Talking about the important role of compatibility between packaging materials and food contents

[Chinese Packaging Network News] The ancients said: "The people take food as their day, food and security as the first." It can be seen that the importance of food safety has been paid attention to since ancient times, and it has been placed in a high position with heaven. The safety of food not only affects the safety of the lives and properties of the general public, but also implicates the construction and improvement of the national economy, the people’s livelihood, and a harmonious society, thereby affecting the stability and prosperity of the entire nation and society.

The frequent occurrence of food safety problems today is caused by problems in production, circulation, consumption, and even management. But to a large extent, food safety should be related to packaging. The selection of raw and auxiliary materials for packaging products, structural design of packaging products, processing and packaging of packaging products, and packaging identification all directly affect the food safety of packaged foods. In daily life, the close relationship between food packaging and food has long been recognized by millions of households. Whether it is shops, supermarkets, or every family, beautifully designed, practical and convenient food packaging can be found everywhere. It is hard to imagine what kind of food would be delivered if unpackaged food is delivered to every consumer. In fact, food packaging is like the personal clothing of food, it is the last process of the modern food industry. It not only plays a role of protecting and publicizing food, but also facilitates the storage, transportation and sale of food. To a large extent, food packaging has become an integral part of food and will have a direct or indirect impact on the quality of food. During the process of contact with food, toxic and harmful substances (such as lead, cadmium, chromium, and other heavy metals, such as formaldehyde, benzene, and PCBs) in food packaging containers and materials will migrate and infiltrate into foods, causing food contamination. Countries all over the world, especially developed countries, have set high standards for food packaging, implemented strict market access systems for food, continuously improved food packaging containers and materials safety indicators, and increased the difficulty of food exports from developing countries. The safety issue of food packaging containers and materials has severely restricted the export of food in China and the development of the food packaging industry.

In the food production process, the packaging is at the end of the production process and the beginning of the logistics process, which is both the end of production and the beginning of logistics. As the end of production, the last step in the food production process is packaging. Therefore, for the production, the packaging marks the completion of production. In this sense, the packaging must be carried out according to the nature, shape and production process of the food to meet the production requirements. Different foods have different chemical compositions, physicochemical properties, and so on, so the protective requirements for packaging are also different. For example, cakes are more oily, fluffy, and have a certain optimum moisture content. Therefore, cakes should be oil-proof, high-oxygen-barrier, and high-moisture-resistance, otherwise they will cause oil leakage and oxidation. The cake loses moisture and dries and becomes harder. For another example, the packaging of tea should have high oxygen barrier, high moisture resistance, high light resistance, high resistance and aroma, otherwise it will lead to the oxidation of active ingredients of tea, mildew due to moisture, changes in photosynthesis of chlorophyll, and dispersion of aroma. Absorb external odors and other issues. Raw meat, meat processed foods, beverages, small foods, baked goods and other protective requirements for packaging are also very different. For example, canned meat paint should be sulfur-resistant, canned fruit paint should be acid-resistant, aerated beverage containers should be able to withstand a certain pressure, alcohol packaging containers should be resistant to alcohol and barrier aroma and so on. In summary, food packaging plays a decisive role in ensuring food safety and shelf life. Food packaging should have the function of preventing chemical changes of goods, and to a certain extent, it can block moisture, solution, moisture, light, and air acidity. The role of gas plays a role in protecting the environment and weather.

Food packaging is not only a protection function for foods in the traditional sense, but more importantly, it is compatible with the contents of the package (such as the barrier to food, the influence of foods on the packaging such as the deterioration of tensile properties, etc.) And the suitability of the finished product packaging equipment (such as whether the heat seal is properly sealed and not leaked; whether the packaging can make the heat seal equipment more efficient and less likely to break bags) and the convenience of consumer use (such as easy tearing Cracked, easy to cook, easy to peel, etc.).

