Mass Transfer in Novel “Food Contact Materials” : Scales and Stakes

Abstract

Research and development efforts were in the last decades mainly dedicated to the huge development of convenient versatile petrochemical plastics, related additives, recycling processes etc. Future packaging will have to respond to the evolution of societal needs and concerns in term of health, quality, environment, cost, sustainability, worldwide raw materials availability, information etc. The present paper will focus on reasonable hypothesis on food packaging technologies development scenarios. It could be anticipated that concepts such as eco-friendly, biodegradable, active and nano-engineered materials will develop. Some examples will be briefly presented and discussed by focusing on subsequent research lines of thinking likely to facilitate the use of biopolymer for food packaging. Controlling mass transfer between the food, the food contact material (FCM) and the external atmosphere is the major key factor for the development for these new packaging solutions when considering adequacy to foods requirements and safety rules. The mass transfer control can be achieved by adjusting the FCM matrix nature and structure at different scales (macro/micro/ nano). The knowledge and modeling of solute, gas, vapor and nanoparticles transfer in the packaging material can facilitate the development of efficient packaging. This approach was performed to develop different packaging food systems such as modified atmosphere packaging based on gas selective bio-materials, antimicrobial bio-packaging based on controlled release of volatile active molecules or nanocomposites packaging combined with high pressure food treatments. © 2010, Japan Society for Food Engineering. All rights reserved.