The packaging has a short life span, a large amount of use, and is difficult to concentrate, causing serious damage to the urban environment and the human body. Today, as environmental issues become increasingly important, taking the path of sustainable development has become a global focus and an urgent task. It has also become a guideline for the development of all walks of life and human activities. The development of packaging materials must be the starting point for technological innovation to save resources, save energy, be easy to recycle after use, or easily degraded. New packaging materials, new processes, new technologies, and new products continue to emerge, and they are developing in the direction of high performance, versatility, and so on.
With the country's emphasis on "white pollution", using environmentally-friendly materials instead of foam plastic as a buffer packaging material has become a trend for buffer packaging, and the structure of buffer materials has also shifted from a single type to a complex type. The main feature of the 3D folded paper honeycomb core is that they can absorb a large amount of energy compared with the current cellular structure's loss prevention and vibration resistance. In addition, the 3D folded core can increase the energy absorption rate of the unit material and reduce its cost. As the 3D folding type paper honeycomb can be rotated, wound, and bent, it can be conveniently used for processing packaging products of any shape, and the package produced by the 3D folding type paper honeycomb is relatively small, light, and has a good function of protecting the product.
The packaging materials used in the world each year consume a lot of resources. To this end, while improving the performance of packaging materials, efforts are being made to reduce the consumption of materials and reduce the processing costs, which is always the goal pursued by the packaging manufacturing industry. The nano-packaging material composed of nano-materials not only greatly improves the performance of the raw materials and imparts new functions, but also expands the application range of raw materials and also saves scarce resources. Rubber and plastic are raw materials for packaging and food machinery applications. However, rubber is usually added by adding carbon black to improve its strength, abrasion resistance and aging resistance. The product is black and is not suitable for use in food machinery. The advent of nanomaterials has solved this problem. The new nano-modified rubber has a significant increase in various indicators, in particular, three times the anti-aging properties, the service life of up to 30 years, and colorful, excellent color retention effect. Ordinary plastics have large output, wide application, and low price, but their performance is inferior to that of engineering plastics. Although the performance of engineering plastics is superior, the high cost has limited its wide application in packaging and food machinery. The modification of ordinary plastic polypropylene with nano-materials can achieve the performance index of engineering plastic nylon, and it has good process performance and low cost, and is suitable for large-scale adoption.
Most of the various packaging materials tested by snack makers are designed to prevent oxidation, and materials that can block oxygen intrusion have been invented. On March 28th this year, a report from the US “Popular Science†website stated that a new type of food packaging material can keep sparkling water filled with bubbles, keep crispy crisps, and make military foods more delicious. This material is made from a very thin layer of nano-sized clay, which is the same clay used for making bricks but mixed with chemical polymers. When viewed under an electron microscope, this thin layer looks like a brick wall made of mud, which is comparable to glass.
Nanocomposite packaging materials are industrialized with the rapid development of nanotechnology, and their wear resistance, hardness, strength, barrier properties, and plasticity are all significantly enhanced and improved. Besides being used for food packaging and machinery, they can also be used for special packaging. Such as anti-static, anti-electromagnetic, anti-explosion and invisible, dangerous goods packaging, etc., it promotes a tremendous change in traditional packaging materials.
Edible packaging films are made of natural edible substances (eg, polysaccharides, proteins, etc.) and have a porous network structure formed by the interaction between different molecules. Such as chitosan edible packaging film, corn protein packaging film, modified cellulose edible packaging film and composite edible packaging film, etc., edible film can be applied to the inner packaging of various ready-to-eat foods, in the food industry should Has a huge market.
Water-soluble plastic packaging film as a novel green packaging material is widely used in the packaging of various products in Europe, America, Japan and other countries, such as pesticides, fertilizers, pigments, dyes, detergents, water treatment agents, mineral additives, washing Agents, concrete additives, photographic chemicals, and gardening chemicals. Its main raw material is low-alcoholicity polyvinyl alcohol, using polyvinyl alcohol film-forming, water-soluble and degradable, add a variety of additives, such as surfactants, plasticizers, anti-sticking agents. Unlike other plastic films, water-soluble plastic films have good anti-static properties and are highly permeable to moisture and ammonia, but have good barrier properties to oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, and carbon dioxide gases. These features make it possible to maintain the ingredients and original odor of the packaged product intact.
Active packaging technology includes the interaction between the packaging and the gas and food inside the package. Active packaging can effectively maintain the nutrition and flavor of foods. Due to advances in materials science, biological sciences, and gas packaging, active packaging technology has developed rapidly in recent years. Such as oxygen scavenging active packaging, sterilization and active packaging. Among them, the sterilized active packaging is a system in which a combination of an active sterilizing substance and a packaging material is used, and sorbitol, sorbate, sodium benzoate, silver zeolite, and the like are added to a material for manufacturing a packaging container, and then molded and processed into a container. So that it slowly releases the sterile active ingredient. Active packaging is mainly used in food packaging. Compared with the past that used physical methods to block gas, water vapor and light, it plays an active and proactive role in extending the shelf life of foods, and can provide better protection. Therefore, active packaging is being widely used as an intelligent technology.
A food packaging material developed by the Federal University of Viçosa, Brazil, can extend the shelf life of foods and reduce consumers' intake of preservatives. At present, preservatives are added to foods at one time. The disadvantage is that consumers consume preservatives with higher intake at the beginning of their shelf life, and the preservatives at the end of shelf life have almost lost their effectiveness. An antibacterial plastic film developed by researchers at the university can gradually release preservatives into foods within a certain period of time. This not only effectively guarantees the quality of foods, but also solves the problem of higher consumer preservatives in the early period of shelf life. Agent problem.