product, preventing odor transmission, and maintaining the internal environment of the package.

Physical protection works to shield food from mechanical damage and includes cushioning against the shock and vibration encountered during distribution. Typically this includes packaging using paperboard and corrugated materials. These barriers resist impacts, abrasions, and crushing damage and are used as shipping containers and as packaging for delicate foods such as eggs and fresh fruits. Physical packaging can also protect consumers from hazards, for example, child-resistant closures can stop a child from gaining access to a potentially hazardous substance. And the substitution of plastic for previously glass packaging, such as in shampoo or soda bottles, has reduced the danger of broken glass.

Any assessment of food packaging's impact on the environment should consider the positive benefits of reduced food waste throughout the supply chain. Significant food waste has been reported in various countries, ranging from 25 percent for food grain to 50 percent for fruits and vegetables. Inadequate preservation or packaging, storage, and transportation have been cited as causes of food waste. Packaging can reduce total waste by extending the shelf-life of foods.

A package is also the face of a product and is often the only product exposure consumers experience prior to purchase. Consequently, distinctive or innovative packaging can boost sales in a competitive environment. And the package can be designed to catch consumer attention and enhance the image of the product, or differentiate the product from the competition. For example, using larger labels can accommodate recipes and provide necessary information to the consumer, such as the legal requirements for product identification, nutritional value, ingredient declaration, net weight, and manufacturer information.

Packaging traceability can be critically important for the safety of food and related products that require monitoring and are occasionally recalled. It is also important for the security of products that are increasingly threatened by counterfeiting and theft. And some global regulations are required to be met to provide a trail of information that follows items through a supply chain.

Part of ensuring proper traceability, products are also required to be easily identified and located. This is often achieved through printed barcodes, vision systems, and image-based barcode readers. These barcodes can store the information such as the manufacturer, product ID, lot number, expiration date, and a unique serial number. And increasingly, newer technologies, such as RFID or IoT, are being implemented in packaging in order to better track and trace items through a supply chain and ensure they remain in compliance with food safety and traceability laws, and to increase the ease of recalls in the case of contamination.

Convenience features such as ease of access, handling, and disposal; product visibility; the ability to reseal a package; and the ability to microwave packaging influence the packaging used and innovations in packaging. As a consequence, packaging has played a vital role in minimizing the effort needed to prepare and serve foods. Oven-safe trays, boil-in bags, and microwaveable packaging enable consumers to cook an entire meal with virtually no preparation.

Further, new closure designs offer an ease of opening, an ability to reseal a package, and can include special dispensing features. Advances in food packaging have facilitated the development of modern retail formats that offer consumers the convenience of one-stop shopping and food from around the world. These convenience features introduce value-add and competitive advantages to products, but may also influence the amount and type of packaging waste requiring disposal.

Tamper evident food packaging is used to make it apparent if a container has been opened, unsealed, or broken. This can alert users to potential product tampering in order to alert a person to dispose of such an item and assure consumers that items they are purchasing are fresh, safe, and have not been otherwise handled. These types of packaging are already common in the beverage industry, with the twist-cap that, if already twisted off, means a beverage has been opened. But with an increase in demand for no-contact takeout and delivery services, and a growing concern for food safety, has seen a rise in tamper evident packaging.

The types of tamper evident packaging include tamper evident labels, tamper evident takeout containers, tamper evident delivery bags, and tamper evident tape. The use case often dictates the best type of tamper evident packaging, with tamper evidence labels and tamper evident delivery bags often used on takeout and no-contact delivery use cases, while tamper evident takeout containers are already widely used in convenience stores and fast casual restaurants, with the product not being able to be opened without tearing a seal. And tamper evident tape is often used to provide extra protection and security during large product shipping, such as on cartons, crates, and large boxes.

With the United States generating around 80 million tons of packaging waste per year, according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, this waste, when landfilled or incinerated, poses environmental and health risks. Packaging is also the main source of plastic pollution that is clogging the ocean, expected by some estimates to outweigh the fish in the ocean by 2050 if nothing changes.

