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Stanelco starch based packaging, and biodegradable film ????

The food industry knows the value of offering optimum quality to the consumers of packaged food and is responsive to any improvement that will help keep contents fresh, attractive and for long. Recent innovations in packaging technology, particularly where the improvements relate to barrier characteristics, have been enthusiastically adopted by food packaging companies.


Packaging products made from renewable resources and fully biodegradable packaging have both made a mark in the last few months. Equally recently, food companies have seen the benefit of applying new aseptic technology packaging systems because their products gain extended shelf life. A huge raft of food products now comes in controlled atmosphere packaging when there were none in the market place only a very short time ago. Low-oxygen food packaging has rapidly become the norm. Packaging systems for meat, cheese, fruit, etc. using this technology are under study and some of these would hit the market soon.


One major growth area that does warrant the quality of food in the end-user’s kitchen is that involving edible coating and film technology. The challenge is to make it cost-effective. Consumer acceptance of natural products that are fully edible as an alternative to chemical preservatives is a key issue. Very pure soy protein films, milk-based edible films and cellulose surface coatings are all promising developments. Pectin, starch, processed proteins and many special materials are under development for food coating and packaging.


Non-destructive inspection systems, which employ ultrasound to locate packaging faults, are already available. A little ahead in the future are computer-based systems for modelling the life cycle of foods that will be able to determine the shelf life, respiration rate and product properties of goods in whatever packaging materials they are stored.


There is already much talk about intelligent packaging systems. If such sophisticated packaging can be developed cost-effectively, more examples would be coming into the market place. Active packaging is a precursor to full-scale intelligent packaging. In the final analysis, any new food packaging technology that adds value and minimizes product-package interactions will gain a market.