INTELLIGENT PACKAGING- PART I

INTELLIGENT PACKAGING( PART-I)

The packaging scenario and requirement world over is changing fast. New food packaging technologies are developing as a response to consumer demands or industrial production trends towards mildly preserved, fresh, tasty and convenient Food products with prolonged shelf-life and controlled quality. Intelligent food packaging is an innovative technology which is developing in recent years. The reason of development intelligent packaging is thinking the outside of package. On the other hand to extend shelf life, improve quality, enhance safety, provide information, and warn about possible problems, this packaging technology is developed and also these parameters are the benefits of the system.Principle of intelligent packaging

      Principle of intelligent packaging

       In packaging, “smartness” can have many meanings, and covers a number of functionalities, depending on the product being packaged food, beverage, pharmaceutical, household products etc

o  Retain the integrity and actively prevent food spoilage or extend shelf life

o  Respond actively to changes in the product or in the package environment.

o  Communicate product information, product history or other conditions to the user

o  Assist with opening and indicating seal integrity

o  Confirm product authenticity and act to counter theft (Han et al., 2005).

Smart package devices are defined here as small, inexpensive labels or tags that are attached onto primary packaging (e.g., pouches, trays, or bottles), or more often onto secondary packaging (e.g., shipping containers), to facilitate communication throughout the supply chain so that appropriate actions may be taken to achieve desired benefits in food quality and safety enhancement. Two basic types of smart package devices are data carriers and package indicators

·      Indicators

o  Time/temperature indicator

o  Oxygen indicator

o  Carbon dioxide indicator

o  Leak indicator

o  Pathogen indicator

o  Freshness indicator

·      Radio Frequency Identification Tags (RFID)

·      Sensors

o  Bio-Sensors

o  Gas sensors

o  Fluorescence based oxygen sensors

Indicators

An indicator may be defined as a substance that indicates the presence or absence of another substance or the degree of reaction between two or more substances by means of a characteristic change, especially in colour. In contrast with sensors, indicators do not comprise receptor and transducer components and communicate information through direct visual change

       Indicators are called smart or interactive because they interact with compounds in the food. The smart packaging focused on sense and informs the status of a product in term of its safety showing either food to be safe or food to be unsafe and quality showing the freshness, ripeness or firmness.

First designed indicators were to provide information on the food storage conditions, such as temperature, time, oxygen or carbon dioxide content, and thus, indirect information on food quality. The most commonly used of these visual indicators are critical temperature indicators, time/temperature indicators and leak indicators. This first generation of indicators can be considered as ‘‘indirect indicators’’ of food freshness. Development of direct indicators are because of their ability to provide more precise and targeted information on quality attributes (Gontard, 2004). Commercially available direct indicators are a pear maturation indicator based on the detection of a volatile aroma compound or a fish freshness indicator based on the detection of volatile amines. More sophisticated systems are based on depositing, on the bar code, a plastic layer loaded with specific antibodies of pathogenic microorganisms such as Salmonella or Listeria whose presence can be detected when the bar code is read.

       The intelligent packaging technique with the most commercial value is undoubtedly the external temperature indicators however; internal indicators have minimal processing technologies in the food industry.

       The external indicators which are attached outside the package and include time temperature indicators and physical shock indicators. The internal indicators which are placed inside the package placed in the headspace of the package or attached to the lid example oxygen leak indicators, microbial indicators (Ahvenainen, 2003).Another indicator that increase the efficiency of information flow and effective communication between the product and the consumer, example special bar codes that store food product information such as use and consumption date expiration. Product traceability and tamperproof devices are also included in this category (Coles et al., 2003).

  

    

 REFERENCES

·      AHVENAINEN, R., 2003: Novel Food Packaging Techniques. Cambridge UK: Wood head Publishing, 400 p. ISBN 978-1-85573-675-7.

·      COLES, R., MCDOWELL, D. and KIRWAN, M. J., 2003: Food Packaging Technology. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishing, 346 p. ISBN 978- 0849397882.

·      C. Suzuki, J. Chem. Ed. 68, 588–589 (1991).

·      FQSI International, FreshQt smart sensor label web information. Available at http://www.fqsinternational.com/products.htm. Accessed March 2008.

·      International published Patent WO 2006/032025 A1, J. R. Williams, K. E. Myers, M. M. Owens, and M. A. Bonne (to Food Quality Sensor International, Inc.).

·      R. Want, ‘‘Enabling Ubiquitous Sensing with RFID,’’ Computer 37, 84–86 (2004).

·      S. Nambi, S. Nyalamadugu, S. M.Wentworth, and B. A. Chin, ‘‘Radio Frequency Identification Sensors,’’ 7th World Multiconference on Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics, Dubna, Russia, July 30–August 2, 2003.

·      SUMMERS, L., 1992: Intelligent packaging for quality. So_ Drinks Management International, Vol. 36, p. 32–33. ISSN 0953–4776.

·      RODRIGUES, E. T. and HAN, J. H., 2003: Intelligent packaging. In: Heldman, D. R. and Moraru, C. I. (ed.). Encyclopaedia of Agricultural, Food and Biological  Engineering. 2nd edition, New York: Marcel Dekker, pp. 528–535. ISBN 978-1439811115

·      HAN, J. H., HO, C. H. L. and RODRIGUE, E. T., 2005: Intelligent packaging. In: Han, J. H. Innovation in food packaging. UK, London: Elsevier Academic  Press, p. 138–155. ISBN 978-0123116321.

·      Gontard, N. Active packaging for food processing and preservation. In: International Congress on Engineering and Food: ICEF 9, 7e11 March 2004, Montpellier, France.

 To be continued ……….