What Are Types of Packaging for Food?

 Food may be the most important commodity that no one can live without, whether you are rich or poor...But before food can reach us consumers from farm or factory, packaging plays an important role to keep it fresh and good! With the rapid development of economy and technology, food packaging is constantly evolving, showing new characteristics to meet new consumer needs and echo the environmental protection appeal as well. Expanding the functions of food packaging and low-pollution green packaging have become the development trend of food packaging in the new century.

What are types of packaging for food?

#1 Type: Aseptic Packaging for Food

Consumer demand today has brought about higher requirements for the function of food packaging preservation. Food aseptic packaging is actually a method of sealing the sterilized food in a sterilized container, keeping it in a sealed state after filling, and increasing the shelf life without adding preservatives nor refrigeration. Aseptic fresh-keeping packaging is the most popular in the food industry of various countries. Its application is not only limited to fruit juice and fruit juice drinks, but also used to package milk, mineral water, wine and so on.

#2 type: Green Packaging for Food

Simply put, green packaging refers to packaging that does not pollute the ecological environment, is harmless to human health, and can be recycled. Experts predict that green food packaging will dominate the world market in the next 10 years, which also caters to the needs of consumers, because people are now extremely concerned about the topic of environmental protection. And all cardboard retail food packaging will get wider use in future...

#3 Type: Functional Packaging

Functional packaging is a new type of food packaging which usually involves technological innovation. Functional packaging can be presented in a variety of ways. For example, a US company applies some sort of UV blocker to packaging to prevent changes in the color, smell, taste and nutrition of the packaging content. A Japanese company has introduced a kind of preservative paper that can be used for food packaging, which can keep food with marinade for 3 weeks at a high temperature of 38 degrees without deteriorating.

#4 Type: Smart Packaging 

Smart packaging is smart to display some important parameters such as the temperature, humidity, pressure, degree of sealing, and time of the packaging space. Generally, it is composited with functional packaging materials such as photoelectric temperature-sensitive, humidity-sensitive, and gas-sensitive. There is a lot of room for development of this kind of packaging.

#5 Type: Conveniece Food Packaging 

None of the first four can replace this. Convenient food packaging can bring more convenience to consumers' life. Convenient packaging that realizes self heating or self cooling in a short time can meet the needs of many outdoor workers, tourists, etc.

#6 Type: Personalized Food Packaging 

The increase in similar products has made entrepreneurs fiercely chasing in appearance and function. Visual stimulation plays an increasingly relevant role in consumer choice. Different colors can give consumers different psychological reactions, and the clever use of color emotion laws can arouse consumers' attention. The personalized development of food packaging is an inevitable trend.

Why is food packaging so important?

What is packaging in food processing

Food Packaging is an integral part of the whole industrial food processing. It encloses, protects food and prevents damage from biological, chemical, and physical external factors when the food leaves the factory to the consumer. It also has the function of maintaining the stable quality of the food itself. It is convenient for food consumption. It is also the first impression show of food to make on consumers...

What are the different types of food packaging

(1) Packaging types by Materials

Food packaging can be categorized into metal, glass, paper, plastic, composite materials, etc.

(2) Packaging types by Forms

Food packaging includes cans, bottles, bags, bags, rolls and food boxes etc. 

(3) Packaging types by Methods

Food packaging may be categorized into bottling, canning, bagging, wrapping, filling, integration, sealing, labeling, coding, etc.

(4) Packaging types by Layers

Food packaging can be divided into inner packaging, secondary packaging, tertiary packaging, etc. 

Why is food packaging so important?

Food packaging is important. The main reasons are listed below but not limited to. Protect the original quality and extend the shelf life of food. Packaged food is more convenient in circulation. Prevent food from contamination in the circulation.  Food packaging prevents tampering. Promote the competitiveness of brands and boost food sales.

