Plastic Food Packaging has made its place as one of the vital components of modern life. Food safety involves the various methods and resources utilized to make sure that a product is safe for consumption. It's a broad-ranging topic that includes the manufacturing, processing, packaging, storage and even distribution of that product. In the recent past, food safety has gained a lot of media coverage with heightened awareness on the hazards of eating unhealthy food. This heightened awareness has made it important to take measures to maintain good hygiene practices to prevent the spread of food borne diseases.
A major part of this campaign against bad hygiene is the use of plastic packaging which can be either rigid or flexible. Rigid plastics are usually those hardened after manufacture and used for foods like water and ketchup. These rigid plastics are strong but brittle and cannot be bent or reshaped unlike the flexible packaging. Since they cannot be bent or reshaped easily, they are more suitable for food packaging that require minimal usage.
Flexible plastic food packaging is often made using ethylene propylene diene terpolymer which is commonly called EPDM. The flexible packaging allows air to pass freely through the plastics, which helps keep foods fresh. They are preferred over rigid plastics because they are more durable. However, flexible plastics produced with EPDM are more expensive than the rigid ones. These high cost factors mean that they are only used where the packing is required primarily for decorative purposes. Also, these plastics produced with EPDM are not biodegradable.
When food products are packed using plastic food packaging, the chances of cross contamination between the articles intended for human consumption and those that do not pose any threat are reduced. These are because the plastic packaging prevents substances such as salt from leaching into the articles intended for human consumption from the packing itself. The likelihood of cross contamination between articles intended for human consumption and uncontaminated articles after they have been unpacked is reduced significantly. This is because the process of packing involves movement of articles intended for human consumption into a clean container and then ensuring that this container is well cleaned prior to reinstalling them in their original containers. Therefore, there is no longer the risk of food items getting contaminated with dirt particles after they have been cleaned.
Plastic food packaging also has an environmental impact. They are not inherently eco-friendly. For example, glass containers can retain heat, which can harm the human health if exposed for a long period of time. In contrast, heat cannot seep into plastic food packaging. Therefore, the use of plastic food packaging reduces the consumption of resources that cause pollution to the environment.
Another environmental benefit derived from food-safe plastic packaging is reduction in waste. It is now possible to package many different kinds of foods in single large containers thanks to the use of flexible packaging. Flexible packaging allows consumers to purchase containers of different sizes according to their requirements. Furthermore, these flexible packages can easily be re-used, which means that the required amount of plastics can be reduced.
Plastic Food Packaging, unlike glass or paper, is biodegradable. This means that once the containers are recycled, they can in fact provide valuable material for the creation of more plastic bottles. Therefore, this kind of packaging does not cause harm to the environment in any way.
Plastic Food Packaging can also enhance the taste of certain foods. Some food items do not contain any taste because of their consistency or thickness. However, with plastic food packaging, it is possible to preserve certain tastes of foods, as plastic is capable of stretchability. In addition, it makes packaging easy, as it is possible to remove the labels, thus ensuring better hygiene procedures. Plastic Food Packaging also provides various other advantages to the human health.
No comments:
Post a Comment