This book explores the latest advances in the sustainable production of packaged foods. Packaging plays an important role in sustainable food production and consumption in industrialized countries, where there is an increasing pressure to reduce the environmental impact of packaged foods. For example, the European Union recommends packaging from renewable sources, with a focus on bio-based materials. Sustainable packaging processes guarantee the reuse of the entire waste material and at the same time avoid the loss of food safety and quality during storage by preventing food-borne diseases and chemical contamination. Furthermore, the dramatic problem of plastic waste accumulation and the conservation of oil and food resources need to be taken into consideration. This book presents eco-friendly packaging strategies to reduce food and plastic waste and address the end-of-life issues of persistent materials. It particularly focuses on the production of biodegradable microbial polymers and the use of by-products and waste from the agricultural and food industries. These strategies promote an innovative and productive waste-based food packaging economy, separating the food packaging industry from fossil reserves and allowing bio-polymers to return to the soil. Lastly, the book covers life-cycle assessment, life-cycle costing, and externality assessment to help readers understand the economical reliability of the innovations presented.

This book explores the latest advances in the sustainable production of packaged foods. Packaging plays an important role in sustainable food production and consumption in industrialized countries, where there is an increasing pressure to reduce the environmental impact of packaged foods. For example, the European Union recommends packaging from renewable sources, with a focus on bio-based materials. Sustainable packaging processes guarantee the reuse of the entire waste material and at the same time avoid the loss of food safety and quality during storage by preventing food-borne diseases and chemical contamination. Furthermore, the dramatic problem of plastic waste accumulation and the conservation of oil and food resources need to be taken into consideration. This book presents eco-friendly packaging strategies to reduce food and plastic waste and address the end-of-life issues of persistent materials. It particularly focuses on the production of biodegradable microbial polymers and the use of by-products and waste from the agricultural and food industries. These strategies promote an innovative and productive waste-based food packaging economy, separating the food packaging industry from fossil reserves and allowing bio-polymers to return to the soil. Lastly, the book covers life-cycle assessment, life-cycle costing, and externality assessment to help readers understand the economical reliability of the innovations presented.

Packaging plays a major role in the environmental footprints of products from any industrial sector, and thus is important to address the sustainability issues of packaging. Packaging and the packaging sector have to be eco-conscious as there are many types of packaging across various industrial sectors and so are their environmental impacts as well. Plastic packaging is one of the most common element and the packaging sector accounts for almost 40% of plastic pollution in the world. Sustainable packaging is the only way forward to alleviate the environmental devastations from the the packaging sector. This book presents case studies and discusses how to make packaging more sustainable for a better future. ​

Food Packaging: Innovations and Shelf-life covers recently investigated developments in food packaging and their influence in food quality preservation, shelf-life extension, and simulation techniques. Additionally, the book discusses the environmental impact and sustainable solutions of food packaging. This book is divided into seven chapters, written by worldwide experts. The book is an ideal reference source for university students, food engineers and researchers from R&D laboratories working in the area of food science and technology. Professionals from institutions related to food packaging.

Sustainable Food Supply Chains: Planning, Design, and Control through Interdisciplinary Methodologies provides integrated and practicable solutions that aid planners and entrepreneurs in the design and optimization of food production-distribution systems and operations and drives change toward sustainable food ecosystems. With synthesized coverage of the academic literature, this book integrates the quantitative models and tools that address each step of food supply chain operations to provide readers with easy access to support-decision quantitative and practicable methods. Broken into three parts, the book begins with an introduction and problem statement. The second part presents quantitative models and tools as an integrated framework for the food supply chain system and operations design. The book concludes with the presentation of case studies and applications focused on specific food chains. Sustainable Food Supply Chains: Planning, Design, and Control through Interdisciplinary Methodologies will be an indispensable resource for food scientists, practitioners and graduate students studying food systems and other related disciplines. - Contains quantitative models and tools that address the interconnected areas of the food supply chain - Synthesizes academic literature related to sustainable food supply chains - Deals with interdisciplinary fields of research (Industrial Systems Engineering, Food Science, Packaging Science, Decision Science, Logistics and Facility Management, Supply Chain Management, Agriculture and Land-use Planning) that dominate food supply chain systems and operations - Includes case studies and applications

