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Appealing packaging isthe current trend which influences consumer’s decision to purchase foods. These trends have evolved in the last four decades due to constant and drastic changes in the food packaging processes and mechanisms. These changes have shifted the focus of food packaging from the basic function of containment to extending shelf life.

12.1. Introduction

Food Packaging is a means to ensure safety and quality of food product throughout storage, transportation, handling, distribution, retailing, sales and in some cases till the intended use. International trades in food are generally guided by Codex Alimetarius Commission (CAC) (A joint body of World Health Organization and Food & Agricultural Organization). CAC works in harmonization within the context of food standards, food packaging and the applied rules. The mandate of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS Agreement) and Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT Agreement) is to facilitate food trades and remove restraints at possible extent. Through these agreements, member countries have provision to apply quality and safety measures to safeguard the consumer. Such measures extend to every aspect of food and its packaging. On the other side, food packaging industries also progressed with sound technological advancement and sophistication in the last three decades. Innovations in food packaging attracted consumers due to convenience, availability, safety, quality and preservation throughout shelf life of the food product. 

Food Contact Materials (FCM)

Before food consumption, during production, processing, preparation, packaging, packing, transportation, storage, serving etc. food comes in contact o many materials, all these materials are called food contact materials (FCM). FCM may be containers used for transportation for example milk container, machineries for its production or processing, packaging materials for its packaging like cans of soft drinks, kitchenware used for its cooking, serving, heating, washing. The selection of FCM requires intense care because FCM can affect human health and also the quality of food. During contact with food, molecules can migrate from FCM to food. Hence, FCM should have the following common attributes:

1. FCM should be compatible with the materials used for production, processing, transport, storage, serving etc.

2. FCM should be inert and non-reactive.

3. FCM should withstand the chemical, Mechanical and Thermal variations.

4. FCM should be clean, hygienic and tamper proof.

5. FCM should not have blisters, cracks, sharp edges and visible defects. 6. FCM should be free from rust.

Packaging is essential for the safe and easy marketing of any food products and for the retention of their natural characteristics till consumed or utilized otherwise. Packaging is also an essential part of processing and distribution of foods. Packaging used for processed foods can contribute marketing to the retention of the quality characteristics. It must protect a variety of assaults including physical damage, chemical attack and contamination from biological vectors including microorganisms, insects and rodents. Environmental factors such as oxygen and water vapour will spoil foods if they are allowed to enter packages freely. Contamination of foods by microorganism can spoil foods or cause life-threatening diseases. With dehydrated food, packaging serves a multi protection role. Depending on the product being packed, packaging has to provide protection against moisture pick up, loss of volatile components, oxidation and damage of product itself. With the development of food industries, use of different types of plastic containers becomes widely popular owing to its several advantages.

Although packaging has, in recent years, been accused of using up valuable resources, it is nevertheless absolutely essential. Packaging is vital to protect and conserve the items contained within it. The dominant purpose of packaging is to protect the product so that it reaches the consumer in the same condition as when it was first made. However there is a lot more to the effectiveness and usefulness of packaging than just protection. When a consumer picks up their carton of freshly squeezed mango juice, they are not aware of the energy and money saved by the packaging they are grasping in their hands. In order to fully understand the essential role packaging plays in every day life, it is necessary to understand the guiding principles behind it.

Food Packaging

    1.    Food packaging : A wrap, pouch, bag, box, cup, tray, can, tube, bottle and jar are some of the many forms of packaging that contain food products. It must contain a food product as well as protect and preserve it for a specific length of time. Each package must, by law, display product information for the consumer.

    2.    Low Density Polyethylene (LDPE) is an economical material with low WVTR; however, it has high permeabilities to flavours/volatiles, poor grease resistance and are limp.
 
    3.    High-Density Polyethylene (HDPE) is stiffer, more translucent and has better barrier properties but needs higher temperature for sealing.

