Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
Paper is obtained from plant cellulose and hence considered as renewable resource.
Types of papers
Kraft paper
Parchment paper
Corrugated fiber boards
Sulphited paper
Grease proof or butter paper
Glassine paper
Wood as packaging materials
Products derived from wood are widely used in the packaging of food.
These are used for packaging of fresh fruits or vegetables as well as their processed
products.
Glass
Aseptic packaging can be defined as the filling of a commercially sterile product into
a sterile container under aseptic conditions and hermetically sealing the containers.
These pack consist of 7 layers
1. polyethylene
2. Printing Ink
3. Paper
4. polyethylene
5. aluminium foil
6. polyethylene
7. polyethylene
Market Analysis and Insights of Food Packaging Technology and Equipment Market
The food packaging technology and equipment market is expected to gain market
growth in the forecast period of 2022 to 2029. Data Bridge Market Research analyses
that the food packaging technology and equipment market will project a CAGR of
7.10% for the forecast period of 2022-2029.
Packaging process basically relies on the technology and equipment that are utilized
to preserve products and helps them increase their shelf-life to keep them fresh for
longer period of time. Moreover; the packaging aids in avoiding the contamination of
products, makes the distribution and transfer of packaged food from one place to
another much easier and also helps in differentiating between the brands and varieties
of products.
The factors such as increase in demand for fresh and high quality food products for
the consumers along with increase shelf life and food quality and sustainability are the
major factors fostering the growth of the food packaging technology and equipment
market. In addition to this, demand for hygienic food packaging across the globe also
carve the way for the growth of market. Moreover, high development cost of the food
packaging technology and equipment management market are the important factors
acting as food packaging technology and equipment market growth determinants.
On the other hand, the adoption of effective and advanced packaging technique will
further generate lucrative opportunities for the food packaging technology and
equipment market. However, the increase occurrences of counterfeit packaging and
ensuring the correct mixture of gases in controlled environment packaging pose as a
major challenge for the market growth rate.
This food packaging technology and equipment market report provides details of new
recent developments, trade regulations, import export analysis, production analysis,
value chain optimization, market share, impact of domestic and localized market
players, analyses opportunities in terms of emerging revenue pockets, changes in
market regulations, strategic market growth analysis, market size, category market
growths, application niches and dominance, product approvals, product launches,
geographic expansions, technological innovations in the market. To gain more info on
food packaging technology and equipment market contact Data Bridge Market
Research for an Analyst Brief, our team will help you take an informed market
decision to achieve market growth.
Global Food Packaging Technology and Equipment Market Scope and Market Size
The food packaging technology and equipment market is segmented on the basis of
technology, material, equipment and application. The growth among segments helps
you analyze niche pockets of growth and strategies to approach the market and
determine your core application areas and the difference in your target markets.
On the basis of technology, the food packaging technology and equipment market is
segmented into controlled, active, intelligent, aseptic, biodegradable and others.
Others segment is further segmented into edible and nano-enabled technology.
On the basis of material, the food packaging technology and equipment market is
segmented into metal, glass and wood, paper and paperboard and plastics, others.
Others segment is further segment into polysaccharides, proteins, and lipids.
On the basis of equipment, the food packaging technology and equipment market is
segmented into form-fill-seal, filling and dosing, cartooning, case packaging,
wrapping and bundling, labelling and coding, inspecting, detecting, and check
weighing machines and others.
On the basis of application, the food packaging technology and equipment market is
segmented into dairy and dairy products, bakery products, confectionery products,
poultry, seafood and meat products, convenience foods, fruits and vegetables and
others. Others segment is further segment into sauces & dressings and condiments.
Food Packaging Technology and Equipment Market Country Level Analysis
The food packaging technology and equipment market is analyses and market size,
volume information is provided by technology, material, equipment and application as
referenced above.
The countries covered in the food packaging technology and equipment market report
are U.S., Canada, Mexico in North America, Germany, Sweden, Poland, Denmark,
Italy, U.K., France, Spain, Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Turkey, Russia, Rest of
Europe in Europe, Japan, China, India, South Korea, New Zealand, Vietnam,
Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Rest of Asia-Pacific
(APAC) in Asia-Pacific (APAC), Brazil, Argentina, Rest of South America as a part of
South America, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, South Africa, Rest of
Middle East and Africa(MEA) as a part of Middle East and Africa(MEA).