Biodegradable packaging for food

Food packaging is so common and ubiquitous in our daily life that a daunting amount of packaging waste is produced everyday. All of the disposed food packaging waste will no doubt go into our environments. That will result in a huge damage to our earth. So everyone should know how important it is to package the food with biodegradable materials. Reduce and stop the use of plastic packaging. When plastic is needed, try to use biodegradable materials like PLA instead.

Cardboard food cardboard boxes

Cardboard boxes are becoming trendy for food packaging in recent years with the roused environmental awareness worldwide. But not only being eco-friendly, cardboard food boxes are also versatile in styles and design. And they are even much cheaper than other packaging materials...

Custom-made Square Cardboard Food Packaging Boxes

Disadvantages of Vacuum Sealing Food

What is vacuum packing?

Vacuum Packing is to remove all the air in the packaging containers (usually plastic bags) and sealed. The scarcity of air is equivalent to the effect of low oxygen, so that microorganisms have no living conditions to achieve the goal of fresh fruit and no disease.

Vacuum Packing include vacuum plastic bags, aluminum foil packaging, glassware, plastic bags and vacuum packaging of composite materials, etc. The materials of vacuum packing should be selected based on the types of items to pack. For example, fresh foods like fruits and vegetables are actually live and they still need cellular respiration, while high levels of hypoxia can cause physiological diseases. Therefore, fresh fruits are seldom seen in vacuum packing.

How to select Vacuum Packing Machines

There are varieties of vacuum packaging machines, and the following factors should be considered when selecting.

a) Packaging speed. For the sake of improving production efficiency, double-chamber or multi-chamber vacuum packaging machines can be used to improve the overall production schedule.

b) Whether the packaged items need to be filled with other protective gases. In some cases, multifunctional vacuum packaging machine with inflatable device should be used.

c) Requirements for the vacuum degree of the packaged items. If the packaged items need to be preserved in a high vacuum condition, you need to choose a cavity vacuum packaging machine.

d) The requirements for the vacuum packaging machine posed by the compositions of the packaged items.

Disadvantages of Vacuum Sealing Food

(1) Limits in Food Variety

The common vacuum-packed foods in the market include pastries, staple foods, dried mushrooms, etc., but such vacuum packaging method is not suitable for all foods. Fresh agricultural products still need oxygen for respiratory metabolism during storage to maintain life, and they are not suitable for vacuum packaging. For meat products, vacuum packaging is more applied to cooked meat products rather than fresh meat. This is because during the vacuuming process of fresh meat products, as the oxygen is extracted, the myoglobin contained in the fresh meat cannot combine with oxygen to form a bright red substance, so it turns brown. This makes the fresh meat look like it has deteriorated after long-term storage, which can easily lead to a decrease in sales. Therefore, when packaging fresh meat products, modified atmosphere packaging is often used instead.

(2) Limits in Food Preservation

Vacuum Sealing Food does not necessarily mean it's absolutely safe. Bloating may occur in vacuum-sealing package, such as vacuum-packed plastic bags or canned foods. The reason for swelling up may be that the food is not completely sterilized before the vacuum sealing, and bacteria still exist. Vacuum packaging just provides a perfect anaerobic environment for them, and bacteria feed on the contents of the package and produce gas. 

If bloating does not occur, then the Vacuum Sealing Food must be safe? Not necessarily. The quality of vacuumed food is closely related to the environment. The environmental factors of food preservation include temperature, humidity, antiseptic, and gas. Among these influencing factors, temperature plays a major role. The ambient temperature and storage temperature during vacuum packaging have a certain impact on vacuum packaged food. A lower storage temperature of 2～6℃ is the best. In order to achieve a better preservation effect, an appropriate amount of preservatives can be added to the vacuumed food package.

