Food Packaging

1
Food Packaging

• GCSE Catering

2
Types of Packaging

• Primary
• Secondary
• Tertiary

• The actual package or container that holds the
  product, e.g. bottle, can
• The packaging that supports the primary packaging
  e.g. the card cereal box that holds the inner bag
• Any packaging used primarily for transportation,
  e.g. wrapped pallets

3
Packaging Materials

• Glass
• Uses
• Bottles and jars

• Advantages
• Can carry liquids
• Can be coloured, printed on
• Product can be seen
• Reusable/recyclable

• Disadvantages
• Brittle (easily breakable)

4
Packaging Material Contd

• Advantages
• Strong
• Withstands heat processing
• Lightweight
• High energy costs to produce
• Recyclable
• Easily printed on

• Disadvantages
• Must be coated inside or reacts with foods
• Cannot microwave
• Uses valuable energy to extract from the ground

• Metal
• Cans, screw
• caps, aerosols

5
Packaging Material Contd

• Disadvantages
• Causes litter problems
• Limited resource
• Not easily recycled

• Plastics and polystyrene
• Inner trays and bottles, Over-wrapping and bags

• Advantages
• Can be moulded to shape
• Resistant to moisture
• Very lightweight
• Can be folded
• Can be printed
• Reasonably strong
• Does not react to food

6
Packaging Material Contd

• Advantages
• Easy to print on
• Can be coated, treated or laminated
• Made from renewable sources
• Easy to handle
• Can be folded
• Lightweight
• Reasonably strong
• Poor protection against moisture

• Disadvantages
• Crushes easily
• Weak when wet
• Recycled paper and card cannot be used for food

• Paperboard Card
• Uses Labels, cartons, boxes, packets

7
Paired Activity

• Using the envelope provided play the who am I
  game.
• You and your partner will each have a set of
  pictures.
• You need to pick up a random description and your
  partner needs to guess, using the pictures which
  packaging type you are

8
Packaging and the Environment

• Food packaging requires energy and uses up
  natural resources such as
• - trees
• - oil
• - sand
• - metal ores
• Most packages are thrown away one third of all
  rubbish is packaging

9
Reducing Waste

• Consumers can
• - buy re-usable
• containers
• - Re-use carrier bags
• - Take waste to
• recycling centres
• - Buy minimum
• packaging
• - Select biodegradable
• materials when
• possible

• Manufacturers can
• - Reduce the amount of
• packaging used
• - Avoid harmful
• processes such as
• bleaching with
• chemicals
• - Use recyclable
• materials
• - Printing symbols on
• packaging