Towards more sustainable packaging with biodegradable materials! The combination of the continuously increasing food packaging waste with the non-biodegradable nature of the plastic materials that have a big slice of the packaging market makes it necessary to move towards sustainable packaging for the benefit of the environment and human health. Sustainable packaging is the type of packaging that can provide to food the necessary protection conditions, but at the same type is biodegradable and can be disposed as organic waste to the landfills in order to biodegrade through a natural procedure. In this way, sustainable packaging becomes part of the circular economy. ?Sustainable Food Packaging Technology? deals with packaging solutions that use engineered biopolymers or biocomposites that have suitable physicochemical properties for food contact and protection and originate both from renewable or non-renewable resources, but in both cases are compostable or edible. Modified paper and cardboard with increased protective properties towards food while keeping their compostability are presented as well. The book also covers natural components that can make the packaging functional, e.g., by providing active protection to the food indicating food spoilage. * Addresses urgent problems: food packaging creates a lot of hard-to-recycle waste - this book puts forward more sustainable solutions using biodegradable materials * State-of-the-art: ?Sustainable Food Packaging Technology? provides knowledge on new developments in functional packaging * From lab to large-scale applications: expert authors report on the technology aspects of sustainable packaging

This book explores the challenges of sustainable agri-food supply chains. It presents and discusses nine cases of organizational innovation, covering different phases of food production and facing different challenges, by proposing alternative models to the traditional paradigm of scale and leverage to design supply chain in these industries.

Biopolymer-Based Food Packaging Explore the latest developments and advancements in biopolymer-based food packaging In Biopolymer-Based Food Packaging: Innovations and Technology Applications, a team of accomplished researchers delivers a complete, systematic, and sequential account of the contemporary developments in the application of biopolymers for sustainable food packaging. This book introduces the fabrication, characterization as well as benefits arising from the enhanced functionalities of biopolymer-based food packaging materials. The authors introduce various polysaccharide, protein, and microbial polymer-based food packaging films and coatings, as well as biopolymer-based blends and nanocomposites. Importance of these materials as active and intelligent food packaging systems is also introduced. Finally, the book explores biopolymer-based edible food packaging, and its efficacy in extending the shelf-life of perishable food items using sustainable materials and processes suitable for the future of circular economies around the world. Readers will also find: A thorough introduction to the incorporation of nanomaterials as fillers to improve the physico-chemical, mechanical, thermal, barrier, optical, and antimicrobial properties of food packaging nanocomposites Comprehensive discussions of the use of plant-based bioactive compounds, including essential oils, in biopolymer-based food packaging Practical examinations of silver and zinc oxide nanoparticles in food packaging In-depth treatments of polylactic acid-based composites for food packaging applications Biopolymer-Based Food Packaging: Innovations and Technology Applications is an invaluable resource for academic researchers and professionals in food packaging and related industries, as well as research scholars, graduate students, and entrepreneurs working and studying in the field of food preservation, environmental safety, and human health with a focus on the sustainable future.

Food Engineering Innovations Across the Food Supply Chain discusses the technology advances and innovations into industrial applications to improve supply chain sustainability and food security. The book captures the highlights of the 13th International Congress of Engineering ICEF13 under selected congress themes, including Sustainable Food Systems, Food Security, Advances in Food Process Engineering, Novel Food Processing Technologies, Food Process Systems Engineering and Modeling, among others. Edited by a team of distinguished researchers affiliated to CSIRO, this book is a valuable resource to all involved with the Food Industry and Academia. Feeding the world's population with safe, nutritious and affordable foods across the globe using finite resources is a challenge. The population of the world is increasing. There are two opposed sub-populations: those who are more affluent and want to decrease their caloric intake, and those who are malnourished and require more caloric and nutritional intake. For sustainable growth, an increasingly integrated systems approach across the whole supply chain is required. Focuses on innovation across the food supply chain beyond the traditional food engineering discipline Brings the integration of on-farm with food factory operations, the inclusion of Industry 4.0 sensing technologies and Internet of Things (IoT) across the food chain to reduce food wastage, water and energy inputs Makes a full intersection into other science domains (operations research, informatics, agriculture and agronomy, machine learning, artificial intelligence and robotics, intelligent packaging, among others)

This volume is a ready reference on sustainable agriculture and reinforce the understanding for its utilization to develop environmentally sustainable and profitable food production systems. It describes ecological sustainability of farming systems, present innovations for improving efficiency in the use of resources for sustainable agriculture and propose technological options and new areas of research in this very important area of agriculture.