Food Packaging Materials

Packaging for food is important and useful for food preparation before storage, transportation, distribution and retailing of finished product. It must fulfil the demand from consumer at minimum cost. Without proper food packaging, processed food cannot be stored and distributed well and efficiently to the consumer. The World Packaging Organization (WPO) stated that poor packaging of food product is one of the reason of food wastage which that more than 25 percent at certain point (WPO, 2009). Therefore, in order to avoid the food wastage, the poor packaging shall be improve to the optimum level. Additionally, consumer nowadays really demand for the high-quality and convenient food products as well as the packaging of the food (Coles et al.,

Different types of food products have their own suitable materials of packaging. The materials shall have the some barriers properties to evade moisture, light, bacteria and many else. The barrier properties be responsible for protection, resistance for tampering resistance and special physical, chemical or biological needs. Glass and ceramic are one of the materials commonly used in the food packaging. Glass has long history in food packaging, first appearance as food packaging was around 300 B.C. (Sacharow and Griffin, 1980). The process of glass is start with heat process of silica mixture, sodium carbonate, lime stone and alumina using high temperature until all of the materials melt into thick liquid mass and then pour them into the mold. Cullet also used in the production of glass. Glass containers used in food packaging to lubricate the production line and remove the scratches line jams. Coated glass also has higher strength of bottle and prevent breakage (McKown,2000). The most common glass is the soda lime which used to make window and bottle. Other common glasses are borosilicate glass, silica that will be discussed more in this

Both are hard but brittle. However, glass is a non-crystalline material. It has an amorphous structure. Ceramic consists of inorganic material. The structure of ceramic can be either crystalline, amorphous or partially crystalline. Most often, ceramics have a crystalline structure. Also, ceramics can be either crystalline or glass-like. Most ceramics are opaque while glass is transparent which the light can pass through the glass. Ceramics are oxidation resistant, non-magnetic and stable with thermal shock chemically. Glass is more fragile compared to ceramics. In the production of both glass and ceramics, there is a minor variance. The heating elements of glass kiln will on the top while for ceramic kiln, it will be on the sides. The arrangement of atomic structure of glassy and amorphous like glass is random while for crystalline like ceramics, it is more ordered structure. The Figure 1.2 below shows the structural differences between a glass and a ceramic on the arrangement of atomic although they can have precisely the same configuration.

Figure 1.2 The arrangement of atomic between the glassy and crystalline structure

The purpose of this paper is to discuss more on the type of glass and ceramics and their application in food