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Review
. 2021 Aug;28(8):4490-4499.
doi: 10.1016/j.sjbs.2021.04.047. Epub 2021 Apr 24.

Food packaging's materials: A food safety perspective

M S Alamri  1 , Akram A A Qasem  1 , Abdellatif A Mohamed  1 , Shahzad Hussain  1 , Mohamed A Ibraheem  1 , Ghalia Shamlan  1 , Hesham A Alqah  1 , Ali S Qasha  1
Affiliations
Review

Food packaging's materials: A food safety perspective

M S Alamri et al. Saudi J Biol Sci. 2021 Aug.

Abstract

Food packaging serves purposes of food product safety and easy handling and transport by preventing chemical contamination and enhancing shelf life, which provides convenience for consumers. Various types of materials, including plastics, glass, metals, and papers and their composites, have been used for food packaging. However, owing to consumers' increased health awareness, the significance of transferring harmful materials from packaging materials into foods is of greater concern. This review highlights the interactions of food with packaging materials and elaborates the mechanism, types, and contributing factors of migration of chemical substances from the packaging to foods. Also, various types of chemical migrants from different packaging materials with their possible impacts on food safety and human health are discussed. We conclude with a future outlook based on legislative considerations and ongoing technical contributions to optimization of food-package interactions.

Keywords: Chemical contamination; Food packaging; Food safety; Migration.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Packaging polymer and solution interface with diffusion of additives and solvent (Ferrara et al., 2001).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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