FOOD SAFETY, PLASTICS AND SUSTAINABILITY A unique book by a well-known polymer scientist on a subject that is trending in plastics engineering. This book focuses on plastics for food safety, materials, chemicals and methods, as well as the applications of these polymers. The book begins with a chapter on food safety. Here, food security and the issues of migration of substances from packaging into the corresponding food, as well as the impact of microplastics on humans and the environment are discussed. In the next chapter, regulations, standards, and specifications are detailed. In another chapter, testing methods, such as risk assessment, freshness testing of food, and food colorants are discussed. In the chapter entitled “Food Packaging”, the methods that can be used for these issues are given as well as the special materials for food packaging. The chapter on materials includes a discussion on nanocomposites, biopolymers, microplastics, and edible films. This is followed by chapters on additives and applications, such as functional food applications. The final chapter covers the identification of the materials, the methods for recycling, plastic waste generation, and post-consumer polyolefins. Three separate indexes ensure a reader/user-friendly experience.

Plastics & Sustainability clearly lays out the thorny and contentious issues that we encounter at the nexus of plastics and sustainability. The book serves as a practical guide for making sustainability decisions about how plastics are made and used, including current developments in the newest bio-based plastics. Designers, marketers, academics, and engineers will all find something of value in this balanced and thoughtful second edition. Increased public scrutiny of plastics materials and the plastics industry has led, paradoxically, to both a deeper understanding and growing confusion about polymers, their origins, their uses, their risks, and ultimately their disposal. The author makes objective comparisons among major polymer grades and bioplastics including their life cycle assessments and practical performance in commercial 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

Survey’s the issues typically raised in discussions of sustainability and plastics Discusses current issues not covered in detail previously such as ocean litter, migration of additives into food products and the recovery of plastics Covers post-consumer fate of plastics on land and in the oceans, highlighting the environmental impacts of disposal methods Details toxicity of plastics, particularly as it applies to human health Presents a clear analysis of the key plastic-related issues including numerous citations of the research base that supports and contradicts the popularly held notions

The importance of food packaging hardly needs emphasizing since only a handful of foods are sold in an unpackaged state. With an increasing focus on sustainability and cost-effectiveness, responsible companies no longer want to over-package their food products, yet many remain unsure just where reductions can effectively be made. Food Packaging and

This book describes how man-made litter, primarily plastic, has spread into the remotest parts of the oceans and covers all aspects of this pollution problem from the impacts on wildlife and human health to socio-economic and political issues. Marine litter is a prime threat to marine wildlife, habitats and food webs worldwide. The book illustrates how advanced technologies from deep-sea research, microbiology and mathematic modelling as well as classic beach litter counts by volunteers contributed to the broad awareness of marine litter as a problem of global significance. The authors summarise more than five decades of marine litter research, which receives growing attention after the recent discovery of great oceanic garbage patches and the ubiquity of microscopic plastic particles in marine organisms and habitats. In 16 chapters, authors from all over the world have created a universal view on the diverse field of marine litter pollution, the biological impacts, dedicated research activities, and the various national and international legislative efforts to combat this environmental problem. They recommend future research directions necessary for a comprehensive understanding of this environmental issue and the development of efficient management strategies. This book addresses scientists, and it provides a solid knowledge base for policy makers, NGOs, and the broader public.

Food Packaging: Nanotechnology in the Agri-Food Industry, Volume 7, focuses on the development of novel nanobiomaterials, the enhancement of barrier performance of non-degradable and biodegradable plastics, and their fabrication and application in food packaging. The book brings together fundamental information and the most recent advances in the synthesis, design, and impact of alternative food packaging. Special attention is offered on smart materials and nanodevices that are able to detect quality parameters in packaged food, such as freshness, degradation, and contamination, etc. In addition, ecological approaches aiming to obtain bioplastics packages from waste materials are highlighted and discussed as a novel approach in modern food packaging. Nonetheless, this volume presents the advances made in biodegradable and bioactive packaging utilized for preserving flavor, nutritious ingredients, and therapeutic food compounds. - Includes fabrication techniques, such as nanofiber films, nanocoating, nanocompositing, multi-layered structures, and layer-by-layer nanoassemblies based on synthetic and bio-based polymers - Presents the latest information on new biodegradeable materials using fabrication of new high barrier plastics to enhance research - Provides examples of risk assessment for nanomaterials for food safety and the benefits of antimicrobial food packaging