Research and Markets has included a new report titled ‘The Nanotechnology Opportunity in Food and Drinks Packaging’ to its portfolio.
Nanotechnology has several prospective applications in drinks and food packaging, especially in fruit, vegetables, poultry, meat and beverages. The novel technology delivers additional barrier properties to help in preventing spoilage for a longer period. New advancements are also optimizing the capability of the innovative technology to develop packaging capable of detecting when food has been contaminated or spoiled.
The fabrication of plastics integrating nanocomposites, which function as a gas barrier, will help producers to start using plastics in place of other heavyweight and high-cost packaging types. Integration of nanoclays with standard materials improves the quality and barrier properties of packaging, while making it more flexible, tougher and stiffer.
The count of participating companies in the nanotechnology packaging market is very low, thus there is minimal incentive to reduce product prices and less competition. Moreover, cost is an issue as the production scale of nanotechnology packaging products is very low when compared to conventional packaging materials.
Due to a growing concern over nanotechnology’s potential impact on human health, some sort of legislation will be passed in the near future, especially for nanomaterials that come into contact with consumer products such as food or are used in food packaging. Companies mentioned in the report include Wolters Kluwer, Videocon Industries, TNS, Schindler, Nordea Bank, Informa, Hutchison 3G UK, Devoteam, CMS Energy, Arriva, Amer Sports and Admiral Group.