North America dominates the food packaging technology and equipment market and
will continue to flourish its trend of dominance during the forecast period owing to
the growth in demand for processed food in developing countries and the rise in
infrastructural development. Asia-Pacific, however is supposed to show lucrative
growth due to increasing investment in research and development of food processing
equipment and technology and rising consumption of healthy food within the region.
The country section of the food packaging technology and equipment market report
also provides individual market impacting factors and changes in regulation in the
market domestically that impacts the current and future trends of the market. Data
points such as consumption volumes, production sites and volumes, import export
analysis, price trend analysis, cost of raw materials, down-stream and upstream value
chain analysis are some of the major pointers used to forecast the market scenario for
individual countries. Also, presence and availability of global brands and their
challenges faced due to large or scarce competition from local and domestic brands,
impact of domestic tariffs and trade routes are considered while providing forecast
analysis of the country data.
Some of the major players operating in the food packaging technology and equipment
market report are Bosch Limited, Coesia S.p.A, Arpac, IMA, Ishida, GEA Group
Aktiengesellschaft, Multivac Inc., ITC Limited, Innovia Films, Graham Packaging
Company, BASF SE, Ampacet Corporation, Printpack, Bomarko Inc., Graphic
Packaging International LLC, Schur Flexibles Holding GesmbH, Klöckner Pentaplast,
Oystar, Nichrome Packaging Solutions, Omori Machinery Co., Ltd., Lindquist
Machine Corporation, Kaufman Engineered Systems and ADELPHI GROUP OF
COMPANIES among others.
Factors affecting shelf-life of food
Introduction
Packaging is an essential part of processing and distributing foods. Whereas preservation is
the major role of packaging, there are several other functions for packaging, each of which
must be understood by the food manufacturer. Packaging must protect against a variety of
assaults including microorganisms, insects and rodents. Environmental factors such as
oxygen and water vapor will spoil foods if they are allowed to enter packages freely.
Packaging can become a shelf life limiting factor in its own right. For example, this may be
as a result of migration of tainting compounds from the packaging into the food or the
migration of food components into the packaging. Different groups within the food chain, i.e.
consumers, retailers, distributors, manufacturers and growers, proffer subtly different
perspectives of shelf life, reflecting the aspect of greatest importance and significance to
them. For consumers, it is imperative that products are safe and the quality meets their
expectations. Consumers will often actively seek the product on the shelf with the longest
remaining shelf life as this is considered to be indicative of freshness.
Shelf life
The quality of most foods and beverages decreases with storage or holding time. The shelf
life of a product is best determined as a part of the product development cycle. The Institute
of Food Technologists (IFT) in the United States has defined shelf life as “the period between
the manufacture and the retail purchase of a food product, during which time the product is in
a state of satisfactory quality in terms of nutritional value, taste, texture and appearance”. The
Institute of Food Science and Technology (IFST) in the United Kingdom has defined shelf
life as “the period of time during which the food product will remain safe; be certain to retain
desired sensory, chemical, physical, microbiological and functional characteristics; and
comply with any label declaration of nutritional data when stored under the recommended
conditions”.
The date of minimum durability is defined as the date until which the food retains its specific
properties when properly stored. It must be indicated by the words “Best before” followed by
the date (or a reference to where the date is given on the labeling). Depending on how long
the food can keep, the date can be expressed by the day and the month, the month and the
year, or the year alone.