The food industry is largely responsible for packaging waste, and with increased awareness and pressure from consumers, many corporations have pledged to reduce environmental impact of their packaging. However, in food packaging, innovations tend to focus on practical and easy-to-use aspects as well as conviviality and aesthetics for consumer attractiveness. While some of the innovations that claim sustainability by using bio-based resources or being biodegradable at the end of their life, are not fully understood or fully sustainable. Many of these innovations are less eco-friendly or sustainable than expected, with material varying significantly in terms of quality of resources and their formulation.

The term sustainable, especially in food packaging, does not have a set definition or criteria, and is susceptible to being overused. Consumer perception tends to be that "sustainable" is usually the continuous production of a product that does not use up resources that cannot be replaced faster than being used, implying the environmental impact of producing the product has been minimized. Eco-friendly is another term used interchangeably with sustainable, with both intended to mean that a product does not harm the environment and conserves resources.

Sustainability goals have seen businesses working to achieve carbon neutrality, in part as sustainable practices have become standard and no longer forward-thinking. To be able to claim carbon neutrality, a business has to balance the emissions from production with the removal of equivalent emissions from the environment.

Both of these practices and claims by businesses have come under increased consumer scrutiny. Consumers are increasingly aware that many claims on packaging of sustainability or eco-friendliness are misleading in their environmental impact, or implied lack thereof. And greenwashing has become a term to describe these businesses that provide misleading or unsubstantiated claims in regard to this environmental impact.

Meanwhile, consumers are increasingly deeming attempts for carbon neutrality, such as the ever-popular tree planting, to be a form of greenwashing, if the tree planting is not paired with some attempts to reduce emissions—rather than using tree planting as a band-aid and allowing a business to continue otherwise damaging practices.

With the increased demand for eco-friendly packaging and reduced plastic packaging, businesses have also looked to use innovative materials, such as compostable materials from food products. Corn starch has been used to make plates, trays, and portion-sized boxes as an alternative to polystyrene. Popcorn has been used to replace non-biodegradable plastic packing peanuts. Mushrooms and avocado seeds have also been used to make packaging, which can be composted after use. Waste avocado seeds have been turned into a plastic replacement, capable of making the packaging more sustainable.

Another trend that has increased has seen shops and supermarkets remove packaging altogether with zero-waste packaging at dispensers. This encourages shoppers to utilize containers they have at home. The idea being that no additional packaging is the most sustainable form of packaging.

There are eco-friendly or sustainable food packaging trends in the food and drink industry. These include compostable food packaging, bioplastics, biodegradable food packaging, recyclable food packaging, reusable food packaging, optimized food packaging, eco-friendly logistics packaging material, and eco-friendly packaging for pet food.

Example of compostable food packaging containers.

Compostable food packaging is designed to be a more sustainable option. It is often considered a non-toxic alternative to food packaging that creates less plastic by breaking down into the soil. A lot of compostable food packaging is made from Polylactic Acid (PLA). PLA cannot be broken down in a typical home composting environment. It needs temperatures of over 60 degrees Celsius, which is hotter than a home compost will get, and means it requires an industrial compost facility to usually shred it and treat it under sustained high temperatures. If compostable plastic is dumped in a landfill or backyard compost heap, it will not break down properly, if at all. And while commercial composting facilities are increasingly widespread, many countries continue to lack the necessary infrastructure and dedicated collection systems, making it a less appealing eco-friendly food packaging option.

Example of a bioplastic used for a clamshell.

The term bioplastic is used to refer to plastic compounds derived from biomass or material of a biological origin rather than from petroleum. Examples include PLA, starch-based polysaccharide, and PBS. The term is often overused and has lead to some confusion over what is and what is not a bioplastic, as well as confusion over what a consumer should do when they are finished with the packaging. For example, many bioplastics are not biodegradable and must be discarded or recycled like normal plastics. Bioplastics can still be harmful, unfortunately, if they end up in the wrong waste stream. This has led some countries to ban bioplastics because of false advertising or improper disposal and processing.