    4.    A copolymer of polyethylene and poly vinyl alcohol, and EVOH has outstanding gas barrier properties especially when dry.

    5.    High-density polyethylene is stiff, strong, tough, resistant to chemicals and moisture, permeable to gas, easy to process, and easy to form. It is used to make bottles for milk, juice, and water; cereal box liners; margarine tubs; and grocery, trash, and retail bags.

    6.    Low-density polyethylene is flexible, strong, tough, easy to seal, and resistant to moisture. Because low-density polyethylene is relatively transparent, it is predominately used in film applications and in applications where heat sealing is necessary. Bread and frozen food bags, flexible lids, and squeezable food bottles are examples of low-density polyethylene.

Introduction
Food Pipe Line refers to a post-harvest system that deals with ensuring the delivery of a crop/commodity from the time and place of harvest to the time and place of consumption, with minimum loss, maximum efficiency, and maximum returns to all concerned including the grower, processors, and consumer. The term ‘system’ represents a dynamic, complex aggregate of logically interconnected functions or operations within a particular sphere of activity. The term pipeline refers to the functional succession of various operations but tends to ignore their complex interactions.
Stages of the post-harvest system
The food commodities broadly undergo different stages/operations of postharvest systems right from harvest to consumption. However, the applicability of different stages varies with the type of crop. Different unit operations involved in the post-harvest system of food commodities are as under:
1. Harvesting
2. Threshing (food grains, pulses and oilseeds)
3. Drying (food grains, pulses and oilseeds)
4. Collection, Sorting, grading, packaging (Horticultural Crops)
5. Transportation and distribution
6. Storage (Godowns, cold stores, CA stores)
7. Processing

    1.    Fortification of common salt is done with 
        a)    Potassium iodide    b)    Potassium iodate
        c)    Both a & b    d)    None
    2.    Vinegar is a 
        a)    Class-I preservative    b)    Class-II preservative
        c)    Natural preservative    d)    a & c
    3.    As per FSSAI regulations, the permitted level of Sulphur dioxide in RTS beverages is not more than ______ ppm
        a)    100    b)    70
        c)    150    d)    80
    4.    Sodium nitrite is a
        a)    Preservative    b)    Buffering agent
        c)    Curing agent    d)    Flavour enhancer

Most traditional food processing techniques like boiling, cooling, freezing, and blanching are used in a home kitchen. But now-a-days, food processing and preservation industries combine these techniques with other processing operations by using different technical prospects. As a subset of traditional processing technologies, modern processing technologies include hot air sterilization, vacuum cooking and pulsed electric-field technology as well as high pressure treatment, extrusion, microwave processing, and pulsed electric field technology.

    1.    Food : defined as something which is eaten / drunk by human beings or something we eat and which can be utilized by our body.

    2.    Milk and milk products like Dahi, yoghurt, paneer, cheese, Khoa etc these foods are rich sources of Vitamin A, Riboflavin and Calcium.

    3.    Meat, fish, poultry etc besides proteins these foods also provide Iron and B- complex Vitamins.

    4.    Eggs and egg products are also rich in Iron, Vitamin A and Riboflavin (B1).

    5.    Pulses, nuts and oil seeds are also a good source of thiamin, niacin, and Iron.

    6.    Strategies and measures for alleviating the world food problem require.

Storage Systems

    1.    Low cost storage technology

        ·    In situ : Means delaying the harvest until the crop is required and employed 
    for the root crops.
        ·    Sand and Coir : Used for the Potatoes
        ·    Pits used for the Potatoes
        ·    Clamps used for the Potatoes
             Wind breaks used for the Onions – 6 months 1m height wooden stakes
        ·    Cellars : under ground / partly under ground. Ex: Apples, cabbage, 
    onions and potatoes during winter.
        ·    Barns : In Sudan onions are stored in palm leaf barns called “Rakubas”.
        ·    Evaporative Coolers
        ·    Zero energy cooling chambers
        ·    Night ventilation.