Factors affecting shelf life
Product characteristics: Product characteristics including formulation and processing
parameters i.e. intrinsic factors. Intrinsic factors are the properties resulting from the
make-up of the final product and include the following:
o Water activity (aw)
o PH/total acidity
o Natural micro flora and surviving microbiological counts in final product
o Availability of oxygen
o Reduction potential (Eh)
o Natural biochemistry/chemistry of the product
o Added preservatives (e.g. salt, spices, antioxidants)
o Product formulation
Environmental factors: Environment to which the product is exposed during
distribution and storage i.e. extrinsic factors. Extrinsic factors are a result of the
environment that the product encounters during life and include the following:
o Temperature: Temperature is a key factor in determining the rates of
deteriorative reactions, and in certain situations the packaging material can
affect the temperature of the food. For packages that are stored in refrigerated
display cabinets, most of the cooling takes place by conduction and
convection. Simultaneously, there is a heat input by radiation from the
fluorescent lamps used for lighting. Under these conditions, aluminum foil
offers real advantages because of its high reflectivity and high conductivity.
o Relative humidity: The RH of the ambient environment is important and can
influence the water activity (aw) of the food unless the package provides an
excellent barrier to water vapor. Many flexible plastic packaging materials
provide good moisture barriers, but none is completely impermeable.
o Gas atmosphere: The presence and concentration of gases in the environment
surrounding the food have a considerable influence on the growth of
microorganisms, and the atmosphere inside the package is often modified. The
simplest way of modifying the atmosphere is vacuum packaging, that is,
removal of air (and thus O2) from a package prior to sealing; it can have a
beneficial effect by preventing the growth of aerobic microorganisms.
Flushing the inside of the package with a gas such as CO2 or N2 before
sealing is the basis of modified atmosphere packaging (MAP). For example,
increased concentrations of gases such as CO2 are used to retard microbial
growth and thus extend the shelf life of foods. MAP is increasing in
importance, especially with the packaging of fresh fruits and vegetables, fresh
foods, and bakery products. Atmospheric O2 generally has a detrimental effect
on the nutritive quality of foods, and it is therefore desirable to maintain many
types of foods at a low O2 tension, or at least prevent a continuous supply of
O2 into the package. Lipid oxidation results in the formation of
hydroperoxides, peroxides, and epoxides, which will, in turn, oxidize or
otherwise react with carotenoids, tocopherols, and ascorbic acid to cause loss
of vitamin activity. With the exception of respiring fruits and vegetables and
some fresh foods, changes in the gas atmosphere of packaged foods depend
largely on the nature of the package. Adequately sealed metal and glass
containers effectively prevent the interchange of gases between the food and
the atmosphere. With flexible packaging, however, the diffusion of gases
depends not only on the effectiveness of the closure but also on the
permeability of the packaging material, which depends primarily on the
physicochemical structure of the barrier.
o Light: Many deteriorative changes in the nutritional quality of foods are
initiated or accelerated by light. Light is, essentially, an electromagnetic
vibration in the wavelength range between 4000 and 7000 A, the wavelength
of ultraviolet (UV) light ranges between 2000 and 4000 A. The catalytic
effects of light are most pronounced in the lower wavelengths of the visible
spectrum and in the UV spectrum. The intensity of light and the length of
exposure are significant factors in the production of discoloration and flavor
defects in packaged foods. There have been many studies demonstrating the
effect of packaging materials with different light-screening properties on the
rates of deteriorative reactions in foods. Among the most commonly studied
foods has been fluid milk, the extent of off-flavor development being related
to the exposure interval, strength of light, and amount of milk surface exposed.
Enzymic reactions: In food packaging technology, knowledge of enzyme action is
essential to a fuller understanding of the implications of different forms of packaging.
The importance of enzymes to the food processor is often determined by the
conditions prevailing within and outside the food. Control of these conditions is
necessary to control enzymic activity during food processing and storage. The major
factors useful in controlling enzyme activity are temperature, aw, pH, chemicals that
can inhibit enzyme action, alteration of substrates, alteration of products, and
preprocessing control.
Three of these factors are particularly relevant in a packaging context. The first is temperature
i.e. the ability of a package to maintain a low product temperature and thus retard enzyme
action will often increase product shelf life. The second important factor is aw, because the
rate of enzyme activity is dependent on the amount of water available, low levels of water
can severely restrict enzymic activities and even alter the pattern of activity. Finally,
alteration of substrate (in particular, the ingress of O2 into a package) is important in many
O2 dependent reactions that are catalyzed by enzymes, for example, enzymic browning due
to oxidation of phenols in fruits and vegetables.
