engleski

Packaging trends of milk and dairy products

Packaging nowadays implies a busy and more complex lifestyle, spurring consumers to save time by eating and drinking on-the-go, including dairy. Packaging innovation is increasingly small-sized, portion-controlled, resealable (open and close) and fit-forpurpose, resulting in a dramatic increase in portion variation. While innovation in on-the-go dairy products increasing, shelf life is still limited. Today’s buyers are well informed and have special demands as vegetarians and anyone looking for an efficient protein source. Sugar-free, gluten-free, lactose-free and non-dairy alternatives, such as oat milk and soy milk as a food product are increasingly in demand because their benefits. Probiotic and prebiotic fortified products simplify a healthy lifestyle, often in the form of small packaging content. It is already well known that processing and packaging are the two important phases of operations in the food industry. The final but not less important phase is the packaging stage. A great deal of automation strategies is constantly being utilized in every phase of processing, packaging and new packaging materials as well. The most suited packaging provides processors to pack fresh milk and dairy products and have important role to prolong their shelf life. The period of shelf life depends on each the intrinsic nature of food and external factors. The important parameters for shelf life extension of packaged milk and dairy products are moisture and temperature that affects the growth of microorganisms, especially in fermented milk products and cheese. Dairy packaging systems include new technologies such as the modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) that is widely used nowadays as very effective packaging method, especially for dairy products like cheese. Edible packaging and their application could significantly reduce the costs of cheese packaging by reducing the amount of conventional packaging material. To prolong the shelf life nanomaterials can be used as well. Active packaging might be useful for extending the shelf life of dairy products by reducing negative batch processing of sensory characteristics. Active packaging forms that are relevant to dairy foods include scavenging oxygen, absorbing carbon dioxide, flavour/odour taints and/or moisture ; releasing ethanol, carbon dioxide, antioxidants and/or other preservatives ; maintaining temperature control and/or compensating temperature changes. The greatest interest of shelf life prolongation of dairy products from the industrial point of view is focused on antimicrobial packaging. Furthermore, there is a huge interest in biodegradable packaging application which could not only solve the problem of plastic waste, but may also contibute to reducing the amount of disposed food by extending the product’s shelf life. Finally, more studies are needed concerning the use of novel packaging systems as well as processing methods to extend and to enhance dairy products safety and shelf life.

packaging, milk, dairy products, shelf life, packaging methods

nije evidentirano