258 Chapter 13
“ NatureTray ” product aimed at fresh meat.
Both these companies use a foam form that
is derived from 100% annually renewable
resources. In the future, we can hope to see
even more applications for renewable pack-
aging materials in the packaging of meat
products. These products will address the
various technical challenges of MAP and
vacuum packaging and overcome the gas
permeability issues required to make such
packaging effective.References
Allen , P. , A. M. Doherty , D. J. Buckley , J. Kerry , M. N.
O ’ Grady , and F. J. Monahan. 1996. Effect of oxygen
scavengers and vitamin E supplementation on colour
stability of MAP beef. Proceedings of the 42nd
International Congress of Meat Science and
Technology , Lillehammer, Norway.
Belcher , J. N. 2006. Review: Industrial packaging devel-
opments for the global meat market. Meat Science
74 : 143 – 148.
Bell , R. G. , N. Penny , and S. M. Moorhead. 1995.
Growth of the psychrotrophic pathogens Aeromonas
hydrophila, Listeria monocytogenes and Yersinia
enterocolitica in smoked blue cod Parapercis colias
packed under vacuum or carbon dioxide. International
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521.
Berry , D. 2000. Packaging ’ s role — Brief article. Dairy
Foods August.
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monoxide for meat packaging. In Proceedings 59th
Reciprocal Meat Conference. Champaign - Urbana,
Illinois.
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Packaging 1 : 81.
Buys , E. M. 2004. Colour changes and consumer accept-
ability of bulk packaged pork retail cuts stored under
O 2 , CO 2 and N 2. Meat Science 68 : 641 – 647.
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1.Preliminary experiments. Journal of the Society of
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Camo , J. , J. Antonio Beltr á n , and P. Roncal é s. 2008.
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dant active packaging. Meat Science 80 : 1086 –
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The Netherlands : Pudoc.as biodegradable plastic in their products ’
packaging. This is particularly important in
the European Union, where many countries
are considering tougher legislation to encour-
age the use of less packaging material (Dodds
2007 ). Biopolymer fi lms may serve as poten-
tial replacements for synthetic fi lms in food
packaging applications to address strong
marketing trends toward more environmen-
tally friendly materials, but hydrophilicity is
a central limitation to replacement and full-
scale commercial utilization of biodegrad-
able fi lms (Han et al. 2005 ). However, a
variety of bio - based materials have been
shown to prevent moisture loss, reduce lipid
oxidation, improve fl avor, retain color, and
stabilize microbial characteristics of foods
(Cutter 2006 ).
Additionally, any assessment of the envi-
ronmental impact of food packaging must
consider the positive benefi ts of reduced
food waste in the supply chain (Marsh and
Bugusu 2007 ). The demand for pre - packaged
fresh meat will continue to grow, but it is
critical that packaging formats that enable
wider distribution of these products evolve
(Eilert 2005 ). Foamed food trays made of
polylactic acid (PLA) resin, the corn - based
biopolymer, have recently been trialed in the
United States and Europe for commercial
meat packaging applications (Schut 2008 ).
The polymers are said to biodegrade when
packages that are made from them are com-
posted. Moisture and heat in the compost pile
break the PLA polymer chains to smaller
chains, and then ultimately to lactic acid.
Microorganisms in the compost consume
the lactic acid for nourishment (Nachay
2008 ).
An Italian company, Coopbox SpA in
Reggio, which is a major producer of foam
food packaging, introduced the fi rst foamed
PLA trays, called Naturalbox, in 2005, which
can be used for the packaging of meat, fi sh,
or poultry. Also Cryovac Inc. (Reading,
Pennsylvania) has commercialized a PLA
foam tray in the U.S. market with its