Chemical reactions: Many of the chemical reactions that occur in foods can lead to
deterioration in food quality (both nutritional and sensory) or the impairment of food
safety. Such reaction classes can involve different reactants or substrates, depending
on the specific food and the particular conditions for processing or storage. The rates
of these chemical reactions are dependent on a variety of factors amenable to control
by packaging, including light, O2 concentration, temperature, and aw. Therefore, the
package can, in certain circumstances, play a major role in controlling these factors,
and thus indirectly the rate of the deteriorative chemical reactions.
The two major chemical changes that occur during the processing and storage of foods and
lead to deterioration in sensory quality are lipid oxidation and nonenzymic browning (NEB).
Chemical reactions are also responsible for changes in the color and flavor of foods during
processing and storage.
o Lipid oxidation: Autoxidation is the reaction of molecular O2 by a free radical
mechanism with hydrocarbons and other compounds. The reaction of free radicals
with O2 is extremely rapid, and many mechanisms for initiation of free radical
reactions have been described. The crucial role that autoxidation plays in the
development of undesirable flavors and aromas in foods is well documented, and
autoxidation is a major cause of food deterioration.
o Nonenzymic browning: Nonenzymic browning (NEB) is one of the major
deteriorative chemical reactions that occur during storage of dried and concentrated
foods. The NEB or Maillard, reaction can be divided into following three stages.
(1) Early maillard reactions involving a simple condensation between an aldehyde (usually a
reducing sugar) and an amine (usually a protein or amino acid) without browning.
(2) Advanced maillard reactions that lead to the formation of volatile or soluble substances
(3) Final maillard reactions leading to insoluble brown polymers.
o Color changes: Acceptability of color in a given food is influenced by many factors,
including cultural, geographical and sociological aspects of the population. However,
regardless of these many factors, certain food groups are acceptable only if they fall
within a certain color range. The color of many foods is due to the presence of natural
pigments such as chlorophylls, anthocyanins, carotenoids, flavonoids, and myoglobin.
o Flavor changes: In fruits and vegetables, enzymically generated compounds derived
from long-chain fatty acids play an extremely important role in the formation of
characteristic flavors. In addition, these types of reactions can lead to important off-
flavors. Enzyme-induced oxidative breakdown of unsaturated fatty acids occurs
extensively in plant tissues, and this yields characteristic aromas associated with some
ripening fruits and disrupted tissues. Aldehydes and ketones are the main volatiles
from autoxidation, and these compounds can cause painty, fatty, metallic, papery, and
candle like flavors in foods when their concentrations are sufficiently high. However,
many of the desirable flavors of cooked and processed foods derive from modest
concentrations of these compounds. The permeability of packaging materials is of
importance in retaining desirable volatile components within packages and in
preventing undesirable components entering the package from the ambient
atmosphere.
Nutritional changes: The four major factors that influence nutrient degradation and
can be controlled to varying extents by packaging are light, O2 concentration,
temperature, and aw. However, because of the diverse nature of the various nutrients
as well as the chemical heterogeneity within each class of compounds and the
complex interactions of these variables, generalizations about nutrient degradation in
foods are unhelpful.
Physical changes: The physical properties of foods can be defined as those properties
that lend themselves to description and quantification by physical rather than
chemical means and include geometrical, thermal, optical, mechanical, rheological,
electrical, and hydrodynamic properties. Geometrical properties encompass the
parameters of size, shape, volume, density, and surface area as related to
homogeneous food units, as well as geometrical texture characteristics. Although
many of these physical properties are important and must be considered in the design
and operation of a successful packaging system, in the present context the focus is on
undesirable physical changes in packaged foods.
Microbiological changes: Microorganisms can make both desirable and undesirable
changes to the quality of foods, depending on whether they are introduced as an
essential part of the food preservation process or arise adventitiously and
subsequently grow to produce food spoilage. Every microorganism has a limiting aw
value below which it will not grow, form spores, or produce toxic metabolites. Water
activity can influence each of the four main growths cycle phases by its effect on the
germination time, the length of the lag phase and the growth rate phase, the size of the
stationary population, and the subsequent death rate. Whether a microorganism
survives or dies in a low aw environment is influenced by intrinsic factors that are
also responsible for its growth at higher aw. These factors include water-binding
properties, nutritive potential, pH, Eh, and the presence of antimicrobial compounds.