As the starting point of logistics, after packaging is completed, the packaged foods have the ability of logistics. During the entire logistics process, food packaging can play a role in food protection and logistics, and finally achieve sales. In this sense, food packaging plays a decisive role in logistics. In order to meet the requirements, food packaging should have a certain degree of physical and mechanical strength, to prevent the damage of goods, deterioration, can withstand the various forces in the handling, transportation, storage process. For example, the good tensile properties of food packaging can effectively solve the problem of packaging damage caused by the lack of tensile strength of the selected packaging materials; for example, the good heat sealing performance of food packaging can effectively solve the cracking of the packaging at the heat sealing position. Food leakage, contamination and other problems occur; good impact resistance of food packaging can effectively avoid quality problems such as breakage caused by impact or fall in food circulation.

However, these are all problems that are easily overlooked by food companies. For the quality problems that may exist in food packaging, items that are frequently tested include barrier properties, mechanical strength, heat sealing effect, smoothness, and peeling between composite layers. The testing can timely control the food safety problems caused by packaging companies in the food industry, such as the quality of the protective content (including changes in color, smell, taste, and form); the heat sealability of the finished product packaging is good; the finished product packaging is in production and storage. It is not prone to breakage during handling, transportation, and shelf life; layers between composite membranes are not susceptible to deterioration in peel strength under various environments; sterilization processes have no effect on packaging bags, etc. For your company's products may also occur such as sealing leakage between aluminum and plastic cover materials and plastic containers, plastic bottle sets when the bottle deformation or severe shrinkage sleeves and other issues, all this with the packaging materials, food and packaging processes Matching related. In addition, if the impact of packaging on food safety is viewed from another perspective, food additives are the most influential factors in the current food safety, and in addition to improving the taste, there is a major category of additives that are used to extend the shelf life of foods. The improved performance of packaging materials allows less oxygen and moisture to pass through, which can reduce the amount of additives used in food processing. This reduces safety risks and costs.

[pagebreak]

Here we take the food odor caused by the packaging material itself as an example. Looking at the packaging material may have a serious impact on the quality and safety of the food itself.

Odor is one of the common food problems. Foods with odor will not be eaten, otherwise it may cause adverse effects on human health. In addition, the problem of odor may also occur in the packaging itself, which may further lead to the non-food odor inherent in the food contents. Causes of such odors include: The sources of food odors include the introduction of odors in soft packaging materials and intrusion of odors in the external environment. The cause of this problem is the quality of flexible packaging, which is manifested in the following aspects:

(1) The odor of the flexible packaging material itself - if the packaging material does not fully volatilize the solvent used in the production process, after the food is packaged, the residual solvent will gradually migrate to the food, causing the food to have an odor; in addition, the packaging material The poor quality or excessive addition of raw materials and auxiliary ingredients used will also cause odor in the finished product packaging.

(2) poor barrier properties - such as poor gas barrier, when the finished product packaging stored in the odor of the environment, the environment will gradually penetrate the smell of the inside of the package, causing food odor

(3) Poor sealability - such as poor sealability caused by poor sealing, resulting in odor from the outside into the package

(4) Poor physical and mechanical properties - such as poor toughness of packaging materials, impatience of puncturing of the contents, kneading or squeezing in the production process and storage process, making pin holes appear in the packaging bags during storage and transportation of finished products, Creases, or broken bags that are not discovered in time, result in food being exposed to odors in the environment.

For the reasons that may cause food odor, you can extend from the source of packaging materials to a full range of diagnostic solutions for the quality of packaging materials in all aspects of food production processes, storage, and logistics.

(1) Hygienic properties of food packaging - such as solvent residue testing, can detect the presence of residual solvent and the type and content of solvents in the package. Such as toluene diamine content test, can be used to characterize the advantages and disadvantages of adhesives for flexible packaging

(2) The tightness of food packaging - such as sealing and leakage, burst pressure testing, can be found in a timely manner if there is leakage of the finished product packaging, to determine where the leak occurred and where the mechanical strength is weak. Such as the heat seal strength test can determine whether the heat seal strength meets the requirements of the food content, and determine the location of poor heat sealing

(3) The physical and mechanical properties of food packaging, such as tensile breaking force and elongation at break, puncture resistance, impact resistance of pendulum, peel strength, etc., can be used to comprehensively judge the toughness, puncture resistance and rub resistance of the packaging bag. Whether physical and mechanical properties such as sex meet the needs of the packaging and transportation process