China Releases New Version of Excessive Packaging Standard on Food

Is the food or cosmetics you buy "over-packaged"? The reporter learned from the national standard special press conference held by the State Administration for Market Regulation (the SAMR) on September 2 that the new mandatory national standard Restriction of Excessive Packaging for  Food and Cosmetics Products will be officially implemented on September 1, 2023. According to the new standard, the packaging of grain and its processed products with more than three layers, other types of food and cosmetics packaging with more than four layers, or the packaging materials of commodities with expensive materials can be preliminarily judged as "excessive packaging".

About 30% to 40% of municipal solid waste is packaging waste

Commodity packaging has the functions of protecting commodities, beautifying products, guiding consumption, and increasing the added value of commodities. But at present, some food and cosmetics companies on the market are over-packing, not environmentally friendly, and not economical. They are manifested by too many packaging layers, excessive air gaps, and high costs, which exceed the basic functions of the packaging itself. Excessive packaging and passing on the cost to consumers not only wastes resources, but also increases the burden on consumers, and even causes pollution to the environment.

According to research, packaging waste accounts for about 30% to 40% of all the urban domestic wastes, in China. And most of them are generated by excessive packaging. It can be seen that excessive packaging of commodities wastes resources and energy, and increases the burden on consumers, and the packaging waste generated is even more polluting to the environment.

In order to solve the problem of excessive packaging of food and cosmetics, the the SAMR's Standards Committee, in conjunction with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other departments, organized relevant standardization technical committees and technical institutions to revise the 2009 version of the standard, formulate and publish a new mandatory state standard, Restriction of Excessive Packaging for  Food and Cosmetics Products.

"LAC" - A simple way to judge whether a product is over-packaged

When buying food and cosmetics products, how can consumers quickly determine whether the packaging is excessive packaging?

The new standard specifies requirements for packaging void ratio, packaging layers and packaging cost, as well as corresponding calculation, testing and determination methods. Among them, the method for determining excessive packaging of goods is greatly simplified. Consumers only need to check the weight or volume of the goods themselves, and measure the volume of the outermost packaging. Through calculations, they can preliminarily determine whether the goods have excessive packaging problems. In addition, the new standard also strictly limits the number of packaging layers. Food and processed products should not exceed three-layer packaging, and other foods and cosmetics should not exceed four-layer packaging.

In this regard, Wei Hong, deputy director of the Standards and Technology Department of the SAMR, further explained that consumers can generally judge whether goods are excessively packaged through LAC ("Look, Ask and Calculate"). "Look" means a preliminary judgment by visual inspection to see whether the outer packaging is luxurious and whether the packaging materials are expensive. Then "Ask" about the number of packaging layers. Finally measuring or estimating the dimensions of the outer packaging to "Calculate" if it exceeds the maximum allowable outer packaging volume. The above three simple steps can generally judge excessive packaging. From the perspective of environmental protection, consumers are advised to avoid buying over-packaged products.

Two-year transitional period before the new standard takes effect in September 2023

The reporter noted that the new standard will be officially implemented on September 1, 2023, setting a two-year transition period for enterprises and the market.

In this regard, Chen Hongjun, another official from the SAMR, said that after the release of the new standard, food and cosmetics manufacturers need to design conforming product packaging in accordance with the requirements of the new standard. At the same time, they need to ship out the inventory packaging and finished goods during this period, considering cosmetics commodities have a long shelf life and a relatively long consumption cycle in circulation. In order to avoid affecting production and business activities and generating new waste, a two-year implementation transition period has been set up on the basis of extensive consultation with relevant industrial departments, industry associations and enterprises. During this period, companies should design product packaging for compliance according to standard requirements, and produce and put them into use as soon as possible; at the same time, speed up the consumption of inventory packaging and products that have entered the market to ensure that products produced and sold after the implementation of the standard meet the new standard .

After the two-year transition period, the market will not allow the reproduction and sale of food and cosmetics that do not meet the new standards. Therefore, enterprises are called upon to rectify and meet the standards as soon as possible during the transition period. At the same time, consumers are also urged not to buy over-packaged products, and to practice the concept of green and low-carbon consumption with their own actions.