Microbial growth and survival are not entirely ascribed to reduce aw but are also
attributable to the nature of the solute. Key extrinsic factors relating to aw that
influence microbial deterioration in foods include temperature, O2, and chemical
treatments. These factors can combine in a complex way to encourage or discourage
microbial growth.
Functions and requirements of packaging
Introduction
Packaging is an industrial and marketing technique for containing, protecting, identifying and
facilitating the sale and distribution of agricultural, industrial and consumer products. Or The
packaging institute international defines packaging as a enclosure of products, items or
packages in a wrapped pouch, bag, box, cup, tray, can, tube, bottle or other container form to
perform one or more of the following functions as containment, protection and /or
preservation, communications and utility or performance. If the device or container performs
one or more of these functions it is considered as a package.
The UK Institute of packaging provides three definitions of packaging.
(a) A coordinated system of preparing goods for transport, distribution, storage, retailing and
end-use.
(b) A means of ensuring safe delivery to the ultimate consume in sound condition at
minimum cost.
(c) A techno-economic function aimed at minimizing cost of delivery while maximizing
sales.
Basic functions of packaging
Efficient packaging is a necessity for every kind of food, whether it is fresh or processed .It is
an essential link between the food producer and the consumer, and unless performed correctly
the standing of the product suffers and customer goodwill is lost. The basic functions of
packaging are more specifically stated.
1. Containment: The containment function involves the ability of the packaging to
maintain its integrity during the handling involved in filling, sealing, processing (in
some cases, such as retorted, irradiated, and high-pressure-processed foods),
transportation, marketing, and dispensing of the food.
2. Protection: The need for protection depends on the food product but generally
includes prevention of biological contamination (from microorganisms, insects,
rodents), oxidation (of lipids, flavors, colors, vitamins, etc.), moisture change (which
affects microbial growth, oxidation rates, and food texture), aroma loss or gain, and
physical damage (abrasion, fracture, and/or crushing). Protection can also include
providing tamper evident features on the package. In providing protection, packaging
maintains food safety and quality achieved by refrigeration, freezing, drying, heat
processing, and other preservation of foods.
3. Communication: The information that a package provides involves meeting both legal
requirements and marketing objectives. Food labels are required to provide
information on the food processor, ingredients (including possible allergens in simple
language), net content, nutrient contents, and country of origin. Package graphics are
intended to communicate product quality and, thus, sell the product. Bar codes allow
rapid check-out and tracking of inventory. Other package codes allow determination
of food production location and date. Various open dating systems inform the
consumer about the shelf life of the food product. Plastic containers incorporate a
recycling code for identification of the plastic material.
4. Preservation: Product protection is the most important function of packaging.
Protection means the establishment of a barrier between the contained product and the
environment that competes with man for the product.
5. Convenience: Providing convenience (sometimes referred to as utility of use or
functionality) to consumers has become a more important function of packaging.
Range of sizes, easy handling, easy opening and dispensing, resealability, and food
preparation in the package are examples of packaging providing convenience to the
consumer.
6. Unitization: Unitization is assembly or grouping of a number of individual items of
products or packages into a single entity that can be more easily distributed, marketed,
or purchased as a single unit. For example: a paperboard folding carton containing
three flexible material pouches of seasoning or soup mix delivers more product to a
consumer than does a single pouch. A paperboard carton wrapped around 12 beer
bottles provides more desired liquid refreshment for home entertainment than does an
attempt to carry individual bottles in one’s hands. Unitization reduces the number of
handlings required in physical distribution and, thus, reduces the potential for damage.
Because losses in physical distribution are significantly reduced with unitization,
significant reductions in distribution costs are affected.
7. Information about the product: Packaging is one of the major communications media.
Usually overlooked in the measured media criteria, packaging is the main
communications link between the consumer or user and the manufacturer, at both the
point of purchase and the point of use. Packaging educates consumers about
requirements, product ingredients and uses etc.
8. Presentation: Material type, shape, size, colour and merchandising display units etc.
of packaging improve display of food.
9. Brand communication: Packaging provides brand communication to the consumers by
the use of typography, symbols, illustrations, advertising and colour, thereby creating
visual impact.