    2.    As a general rule, air circulation of storage room is designed to provide about 25m² / min / 3000 K cal of refrigeration predicated on a 5.5ºC

    3.    Frozen storage refers to storage at temperature where food is maintained in frozen conditions.

    4.    Good frozen storage generally means - 18ºC / below.

    5.    Below – 9.4ºC, there is no significant growth of microorganisms in food.

    1.    Microbial Risk Assessment (MRA) can be considered a tool for use in the management of the risks posed by food borne pathogens and in the elaboration of standards for food in international trade.

    2.    MRA comprises risk assessments of particular pathogen - commodity combinations

    3.    According to codex alimentarious commission (CAC) microbial risk assessment is defined as a scientifically based process consisting of 4 components.

        ·    Hazard identification
        ·    Exposure assessment
        ·    Hazard characterization
        ·    Risk characterization

Food Processing Technology

    1.    The transition from solid to fluid and back is known as a phase transition and this is important in many types of food processing (e.g. water to water vapour in evaporation and distillation and dehydration; water to ice in freezing and freeze drying or freeze concentration or crystallisation of fats.
 
    2.    Phase transition takes place isothermally at the phase transition temperature by release or absorption of latent heat, and can be represented by a phase diagram.

    3.    A second type of transition, known as glass transition, takes place without the release or absorption of latent heat and involves the transition of a food to an amorphous glass state at its glass transition temperature.

    4.    The transition is dependent on the temperature of the food, time, and the moisture content of the food.

    5.    The density of a material is equal to its mass divided by its volume and has units of kgm^-3

1.1 Introduction

Due to the ever increasing world population, the demand for food would also increase. India is one of the largest food producer countries of the world (first in milk production, second largest in fruit and vegetable production and third largest in grains production). It is the seventh-largest country in the world, with a total land area of 3,287,263 square kilometres. India has varied climates of snow covered Himalayas, desserts, oceans, fertile plains and areas receiving the highest rainfall in the world. Name any food item; it can be grown in one or the other part of the country. All these make the production of various types of foods of plant (fruits, vegetables, cereals, pulses, oilseeds, spices etc) as well as animal origin (fish, meat, milk etc.) possible in the country. The annual production of cereals, fruits and vegetables is 260, 57 and 77 million tonnes respectively, besides this, the production of cow and buffalo milk is about 102.1 million tonnes and that of sugarcane and spices are 355.52 and 1.1 million tonnes respectively [15]. Table 1 shows that the production of various food items has increased many folds during the last five decades. On one hand, we feel proud as we produce one of the largest quantities of foods in the world and there has been an enormous rise in the production of various foods in India during the last five decades, on the other hand we should be very much worried being a leading country as far as the wastage of food in the world is concerned. The postharvest losses are huge and only meagre quantity (2%) of the food is processed. Sharma [41] very rightly said that when we do not agree to throw away Rs 4000/-per month out of a salary of Rs 10,000/-per month then why do we accept 40% postproduction losses of food in the country. This would require immediate necessary action to save a major portion of the food that has already been produced.

Food processing techniques range from traditional household practices to sophisticated industrial operations designed to improve safety, quality, nutritional value and shelf life. This chapter presents traditional methods such as blanching, fermentation, soaking, germination and malting, highlighting their effects on nutrient bioavailability and food characteristics. It then introduces industrial processing and distinguishes between thermal and non-thermal technologies. Thermal methods such as pasteurization and dehydration are discussed alongside innovative approaches including pulsed electric fields, high-pressure processing and irradiation. The chapter emphasizes the principles, applications, benefits and limitations of these techniques and demonstrates how processing conditions influence microbial safety, nutritional quality and sensory attributes.

