Active Packaging: It's Alive!

For the past few decades, scientists have been working to counteract the fact that foods are alive, biological substances that age and eventually die. The idea of preserving and extending the shelf life of food has been modified and re-modified many times over and only now with the recent introduction of "active packaging" has sufficient technology come to the forefront in order to address this issue.

This technology first began with controlled and modified storage of food and perishables in the form of storage rooms, transport containers and retail food packages that have a controlled atmosphere. A "controlled atmosphere" refers to the monitoring and controlling of gaseous compositions.

Active packaging is composed of packaging material that can control the environment that the food is residing in by interacting correctly, in a positive way, with the gases the food gives off. Gases are added or removed to the atmosphere of the package depending on what is residing in the package. This helps in the preservation of food and perishables as well as their shelf-life.

Reportedly, "active packaging" technology was utilized by 2.7 billion packages in 2001 in the U.S alone. In 2002, it was expected to be utilized in 7 billion packages by 2006. In 2007, demand for "active packaging" was projected to climb 13% by 2011. If these numbers hold, it's clear that "active packaging" is revolutionizing the the packaging industry as we know it.

Posted by: Kylie Graham

Sources:
CSIRO Food and Nutritional Sciences (2009). Retrieved from http://www.foodscience.afisc.csiro.au/actpac.htm

No Author. (2007). U.S. Demand for Active Packaging on the Rise. Label and Narrow Web. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-171029968.html

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