10. Promotion: Packaging helps to promote the food as it informs to consumers about
many offers i.e. free extra product, new product, money off etc.
11. Economy: The package is also an important part of the manufacturing process and
must be efficiently filled, closed, and processed at high speeds in order to reduce
costs. It must be made of materials which are rugged enough to provide protection
during distribution but be of low enough cost for use with foods. Packaging costs,
which include the materials as well as the packaging machinery, are a significant part
of the cost of manufacturing foods, and in many cases, these costs can be greater than
the cost of the raw ingredients used to make the food. Therefore, packaging materials
must be economical, given the value of the food product.
Other functions of packaging
Other functions of packaging include apportionment of the product into standard units of
weight, measure, or quantity prior to purchase. Yet another objective is to facilitate product
use by the consumer with devices such as spouts, squeeze bottles, and spray cans. Aerosols
not only serve as dispensers, but also prepare the product for use, such as aerating the
contained whip toppings. Still other forms of packaging are used in further preparation of the
product by the consumer, for example tea bags that are plastic-coated, porous paper pouches,
or frozen dinner trays, which were originally aluminum and now are fabricated from other
materials such as crystallized polyester and polyester-coated paperboard.
Requirements for effective food packaging
Some of the important general requirements of food packages are given below
1. Be nontoxic
2. Protect against contamination from microorganisms
3. act as a barrier to moisture loss or gain and oxygen ingress
4. protect against ingress of odors or environmental toxicants
5. Filter out harmful UV light
6. Provide resistance to physical damage
7. Be transparent (8) be tamper – resistant or tamper – evident
8. Be easy to open
9. Have dispensing and resealing features
10. Be disposed of easily,
11. Meet size, shape and weight requirements
12. Have appearance, printability features
13. Be low cost
14. Be compatible with food
15. Have special features such as utilizing groups of products together.
The nature of the deteriorative reactions in foods and the factors that control the rates of these reactions will be
briefly outlined. Deteriorative reactions can be enzymic, chemical, physical, and biological. Biochemical,
chemical, physical, and biological changes occur in foods during processing and storage, and these combine to
affect food quality. The most important quality-related changes are as follows:
Microbial reactions, microorganisms can grow in foods. In the case of fermentation this is desired; otherwise,
microbial growth will lead to spoilage and, in the case of pathogens, to unsafe food.
Biochemical reactions, many foods contain endogenous enzymes that can potentially catalyze reactions leading
to quality loss (enzymic browning, lipolysis, proteolysis, and more). In the case of fermentation, enzymes can be
exploited to improve quality.
Physical reactions, many foods are heterogeneous and contain particles. These particles are unstable, and
phenomena such as coalescence, aggregation, and sedimentation usually lead to quality loss.
The interactions of intrinsic and extrinsic factors affect the likelihood of the occurrence of reactions or processes
that affect shelf life. These shelf life limiting reactions or processes can be classified as: chemical/biochemical,
microbiological and physical. The effects of these factors are not always detrimental and in some instances they
are essential for the development of the desired characteristics of a product.
Table: 2.1
Many important deteriorative changes can occur as a result of reactions between components within the food, or
between components of the food and the environment. Chemical reactions will proceed if reactants are available
and if the activation energy threshold of the reaction is exceeded. The rate of reaction is dependent on the
concentration of reactants and on the temperature and/or other energy, e.g. light induced reactions. A general
assumption is that for every 10°C rise in temperature, the rate of reaction doubles. Specialized proteins called
enzymes catalyse biochemical reactions.
2.3. Oxidation
A number of chemical components of food react with oxygen affecting the colour, flavor, nutritional status and
occasionally the physical characteristics of foods. In some cases, the effects are deleterious and limit shelf life,
in others they are essential to achieve the desired product characteristics. Packaging is used to exclude, control
or contain oxygen at the level most suited for a particular product. Foods differ in their avidity for oxygen, i.e.
the amount that they take up, and their sensitivity to oxygen, i.e. the amount that results in quality changes.
Estimates of the maximum oxygen tolerance of foods are useful to determine the oxygen permeability of
packaging materials required to meet a desired shelf life.