12.1 Introduction

Man is the most beautiful of all God’s creations and like man, his environment too is beautiful with rivers to quench his thirst with sweet water, atmosphere to provide him oxygen, land and fire to provide him food. Primitive man ate uncooked food and lived in caves. Soon he learnt the use of firewood for cooking of raw meat and provided the first instance of ‘Pollution from food processing’ in history. As man shifted from one place to another, this sort of living never polluted the environment. But as the man ascended the ladder of civiliz ation, his needs grew in arithmeti c progression but corresponding pollution grew in geometric progression. With increase in agriculture produce, a need was felt to preserve the glut production in the form of processed foods giving rise to massive development of food processing industries all over the world. The rapid industrialization of agriculture and horticulture, increased the pollution load many folds especially the biodegradable waste from food industry [41].The wineries and distilleries (distill wine to make brandy) are no exception. Nevertheless, the waste is a precious source of several useful materials as such or after fermentation [1,31,46,86]. Thus, development and environment are two sides of the same coin.

From time immemorial, the biosphere is acting as a sink for all the waste products and recycles them to make good the loss so that every generation finds it the same as one before it. But, of late, this self-cleaning and equilibrium maintenance of biosphere is disastrously disturbed as the waste produced from man’s activities is continuously exceeding the capacity to purify herself. Consequently, our biosphere is becoming more and more poisonous and days are not far away when this planet will become inhabitable.

    1.    Life blood of food companies are
        a)    Existing products    b)    New Products
        c)     New packaging material    d)     Food technologists
    2.    New Products are developed to meet
        a)    Health & Nutritional requirements
        b)    Environmental & Social requirements
        c)     Convenience & handling
        d)     All
    3.    What are the characteristics of a line extension in a variant of an established line of food products 
        a)    Little research    
        b)    Minimum manufacturing changes
        c)     No change in logistics and supply chain
        d)     All
    4.    The following one is not a characteristic of new product development through line extension
        a)    New purchasing skills
        b)    No change in logistics and supply chain
        c)     No change in storage of RM &PM
        d)     Minimum R&D

Previous Year Questions
1. How has food production, incuding  horticultural crops, changed in  India during the last one decade? Write down its impact on food and nutritional security (20 marks, CSE 2023)
2. What is the food production and consumption pattern of India in the last fifty years? (15M, CSE 2021) 
3. Describe food grain production and consumption trends in India (7.5M, CSE 2019) 
4. Food production and consumption trends in India (12.5M, CSE 2015)

Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) can be defined as organisms in which the genetic material (DNA) has been altered in a way that does not occur naturally. The technology is often called “modern biotechnology” or “gene technology”, sometimes also “recombinant DNA technology” or “genetic engineering”. It allows selected individual genes to be transferred from one organism into another, also between non-related species. Genetically modified (GM) foods are foods derived from genetically modified animals and marines. Genetically modified animals and marines are those in which specific changes introduced into their DNA by genetic engineering using a process of either Cisgenesis or Transgenesis. These techniques are much more precise than mutagenesis where animals and marines are exposed to radiation or chemicals to create a non-specific but stable change. Other techniques by which food animals can be modified are selective breeding and somaclonal variation. By this means desired quality of meat, egg and other animal products can be produced. But it is a common thinking that foods derived from genetically modified animals and marines are far from safe. They are likely to be contaminated by potent vaccines, immune regulators and growth hormones, as well as nucleic acids, viruses and bacteria that have the potential to create pathogens and to trigger cancer.

Quality Standards and Laws

Quality is how well a product or service satisfies the needs of the customer. This includes all aspects related to the needs of the customer such as quality specifications, safetgy, delivery method or date, price etc. Quality can be interpreted in several ways as conformance to the standards, meeting customers’ preference/ satisfaction for desired quality attributes, degree of excellence and zero defect products etc. Because of education and consequent greater understanding of implications of poor quality commodities in recent years, consumers have become quality conscious and this fact is also applicable to food and food products. In order to strengthen competitiveness, quality must be incorporated throughout the value added chains right from the harvesting, handling, manufacturing, processing, packaging, storage, marketing and distribution stages, especially in the case of food and food products.