Advances in Food Packaging Technology

Dear Colleagues,

The global food system is roughly valued at US$8 trillion, or 10 percent of the US$80 trillion global economy. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations estimates the gross value of global (primary) agricultural production at just over US$5 trillion, while the World Bank estimates (primary) agricultural value-added at about US$3.2 trillion. Packaging is an essential component of the food system, with the global packaging market valued at over US$850 billion and the growth is expected to continue. The paperboard packaging market alone is estimated to be worth about US$300 billion, 50% of which is made from fresh fiber, while the value of non-fiber-based packaging, such as plastic, glass, and metal packaging, is about USD 460 billion. Packaging enables the bulk handling and transportation of fresh and processed food between markets and from the market to the end-user; it also allows products to be sold in smaller retail quantities to meet the demand of consumers. In doing so, among other functions, packaging protects its content against physical damage as well as sub-optimal environmental and atmospheric conditions which are deleterious to the quality and safety of the product. With over 30% of global food production lost and wasted between harvest and the end-user, there has been considerable interest in the role of packaging in maintaining the cold and dry chains of food, and thereby contributing to food and nutrition security and environmental sustainability.

While there have been considerable advancements in food packaging to facilitate the handling and marketing of global food business, increasing consumer demand for quality and safe food, including public concern for the impacts of packaging waste on sustainable consumption, has unleashed further demand for more techno-cost-effective and environmentally sustainable packaging. Several packaging systems have been developed to ensure efficient logistics, during postharvest handling, cooling, transport, and storage operations. For example, the placement of hand holes on the opposite side of corrugated paperboard packaging for handling fresh fruit and vegetables and recent advances in computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and structural (CSD) modeling have resulted in the design and multi-criteria performance assessment of new ventilated packages. The use of passive modified atmosphere packaging to extend the storage and shelf life of fresh and fresh-cut foods and an improved understanding of packaging materials science combined with advances in digital electronics and more accurate knowledge of produce physiology have contributed to the development novel smart and intelligent packaging.

This Special Issue on “Advances in Food Packaging Technology” focusses on the latest research and development in this area. We target specifically the development and application of novel and sustainable packaging solutions and how computational modeling and multi-criteria performance evaluation can help advance innovative packaging technologies by providing new insights for product design and process optimization. Contributions covering packaging solutions for a wide range of food production and supply chains are most welcome, including bulk/logistics packaging and retail/consumer packaging for fruit and vegetables, grain, meat, poultry, and dairy. In addition, review papers providing critical overviews of state-of-the-art developments on packaging research are welcome.

Topics include, but are not limited to the following:

• Impact of packaging on food quality, losses, and waste;
• Advances in material science and testing;
• Techniques and procedures for testing bulk packaging;
• Mechanical damage of package and produce during transport;
• Optimization of container space through package design;
• Computational modeling and prediction;
• Ventilated packaging;
• Intelligent packaging;
• Active packaging;
• Modified atmosphere packaging;
• Prototyping techniques;
• Environmental impact of food packaging.

We aim to have a rapid review process to provide a channel for the timely dissemination of fresh and impactful manuscripts. Apart from providing research on recent trends in food packaging, this research series is envisioned to galvanize research on different aspects of packaging technology and science to better understand process modeling and optimization towards a sustainable food system and reduced incidence of food losses and waste. We encourage the presentation of high-quality contributions (original research articles or review papers) providing recent innovations in the packaging of fresh and processed food, including improvements of design, testing methods, and impacts of packaging on the food systems such as quality, safety, losses, and waste.

Prof. Dr. Umezuruike Linus Opara
Dr. Alemayehu (Alex) Ambaw
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Processes is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• Packaging technology
• Packaging engineering
• Food technology
• Postharvest engineering
• Computational fluid dynamics
• Computational structural dynamics
• Fruits and vegetables
• Agricultural materials
• CFD and FEM
• Ventilated packaging
• Modified atmosphere packaging
• Active packaging
• Logistics packaging
• Sustainable packaging
• Package design
• Food wastage
• Food