Dipartimento di Agraria, Università degli Studi di Sassari, Viale Italia 39/A, 07100 Sassari, Italy.
Dipartimento di Agraria, Università degli Studi di Sassari, Viale Italia 39/A, 07100 Sassari, Italy; CRENoS.
Food Res Int. 2017 Jan;91:124-132. doi: 10.1016/j.foodres.2016.11.031. Epub 2016 Dec 9.
Packaging is associated with a high environmental impact. This is also the case in the food industry despite packaging being necessary for maintaining food quality, safety assurance and preventing food waste. The aim of the present study was to identify improvements in food packaging solutions able to minimize environmental externalities while maximizing the economic sustainability. To this end, the life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology was applied to evaluate the environmental performance of new packaging solutions. The environmental impact of packaging and food losses and the balance between the two were examined in relation to a cheesecake that is normally packaged in low density polyethylene film and has a limited shelf life due to microbial growth. A shelf life extension was sought via application of the well-established modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) technique. Samples for MAP (N/CO: 70/30) were placed inside multilayer gas barrier trays, which were then wrapped with a multilayer gas and water barrier film (i.e. AerPack packaging); control batches were packaged in gas barrier recycled polyethylene terephthalate (XrPet) trays and wrapped with a XrPet film. Samples were then stored at 20°C and inspected at regular intervals for chemical-physical, microbiological and sensory parameters. Results show that the new packaging solution could considerably extend the shelf life of cheesecakes, thereby reducing food waste and decreasing the overall environmental impact. Moreover, the new packaging allows one to minimize transport costs and to generate economies of scale in manufacturing.
包装对环境有很大的影响。即使包装对于保持食品质量、保证食品安全和防止食物浪费是必要的，食品行业也是如此。本研究的目的是确定能够最小化环境外部性同时最大化经济可持续性的食品包装解决方案的改进。为此，应用生命周期评估（LCA）方法来评估新包装解决方案的环境性能。研究了包装和食品损失的环境影响以及两者之间的平衡，涉及到一种通常用低密度聚乙烯薄膜包装的芝士蛋糕，由于微生物生长，其保质期有限。通过应用成熟的改良气氛包装（MAP）技术来寻求延长保质期。将 MAP（N/CO：70/30）的样品放在多层气体阻隔托盘内，然后用多层气体和水阻隔膜（即 AerPack 包装）进行包装；对照批次用阻隔性回收聚对苯二甲酸乙二醇酯（XrPet）托盘包装并用 XrPet 膜包装。然后将样品储存在 20°C 下，并定期检查化学物理、微生物和感官参数。结果表明，新的包装解决方案可以大大延长芝士蛋糕的保质期，从而减少食物浪费并降低整体环境影响。此外，新的包装允许最小化运输成本并在制造中产生规模经济。