Foods containing a high percentage of fats, particularly unsaturated fats, are susceptible to oxidative rancidity
and changes in flavor. Saturated fatty acids oxidize slowly compared with unsaturated fatty acids. Antioxidants
that occur naturally or are added, either slow the rate of, or increase the lag time to, the onset of rancidity. Three
different chemical routes can initiate the oxidation of fatty acids: the formation of free radicals in the presence
of metal ion catalysts such as iron, or heat, or light – termed the classical free radical route; photooxidation in
which photo-sensitisers such as chlorophyll or myoglobin affect the energetic state of oxygen; or an enzymic
route catalyzed by lipoxygenase.
In milk chocolate, the presence of tocopherol (vitamin E), a natural antioxidant in cocoa liquor provides a high
degree of protection against rancidity. However, white chocolate does not have the antioxidant protection of
cocoa liquor and so is prone to oxidative rancidity, particularly light induced. In snack products and particularly
nuts the onset of rancidity is the shelf life limiting factor. Such sensitive products are often packed gas flushed to
remove oxygen and packed with 100% nitrogen to protect against oxidation and provide a cushion to protect
against physical damage.
Oxidation of lycopene, a red/orange carotenoid pigment in tomatoes, causes an adverse colour change from red
to brown and affects flavor. In canned tomato products this can be minimized by using plain unlacquered cans.
The purpose of the tin coating is to provide protection of the underlying steel, but it also provides a chemically
reducing environment within the can.
Tomato ketchup used to suffer from black neck – the top of the ketchup in contact with oxygen in the headspace
turned black. To disguise this, a label was placed around the neck of the bottle, hiding the discoloration. It has
since been shown that oxidation depends on the level of iron in the ketchup and blackening has now been
prevented.
Fruits and vegetables are living commodities and their rate of respiration affects shelf life – generally the greater
the rate of respiration, the shorter the shelf life. Immature products such as peas and beans have much higher
respiration rates and shorter shelf life than products that are mature storage organs such as potatoes and onions.
Respiration is the metabolic process whereby sugars and oxygen are converted to more usable sources of energy
for living cells. Highly organized and controlled biochemical pathways promote this metabolic process. In non-
storage tissues where there are few reserves, such as lettuce and spinach, or immature flower crops such as
broccoli, this effect is even greater. Use of temperature control reduces the respiration rate, extending the life of
the product. Temperature control combined with MAP further suppresses the growth of yeasts, moulds and
bacteria, extending shelf life further.
All plants produce ethylene to differing degrees and some parts of plants produce more than others. The effect of
ethylene is commodity dependent but also dependent on temperature, exposure time and concentration.
Under suitable conditions, most microorganisms will grow or multiply. During growth in foods, microorganisms
will consume nutrients from the food and produce metabolic by-products such as gases or acids. They may
release extra-cellular enzymes (e.g. amylases, lipases, proteases) that affect the texture, flavor, odor and
appearance of the product. Some of these enzymes will continue to exist after the death of the microorganisms
that produced them, continuing to cause product spoilage. In canning, low acid foods are filled into containers
that are hermetically sealed and sterilized, typically at 115.5–1210C or above, to ensure all pathogens, especially
Clostridium botulinum, are destroyed. Low temperatures might inhibit the growth of an organism and affects its
rate of growth. Some microorganisms are adapted to grow at chill temperatures, hence the composition of
organisms in the natural microflora will change.
Many packaging functions such as protection of the product from environmental factors and contamination such
as dust and dirt, dehydration and rehydration, insect and rodent infestation, containment of the product to avoid
leakage and spillage, and physical protection action against hazards during storage and distribution are taken for
granted by the consumer. Packaging is very often the key factor to limiting the effects of physical damage on
product shelf life. Different forms of this process is
Physical damage
Insect damage
Moisture changes
The direct contact between food and packaging materials provides the potential for migration. Additive
migration describes the physico-chemical migration of molecular species and ions from the packaging into food.
Such interactions can be used to the advantage of the manufacturer and consumer in active and intelligent
packaging, but they also have the potential to reduce the safety and quality of the product, thereby limiting
product shelf life.