Ecosustainable Polymer Nanomaterials for Food Packaging

According to the latest official data, the global market of food packaging is worth $440 billion worldwide (about 2% of the gross national product of developed countries), with an annual increase of 10%. The food industry uses almost 65% of all packaging placed on the market, and the impact of the packaging on the retail cost of food is between 19% and 50%. Almost 40% of the total packaging is made of plastic. The growth rate of the market of plastic packaging in the last few years for both flexible and rigid plastic packages has been about 7%, the highest compared with other materials (glass 2%, metal 6%, paper 6%, and others including wood 3%). These impressive numbers clearly explain why many of the world's largest food packaging companies are actively exploring the potential of polymer nanotechnology in order to obtain new food packaging materials with improved properties and also to be able to trace and monitor the condition of food during transport and storage. Polymer nanotechnology, described as the next great frontier of material science in food packaging, with applications predicted to grow rapidly in the coming years, is currently developed to mainly improve barrier performance pertaining to gases, such as oxygen and carbon dioxide. Once perfected, sure from a safety point of view, and produced at a competitive ratio cost/performance, the new PNFP will be very attractive for use in several food packaging applications. This book aims at looking at the complete life cycle of the packaging based on polymer nanomaterials (raw material selection; production, structure, and properties characterization; analysis of interaction with food; and marketing, application, use, and disposal) through the contribution of several experts with the final objective of considering a balance between cost and performance, risk and benefit, and health and environmental issues, as well as the assessment of risk-benefit, and of identifying the barriers (in research and technology, safety, technology transfer, and communication) that prevent a complete successful development of the new technology and strategies to proceed further. It is divided into 13 chapters and covers the current developments in nanotechnology for food packaging application by providing a comprehensive review focusing on applications that are most likely to be accepted by consumers and attract regulatory attention in the immediate future.Chapter 1 provides a general introduction to the topic, focusing on current issues and future trends. Chapter 2 introduces an "ethical design," as a concept that puts into practice key ideas like the precautionary principle, and presents a model of accountability, responsibility, and ethical consideration commensurate with the current understanding of all sorts of risks and hazards, whether they are known, unknown, or unknowable. The book then dwells into science: Chapters 3 and 4 are dedicated to the characterization of these novel materials, investigating the evolution of the rheology and of the structure and morphology with regard to processing conditions and kind of constituents. The interesting application of plasma technologies in the field of food packaging materials for production of barrier coatings on polymeric materials by nonequilibrium gas discharges is illustrated in Chapter 5. The main aspects of nanomaterials for food packaging from oil polymers (polyolefins) and from renewable resource polymers are discussed sequentially in Chapters 6 and 7 in order to better compare both kinds of materials. Chapters 8 and 9 deal with two specific innovative applications: the use of cellulose nanowhiskers for food biopackaging and edible nano-laminate coatings. The general issues linked to interactions of nanomaterials with food are covered in