Defination and Packaging Requrirements

The protection offered to a product against any damage caused by the outside influences of environment (humidity, light, oxygen, temperatures), foreign odour,chemicals, and insects, physical hazards, etc. during storage, transportation, distribution and retailing is referred to as packaging. In other words, enclosing a product in specially designed containers to achieve the desired protection against spoilage is packaging. Packaging is different than packing. Packaging is the primary package,

which is in direct contact of the product. It provides initial and major barrier against spoilage of the product. It is the primary package in which the consumers purchase the product from a retail shop. Packing refers to enclosing several individual items packed in primary packages in a container for shipment from one place to another.Thus, packing forms a secondary package and contains a number of primary packages.

The following factors must be considered if the product is to be protected against spoilage and remain acceptable until it is consumed.

a) Composition of the product.

b) Storage conditions (temperature, humidity, light, gases, dust, microorganisms).

c) Type and probable cause of spoilage.

d) Physical hazards during storage and subsequent handling and transportation.(Shocks, vibrations, compression).

e) Consumer’s requirement in terms of capacity, and functional properties.

f) Availability.

g) Interaction between product and package.

h) Economics of packaging.

 

i. Advantages of Packaging

•  Contains and protects the product against damages caused by mechanical,biological and environmentl agents.
•  Informs about the product, e.g. nutritional and compositional quality, date of manufacture, weight, cost, conditions for storage, shelf life, uses, etc.
•  Convenience of handling to the retailers and buyers both.
•  Facilitates storage, transportation and distribution of product.

ii. Requirements of Packaging

Cream is that part of milk which is rich in milk fat and has been obtained by gravity separation (hand skimming) or by mechanical separation of milk. It may be considered as an intermediate product between milk and butter. The aqueous phase (water) in cream is reduced but the oil-in-water emulsion is not broken unlike butter, which is a water-in-oil type emulsion. Cream contains all the constituents of milk but the solids-not-fat content is inversely proportional to its fat content. Thus with the increase in fat content of cream the proportions of protein, lactose, mineral salts and also water soluble vitamins decrease while the proportion of fat soluble constituents such as phospholipids, cholesterol and fat soluble vitamins increase.Cream has unique natural flavour. But the flavour of cream is very susceptible to spoilage because of high percentage of fat (normally 18-80%). Thus it requires protection. For example, the presence of light may initiate auto-oxidation of milk fat and produce flavour defect like rancidity in cream. Homogenized cream is more susceptible to the action of light than un-homogenized cream. Cream may also absorb odours from outside environment like gases, moisture or fat and develop flavour defects. Thus, it requires a packaging material, which provides protection against all the agents causing spoilage of cream.

The cream requires protection against light, gases, and absorption of outside odour and gain or loss of moisture. The packaging material, therefore, must be impermeable to all these agents. In addition it should have sufficient mechanical strength, tear strength, burst strength and wet strength to provide protection against mechanical hazards during storage, and subsequent handling to prevent the loss of cream. The packaging material should not produce any toxic substance or impart its own flavour or colour to the product. Metal cans, coloured glass jars or bottles, plastic containers,incorporating one or more layers of nylon, containers made of laminated materials in which one layer is of aluminum foil or similar material are common which meet most of the desired requirements for cream packaging. The packaging material may contain compounds like printer’s ink, dyes or monomers from plastic materials.These materials may migrate to or interact with the cream constituents causing gradual deterioration in quality. Hence, proper selection of packaging material is very important.