Staff:Dr. ssa M.G. Volpe, C. Meccariello, Ing. Michele Di Stasio

Collaboratori esterni: Prof. L. Incarnato, Dr. M.Malinconico, Dr. M.Avella, Dr.P.Laurienzo, Dr. S.Cimmino

Research Activity:

The aim of the studies is to realize packaging systems able to preserve sensorial qualities and increase the shelf-life controllling the food characteristics.

The research activity is based on the knowledge of food degradation phenomena during preservation in order to slow down or block them. Packaging is considered an important factor in the foods preservation. Initially used only as storage unit , it is becoming a means able to reduce the speed of qualitative decay of foods and to protect it by microbiological and chemical contamination, in order to assure the food protection at the time of purchase until the human consumption.

Naturally, the planning and the choice of materials and/or packaging methodologies must be very cautious to reachive the objective to increase the shelf-life.

It is necessary to know accurately the characteristics of preserved food and those of the used materials, considering all the possible modifications during the period between manufacture and consumption.

In order to reduce the consumers health risck and to preserve food quality, detection and identification of potential contaminants of packaging constituents into food and testing the qualitative, nutritional and sensorial characteristics of food during preservation are neded.

Finally it seems seasonable to regard the food and packaging as a single system.

Objectives:

• Individuation and planning of materials suitable for the different food categories, eventually with techonologies able to icrease the shelf-life.
• Study of chemical, physical and mechanical properties, such as the gas permeability, of selected materials.
• Determination of global and specific migration, because a very large number of chemical substances that migrate from plastic packaging into food alters its toxic and sensory qualities.