Characteristics of Different Plastic Materials, Properties and their Role in Food Packaging

Synthetic polymers are widely used globally for food and other packagings playing an important role in food packaging during transportation, handling and also increasing shelf-life of product at a controlled atmospheric condition. Most of the time, plastic is preferred as a packaging material due to its inherent properties like light in weight, strength, durability, availability, convenience and relatively inexpensive. In this review, it has been tried to preface some plastic material, their sustainability, adaptability, advantages and disadvantages over the packaging of any food product and trying to clarify the different properties of plastic materials and their effect on packaged food.