Enhance Food Packaging Safety,Outstanding tricks of various countries
Food packaging, as an important part of food processing, plays an important role in ensuring food quality and safety in the process of food circulation. Plastic packaging is widely used in food processing industry because of its high portability, strong design and easy coloring. It has become the mainstream packaging material of all kinds of food. However, with the increasingly prominent environmental problems and the increasing tension of resources and energy, plastic packaging enterprises are facing severe challenges while facing new opportunities for development. In recent years, green packaging materials which are easy to be recycled or degraded by the environment have become the focus of research and development of packaging materials at home and abroad.
Indonesia Develops "Edible Food Packaging"
Recently, Evoware Indonesia has proposed a plan to replace plastic packaging with edible algae in order to solve the current serious environmental pollution problem. Indonesia launched the packaging program, mainly designed two kinds of algae-based materials to replace part of the traditional plastic packaging materials. One is a biodegradable algae-based material for non-food products such as soap, the other is a water-soluble algae-based material specially used for food packaging, which can be completely edible in the insoluble state. The seaweed-based bioplastics are green packaging materials, almost tasteless and odorless, and contain a large number of fibers, vitamins and minerals. They are very suitable for human consumption. Consumers need not worry about their health problems.
California regulates food packaging
Under the Green Chemistry Initiative, California began to consider regulating the field of food packaging. California has included food packaging in its assessment plan for the first time because of concerns that some food contact materials may be harmful to the human body or the environment. For example, bisphenol A and bisphenol S, which are used in the inner walls of plastic resins for food and beverage cans, and perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, which create oil-proof and waterproof coatings for food packaging, are identified as candidate chemicals for evaluation. It can be seen that it is equally important to ensure the safety of food packaging materials while obtaining special properties.
Nutrition Index Labels Used in French Food Packaging Bags
On May 7, at the initiative of the French Public Health Agency, nutrition index labels were used on food packaging bags. It is understood that the label is divided into five grades of ABCDE according to green, light green, yellow, orange and red. Green A means that food quality is better, nutrition is more balanced, and additives are less. On the contrary, food may contain too much sugar, salt, fat, additives and so on. With the help of nutrition label, nutrition is clear at a glance, so it is welcomed by many consumers. At present, the label is not a compulsory measure. Some international brands such as Danone and McDonald's have promised to print nutrition labels to guide consumers to eat healthily. A canned chicken manufacturer improved the formula according to the score, intentionally lowering the salt and fatty acid content, upgrading from C to B. Some brands, such as Nestle and Coca-Cola, insist on using the original label.
Canadian invention test patch can be packaged separately to identify deteriorated food
In addition to choosing safe materials, consumers usually rely on the shelf life or the best consumption period indicated on the product packaging to determine whether food bought from outside is safe to eat, but such labels do not tell consumers whether the product is contaminated by bacteria such as E. coli or Salmonella.
Recently, Canadian researchers have invented a new method of food detection, which can identify deteriorated or contaminated food conveniently and effectively. Hazardous pathogens can be detected in real time on site without dismantling food packaging. Tohid Didar, team leader, explained that researchers would be able to identify specific bacterial molecules, print them on transparent patches and attach them to food packaging to detect whether the food inside the packaging contained specific bacteria. The test response or result can be read through the scanning of handheld devices (such as mobile phones).
The patch itself has no impact on food, and has a wide range of applications, which can completely replace the current expiration date label, Didal said.
It is understood that most of the new environmental protection materials can be recycled and reused, and can be degraded by weathering back to nature. If they are widely used in food packaging industry, their negative impact on the environment will be greatly reduced. In order to adapt to the development trend of the new era, food packaging enterprises should pay attention to energy saving and environmental protection, adhere to scientific and technological innovation, research and develop new materials, and take the road of sustainable development of green science while meeting the increasing requirements of packaging quality and efficiency.
