In everyday life, whether it's coffee beans purchased from the supermarket or prepared food stored in the refrigerator at home, maintaining food freshness is a primary concern for consumers. The intrusion of oxygen, moisture, and light often rapidly degrades food's taste and quality, shortening its shelf life. For food companies, these seemingly minor factors can directly determine a product's market success.

So, how can we ensure flavor and safety while also balancing environmental considerations and cost? Choosing the right food packaging material is key. Different materials and structures can provide targeted protection in terms of sealing, moisture resistance, and light shielding, thereby extending food freshness.

MTPAK has extensive experience in this field and has long provided customized solutions for coffee roasters and food brands. From material selection to design and craftsmanship, we help companies balance freshness preservation, regulatory compliance, and sustainability, making packaging more than just a container; it becomes a guardian of product quality. Next, we'll explore the role of food packaging materials and how to choose them.

Why are food packaging materials so important?

The value of food packaging materials goes far beyond their basic function of transporting food. They provide crucial support throughout the entire food distribution chain, from standardized storage at the production end, to loss control during transportation, to safety assurance at the consumer end. Every link is inseparable from their core support.

Food safety is the primary mission of food packaging materials. High-quality packaging materials effectively isolate external microorganisms, oxygen, moisture, and harmful substances, preventing food from spoiling and contamination.

Appropriate food packaging materials can extend the shelf life of food, reduce losses, and lower costs.

Food packaging materials also serve as a bridge between businesses and consumers. Through the material's transparency and printability, consumers can intuitively see the food's appearance. Text and images on the packaging clearly convey key information such as ingredients, shelf life, and storage methods, safeguarding consumers' right to know.

In the fiercely competitive and homogeneous food market, packaging materials have become a crucial tool for brand differentiation. High-end chocolate uses aluminum foil composite flexible packaging, highlighting its quality through its metallic sheen. Organic foods use biodegradable packaging materials to convey a brand's sustainable philosophy.

What are the common food packaging materials?

Food packaging materials are diverse, and each material's properties make it suitable for a variety of food applications. Plastics and flexible packaging, with their flexibility and functionality, have become the mainstream choice in the food packaging field. While the two are interrelated, they each have their own strengths.

Plastics are one of the most widely used materials in food packaging due to their chemical stability, adjustable barrier properties, and low processing costs. Common types and applications include:

Polyethylene (PE): Offers excellent flexibility, low-temperature resistance, and no risk of harmful substance migration, making it suitable for snack packaging bags, plastic wrap, beverage bottle caps, and more.

Polypropylene (PP): Exceptional high-temperature resistance (up to 120°C) and excellent grease resistance make it a top choice for microwaveable food packaging. Microwaveable meal containers, sauce bottles, and baking trays for pre-prepared meals are often made of PP, allowing consumers to heat the food directly without changing containers, making it both convenient and safe.

Polyethylene terephthalate (PET): High transparency (light transmittance ≥ 90%), good mechanical strength, and excellent water vapor barrier properties make it suitable for transparent packaging for bottled beverages, cooking oil bottles, and snacks.

Ethylene vinyl alcohol copolymer (EVOH): Its core advantage is its high barrier properties, with a very low oxygen transmission rate. It is often used in composites with materials such as PE and PET for foods requiring extremely high freshness preservation. Examples include vacuum-packed meat and coffee bean packaging, where the EVOH composite layer effectively isolates oxygen, preventing oxidation and spoilage.

Flexible packaging materials aren't a distinct material category. Instead, they're based on plastic films, paper, aluminum foil, and other materials. These flexible packaging forms, formed through a composite process, are lightweight, portable, and feature adjustable barrier properties. They're widely used in food packaging:

Plastic composite flexible packaging: Made from two or more plastic films (such as PET+PE, PET+EVOH+PE), the barrier layer can be adjusted to suit food needs. For example, nuts are packaged using a composite structure of PET+aluminum foil+PE. The aluminum foil layer shields light and oxygen, while the PE layer offers excellent heat-sealing properties, effectively preventing the nuts from oxidation and moisture. Coffee beans are often packaged using a composite structure of PET+EVOH+PE. The EVOH layer precisely controls oxygen transmission rates to lock in the coffee flavor.

Paper-plastic composite flexible packaging: Combining the environmental friendliness of paper with the sealing properties of plastic, it's commonly used in bread and pastry packaging. For example, bread packaging often uses a paper-plastic composite. The outer paper layer can be printed with branding information and enhance the texture, while the inner PE film layer seals out moisture and keeps the bread soft. Some paper-plastic composite packaging also uses FSC-certified paper to ensure that the raw materials come from sustainably managed forests and meet environmental protection requirements.

Aluminum-plastic composite flexible packaging: With aluminum foil as the core barrier layer and a composite plastic film, it offers excellent light-proof, oxygen-proof, and moisture-proof properties, making it suitable for long-term food storage. For example, in flexible packaging for canned goods and vacuum packaging for meat, the aluminum foil layer completely isolates light and oxygen, allowing food to be stored at room temperature for over 12 months. Compared to traditional tinplate cans, it is also lighter and less expensive to transport.

How should food packaging materials explore the path of sustainable development?

With the advancement of the dual carbon goals and the implementation of global plastic restrictions, food packaging materials are rapidly shedding their high-polluting image and embarking on a sustainable development path through material innovation, the development of recycling systems, and reduced-volume design.

To address the pain points of single-use packaging, choose biodegradable food packaging materials. Common biodegradable food packaging materials include:

Polylactic acid (PLA): Made from renewable resources such as corn starch and sugarcane, it offers excellent transparency and processability, and can be used in snack bags and disposable lunch boxes. PLA completely degrades into carbon dioxide and water within 180 days under industrial composting conditions and meets FDA food contact standards, making it safe and non-toxic.

Polybutylene adipate/terephthalate (PBAT): Offers excellent flexibility and impact resistance, often compounded with PLA to mitigate its brittleness. PLA+PBAT composites can be used in fresh produce delivery bags and takeout bags, offering excellent load-bearing capacity and puncture resistance while also being able to degrade gradually in the natural environment.

Starch-based composites: Made primarily from natural starch, with a small amount of plastic additives added to enhance performance, they can be used in disposable tableware and food packaging. These materials are widely available, low-cost, and exhibit excellent biodegradability, fully degrading in 3-6 months in home composting conditions.

Conclusion

The selection of food packaging materials is never a single-material competition; it's a balance between safety and compliance, functional compatibility, and environmental sustainability. From plastics to flexible packaging, different materials offer unique properties that adapt to diverse food applications.

MTPAK will continue to deepen its expertise in the food packaging materials field. Through technological innovation and solution optimization, it aims to help more food brands find the optimal balance between safety, functionality, and environmental protection, driving the food packaging industry towards a more sustainable future.

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Understanding The Favorite Materials Used In Food Packaging