Food packaging function – to maintain quality of food

There are numerous protective functions and purposes associated with packaging that influence consumers to choose a specific product. Food packaging not only embodies durability, strength, and protective qualities, but also contributes to ensuring safety, convenience, efficiency, and transmitting consumer information. Additionally, it operates to block light and safeguard nutrients and colors present in food items—thus ensuring a consistent level of food quality throughout the entire duration of the product’s shelf life.

Food packaging assumes a crucial role in safeguarding food items from external factors such as heat, oxidation, and light. Advances in the field of food packaging have led to the development of active packaging, aimed at extending the shelf life of perishable foods while preserving or enhancing their quality and safety.

The core objective of food packaging is to maintain the quality of the food—ideally in the same state as when it left the food manufacturer—until it is ready for consumption. The goal is to effectively preserve the food's quality from the packaging stage to the moment it is consumed.

Food packaging has the capacity to hinder product deterioration, retain the positive effects of processing, prolong shelf life, and uphold or even enhance the quality and safety of the food. In accomplishing these objectives, packaging provides a barrier against three major categories of external influences: chemical, biological, and physical.
Food packaging function – to maintain quality of food