Food packaging and modified atmosphere - Roles, materials and benefits

Abstract

Packaging is an integral element of the system that brings safe food to consumers. Although packaging has sometimes been viewed as an inconsequential act of inserting food into a film or box, this attitude has been a prime source of product failure. Meat packaging is the most dynamic area of meat technology today and it continues to configure the future of this branch of food industry. Retail meat packaging should fulfil specific technological and hygienic demands, as well as demands such as attractive packaging appearance, appropriate meat colour, consumer acceptability, etc. Consumers are also very sensitive with regards to the use of food additives in the food industry. During the last two decades, modified atmosphere packaging has become a dominant retail meat packaging technology. The purpose of this technology is to prolong the shelf life of foodstuffs by preventing or inhibiting biochemical reactions (fat oxidation, metmyoglobin formation), growth of spoilage bacteria and degree of product respiration. This technology is opening up new markets and offers the possibility of successfully establishing new products and thus extending product ranges. This paper critically reviews the most important aspects of packaging foodstuffs in modified atmosphere.