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Multifunctional and nanoreinforced polymers for food packaging

J.-M. Lagarón,     Novel Materials and Nanotechnology Group, IATA-CSIC, Spain

Abstract:

The packaging industry has been implementing at a rapidly expanding rate the number of packaging elements made of plastics over recent decades. Plastics, in contrast to more traditional packaging materials like glass and metals, (1) are permeable to the exchange of low molecular weight compounds such as gases and vapours, (2) undergo sorption, so-called scalping, of packaged food constituents, and (3) are amenable to migration into foodstuffs of packaging constituents. Despite these drawbacks, the availability of shapes and forms in which plastics can be conformed, their ease of processing ...