Tag Archives: swissinfo.ch

The Swiss talk about ‘smart’ food packaging

Biotechnologist Christoph Meili discusses the impact nanotechnology-enabled packaging could have on food in a Mar. 25, 2013 Q&A with Christian Raaflaub (adapted from German by Simon Bradley) for the International Service of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (swissinfo.ch),

swissinfo.ch: You argue that the future of packaging will be closely tied to advances in nanotechnology. What additional properties can nanotechnology offer?

Christoph Meili: …

Here I’m talking mostly about the shelf life of food, which can be extended. The amount of information and the quality of information on packaging will also increase. The consumer will learn about the state of the product, whether the food is still edible or if there is oxygen present in the packaging, for example.

Hopefully, this will also lead to a conservation of resources so that better biodegradable packaging is developed.

swissinfo.ch: Are there any smart alternatives to packaging so that we use less in the future?

C.M.: Edible packaging is something on our radar screens. On the other hand it’s important for consumers to be able to differentiate clearly between the product and the packaging. …

They also discuss the problem of people throwing good food away because they cannot confirm it is still edible. In Switzerland, it’s estimated some 2 million tonnes of food is discarded per year (worldwide the figure is 1.3 billion tonnes).

One final question from the interview,

swissinfo.ch: You are a biotechnologist and a molecular biologist but you also work as a risk researcher. What are the possible future health threats of integrating minute nanoparticles in packaging?

C.M.: The question we have to ask ourselves is: can nanoparticles escape from packaging? If so, where do they go? Into food, or are they dispersed into the environment? Or do they transform into something else in the biological cycle?

In active packaging, where a considerable part involves active elements escaping and interacting with foodstuffs, we have to look at what is happening. The migration and dispersion of low-molecular substances is an issue. …

I last mentioned food and nanotechnology-enabled packaging in a Nov. 1, 2012 posting about Canada, nano, and mangoes.