TABLE OF CONTENTS A few decades ago, food was sold mainly from bulk containers, the packaging being done by the retailer after selling. Thus milk was taken from a large milk can by a soup-ladle to be dropped in the milk jug of the consumer. No need to say that the milk should have been boiled very quickly. In the same way, butter was cut by a large knife, and put on a greaseproof paper to be weighed and packed, ignoring the fact that sometimes it was wrapped up in an old newspaper, which at that time was a common way to reuse these paper materials. Pre-packaging was developed in the mid 1900s with the production of sealable glass bottles and airtight metal cans. Later on, flexible materials, such as cellophane, were introduced instead of greaseproof paper. Today, since they exhibit outstanding usage properties, plastics are used preferentially for packaging foodstuffs.
Plastic packages are capable of retarding and sometimes preventing detrimental changes in the packed material due to external influences such as oxygen, light, and microorganisms. Plastics are also able to reduce to a great extent, the loss of components such as water or flavour in the packed material. Resulting from this protection, plastic packages enable the consumer to use foodstuffs in perfectly hygienic conditions, and to store them without loss in quality over an extended period of time.
But plastics contain low molecular compounds such as oligomers and sometimes monomers, and additives such as plasticisers,...
