Packaging and Food: A Complex Combination

The advent of packaging materials in the modern food industry has deeply changed the relationship between people and foods. Food packages have progressively been turned into essential element for the sale and the consumption of food products. On these bases, packaged foods can become communicative media of values and information: the user receives and understands these data by means of suitable tools of physical, cultural and personal nature. Functional and communicative requirements of food packaging are continuously evolving: the careful analysis of these factors should be recommended because of their influence on chemistry of foods, food technology, biochemical interactions between different food phases, and chemistry of food packaging. This section is dedicated to the study and the ‘chemical’ interpretation of food packaging requirements.