Food Packaging’s Materials: A Food Safety Perspective

Abstract Food packaging serves purposes of food product safety and easy handling or transport by preventing chemical contamination and enhancing the shelf life, which provides convenience for consumers. Various types of packaging materials including plastics, glass, metals and papers and their composites have been employed for food packaging. However, owing to consumers’ increased health awareness, the significance of transferring the harmful materials from packaging materials into foods is of greater concern. This review highlights the interactions of food with packaging materials and elaborates the mechanism, types and factors of migration of chemical substances from the packaging to foods. Moreover, various types of chemical migrants from different types of packaging materials have been elaborated with their possible impacts on food safety and human health. Finally, future outlooks are given based on the legislative and technical considerations by optimization the food and package interactions.