فصلنامه علوم و فنون بسته بندی
پیاپی 46 (تابستان 1400)

Packaging is one of the most important technological aspects in food production. It is a technological intervention to protect food products against various factors which provoke product deterioration, in order to preserve the product quality and guarantee the observation of relevant standards. This paper aims at the evaluation of the properties of packaging that are currently used in the meat industry and their advantages and disadvantages. Packaging is a coordinated system, which prepares the products for transportation, distribution, storage, marketing and consumption. Although packaging serves different purposes, the common purpose is to guarantee high standards and safety as long as possible. Meat is a dynamic biosystem with an appropriate condition for microbial growth, and microbial spoilage limits its shelf-life and deteriorates its nutritional, physical or chemical food properties during storage, causing off-odor, off-flavor, discoloration, gas, and slime. With the recent innovative developments in food packaging, the novel packaging can prolong shelf life and preserve the quality and  safety of meat and its related products. Novel methods obtain their efficiency by changing the atmosphere or matrix of the closure, or adding some releasing/absorbing compounds in the closure of the product pack. Intelligent packaging delivers the desired quality experience to the consumers by providing the opportunity to interact with the product.

Nowadays, with the increasing consumer awareness and tendency to use safe food products, the food producers consider using novel packaging systems more than ever. Intelligent packaging is one of the novel packaging systems that informs the consumer about the freshness and quality of packaged food by gathering and presenting information from inside and outside the food package. Time-temperature indicators are one type of intelligent packaging systems which are used when special temperature conditions are required for food preservation. The transport and supply of meat and dairy products need the cold-chain supply. Time-temperature indicators are able to report the application of cold-chain during the transportation and sale of such food products. There are different types of time-temperature indicators and each of them operates with different mechanisms. In this review paper, various types of time-temperature indicators have been introduced and their operation mechanism as well as their application as intelligent packaging of different foods has been discussed.

The aim of this study is to increase the shelf life and quality of strawberries, using a composite coating of concentrated milk protein-pectin reinforced with calcium chloride and Nigella sativa L. essential oil during 10 days of storage at 4±1°C. The effect of edible coating based on condensed milk protein (4, 6 and 8%), pectin (0, 2 and 4%), calcium chloride (1, 2 and 3%), glycerol (2, 3 and 4%) and Nigella sativa L. essential oil (2%) is investigated. After optimizing the microbial quality of coated strawberries, their physicochemical properties, antioxidant activity, anthocyanin content, and tissue hardness were compared with the control samples at 5 and 10 days after storage. All the studied qualitative characteristics of the coated samples were significantly different from the control samples (p <0.05). The results showed that this edible coating maintains the quality of strawberries in comparison to the uncoated control samples due to rot reduction.

Today, researchers refuse to use the traditional packaging systems because these systems do not offer any information about the quality of meat products at any stage of the supply chain to the consumers and producers and the use of new technologies is recommended to monitor the quality and spoilage of fresh meat products, with the aim of reducing the incidence of food intoxication and the production of meat waste along the chain. While the traditional packaging systems are able to provide few services in the field of supply chain monitoring, the new intelligent packaging systems with the aim of monitoring the quality of packaged meat or its environment are advancing towards providing innovative solutions in the industry of production and supply of meat products. This information will be readily available to the consumer through color detection indicators in packaged meat after spoilage. The use of metal nanoparticles demonstrates excellent communication performance compared to the traditional colorimetric indicators due to its unique optical properties and high level of reactivity for monitoring the condition of packaged meat or the environment around the product. This paper focuses on scientific research and recent technological breakthroughs related to nanotechnology-derived colorimetric indicators, and the challenges of their application are highlighted and discussed to provide the required information for future development.

The consumer's intention to buy depends on several factors. Packaging is one of the most important motivations that affect the consumer's intention to purchase. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of transparent packaging on consumer purchases of cereals in Refah chain shops of Saveh. The type of study is applied research. The data were collected through questionnaires, and processed using the statistical methods of structural equation modeling by SPSS24 and LISREL8.80 software. The results show the positive and significant impact of packaging transparency on the joy, pleasure, novelty, quality, innovation, and attractiveness perceived by the consumer, and as a result on the overall tendency of the consumers to purchase.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of packaging features and perceived brand quality on consumers' willingness to pay with the role of customer type moderator. The descriptive-correlation method was used to conduct this research. The statistical population of the present study included all consumers of honey and jam in chain stores in Tehran in an unlimited number and based on Cochran's formula, the required sample size of 384 people was determined. The questionnaire used to examine the research variables, contained 46 questions and its reliability was confirmed by the Cronbach's alpha coefficient. The content validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by a group of university professors and its construct validity was confirmed by confirmatory factor analysis. Parametric inferential statistical methods such as the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test were used to ensure the normality of the data, and structural equation modeling and path analysis using the Amos software were employed to test the hypotheses. The most important research findings showed that packaging features have a positive effect on consumers' willingness to pay and the perceived brand quality. The perceived brand quality has a positive effect on consumers' willingness to pay, and the customer type has a moderating role in the relationship between packaging characteristics and consumers' willingness to pay.