Three new materials for food packaging

How will the 21st century food packaging materials develop? Among them, plastic packaging materials are a major branch. Experts have clearly pointed out the direction, which is to improve the existing plastic properties, develop new varieties, increase strength and barrier properties, reduce the amount (thick-walled), reuse, recycling and protection of the environment.
New high barrier plastics have been widely used abroad. Because this packaging material can not only enhance the protection of food, but also can reduce the amount of plastic, and even can be reused. For processed foods that require high barrier protection, vacuum packaging, and pneumatic packaging, composite materials are generally used for packaging. There must be more than one layer of high barrier material in the multilayer composite. Commonly used high barrier materials include aluminum foil, nylon, and polyester. With the increase in food requirements for protection, more barrier ethylene vinyl alcohol copolymers, polyvinyl alcohol, etc. have begun to apply. At present, developed countries have developed PEN (polyethylene naphthalate) with a small amount of application, which brings many advantages to food packaging. The chemical structure of PEN is similar to that of PET (polyethylene terephthalate), but the rigidity is greatly improved, and the oxygen-barrier property and water-repellent property are several times higher than those of PET, and the UV-absorbing property and gas-adsorptivity are low. The food is tasteless and can be reused.
Inorganic high barrier microwave food packaging materials will become the new favorite. Due to the disadvantages of current packaging made of aluminum foil and certain plastic composite materials that are not transparent, easy to recycle, and cannot be used for microwave processing, the SiOx plating material developed in recent years can be used as a substitute. SiOx is a thin layer of silicon oxide deposited on PET, PA, PP and Other substrates. It not only has better barrier properties, but also has excellent atmospheric environment adaptability. Its barrier properties are almost unaffected by changes in ambient humidity and temperature. SiOx coating has high barrier property, high microwave transparency and transparency, can be used for the soft packaging of microwave processed foods, and can also be used as packaging containers for beverages and edible oils. China has begun a certain amount of research, and a few developed countries have begun to apply. The cost of SiOx coating is high, and the large-scale production technology is not yet perfect, but due to its special properties, it will become an important packaging material in this century.
The application of active packaging technology will become a trend. Active technology packaging includes the interaction between odors and foods inside the packaging and packaging. Active packaging can effectively maintain the nutrition and flavor of foods. Due to advances in materials science, biological sciences, and gas packaging, active packaging technology has developed rapidly in recent years. Such as oxygen scavenging active packaging, sterilization and active packaging.