Food Toxicology 2(2+0)

Lesson 26 : Food packaging material – potential contaminants from food packaging material

Traditional materials

With the exception of glazed pottery, they have poor barrier properties and are only used to contain foods and keep them clean. They are also unsuited to the needs of commercial production processes and are considered by many customers to be less attractive than the newer ‘industrial’ materials described below.

1. Leaves, vegetable fibers and textiles
2. Wood
3. Leather
4. Earthenware

Glass or plastic containers have largely replaced pottery because of its high weight, fragility, variability in volume when hand-made, and the difficulty of adequately cleaning pottery containers for re-use.