Prevention Through Quality Assurance

The priority for packaging materials is on product protection, as food involves more resources than the packaging. Food product losses cause higher CO2 emissions than can be saved by using less packaging material. Material reduction or substitution is therefore always accompanied by optimized properties. The aim is to develop bio-based, intelligent and sustainable packaging systems. Initial packaging with a covering film of a paper-plastic composite is already used for cheese and sausage. The paper can be removed again from the composite material for the window cut-out using laser cutting. This makes cut-outs possible in any desired shape without having to use special tools, because laser marking machine  is easy to program. The appearance and touch are the same as paper and functionality is provided in terms of barrier properties, running properties on machines, rigidity and printability. The composite saves fossil raw materials and offers new potential for differentiating between products at the POS.

MAP protects food well, is consumer-friendly and usually resealable, although a problem still exists here between the force needed to open and reclose the package. It offers good barriers against gases, vapours, light and aromas and active properties like oxygen scavenger, moisture control or UV protection. The use of active substances like silver or nanosilver for anti-microbial treatment of packages is controversial. They could migrate into the product and they only kill germs if the products are moist. Their effect is very much slower at cold store temperatures.

A consortium of research institutions, a chemicals concern, meat processing firms and manufacturers of packaging systems are working on the “Safe-Pack” project – a plastic material that kills bacteria using a purely physical principle. This introduces an additional active agent, which could migrate to the content of the package. This material significantly extends the durability of fresh meat products. It will certainly take some time until the new packaging material can be used, as it still has to pass the regulatory approval procedures for food.

Adhesives are found in many food packages. Their spectrum of use ranges from folding boxes and labels to film packages. Spicy sauces and food containing vinegar or other acids place high demands on flexible packages. The aggressive contents damage the packages, including the adhesives used for laminating the packaging films. New laminating adhesives with a large non-volatile component manage with less solvent and suppress this unwanted effect. This saves material costs and reduces the energy consumption, as less power is needed for dryers. Another advantage of these adhesive systems is that the bonding agent used no longer blocks the application cell of the roller. Cell blocking can be avoided and the amount of adhesive used can be kept more constant over the whole application.

The machinery manufacturers have developed a number of inspection systems that can be integrated as modules into existing plant. Besides detecting foreign bodies, some of them take over additional tasks like weighing, verification of markings or leak inspection of the packages. MAP packages are increasingly used for meat and sausage, cheese or convenience foods, not least because of the trend to more convenience. Modular test systems supplement form, fill and seal lines and ensure reliable automatic checking for fault-free sealing seams, readable and correct labels and foreign bodies. Depending on the user’s requirement, multisensory inspection units can carry out optical or mechanical checks or combined optical and mechanical package checks.