Biodegradable is increasing in popularity, both in manufacturing and at the consumer level. However, biodegradable packaging does not always do what it suggests it does. The good and the bad of biodegradable plastics are important, as they are plastics that can be broken down in an organic fashion and turned into biomass, gas, or water. The term can be used loosely, and manufacturers of so-called biodegradable plastics do not offer timeframes for the degradation process; it could take years to degrade in any noticeable fashion. As well, depending on the type of plastic, biodegradable food packaging will often break down into microplastics, which can be highly damaging to the environment, especially when they end up in the ocean.

If there is a hierarchy of eco-friendly food packaging options, then recyclable packaging is considered better than biodegradable packaging but less desirable than composting. This is because it can be turned back into raw materials to be used again, whereas biodegradable plastic just breaks down, and everything is, in a sense, lost. These are the five most recyclable food packaging materials:

• Reusable packaging
• Paper
• Aluminum
• Glass
• Plastics 1 and 5

Recyclable food packaging remains complicated, both based on the need for industrial recycling facilities and the necessary collection programs to be in place on the consumer level in order to properly take advantage of recyclable materials. But also can be hampered by the lack of effort on the consumer side, with only a small percentage of recyclable materials actually being recycled due to contamination and lack of effort in terms of separation of materials, or understanding which materials are recycled in a local municipality. For example, food boxes with plastic windows have to be separated from each other, but many consumers may not know to separate them, and disassembly may at times be physically impossible.

Recycling is great, but the process of breaking materials down and reforming them can still be an energy intensive process that creates pollution as a byproduct. By contrast, keeping food packaging out of the waste cycle and reusing them in their original form is virtually always a better option. Some consider reusable containers as the future of the food and beverage industry. For a product package to be reusable, however, it has to be robust, which usually rules out paper as an option, with companies opting for materials such as stainless steel, silicone, glass, and robust plastic.

Examples of reusable food packaging.

Cost and convenience remain two of the biggest barriers to reusable packaging growing widespread. However, many brands offer discounts for customers who return reusable packaging, but when a customer cannot be bothered to return the packaging, the effect is lost. As well, the accessorizing of certain types of reusable packaging, such as to-go cups, can increase packaging waste with harder to process and breakdown items which eventually end up in landfills, although the increase in the items lifecycle reduces the overall environmental impact.

Optimized food packaging is another increasing trend, where optimization refers to making packaging better or more efficient in some way, such as minimizing the amount of packaging and making it thinner or lighter. Where manufacturers cannot turn to bioplastics, and the like, optimizing packaging can be a way to reduce the carbon footprint of packaging while also cutting costs. There are barriers to this, and it is not right for all producers.

However, often optimized packaging offers a reduction of a producer's carbon footprint, a lowering in the cost of packaging, and a reduction in logistical costs. These reduced costs can be passed to the consumer. Meanwhile, there remain concerns in the packaging durability, regulations in certain industries further hindering optimization efforts, and a lack of more eco-friendly materials or a lack of facilities to recycle or compost those materials means there may not be any better alternative.

Even when ways to reduce the carbon footprint of individual product packaging or by optimizing the packaging design are not available, the packaging materials in turn can be optimized, such as packing peanuts, bubble wrap, and shrink wrap. Each of these have some eco-friendly alternatives:

• Biodegradable packing peanuts
• Corrugated bubble wrap
• Packaging made out of recycled materials
• Packaging made out of organic materials

Another trend in sustainable packaging has been the adoption of these methods by pet food manufacturers and the advancements made in pet food packaging. This has come as some studies have found 74 percent of pet owners have stated an interest in paying more for sustainable packaging, and two thirds said environmentally friendly or recyclable packaging is important to them. The same environmental concepts of reducing, reusing, and recycling are being applied to pet food manufacturing.