Food Wrappers

Food wrappers. ©CooksInfo / 2021

Food wrappers can be categorized in several different ways.

• Natural vs man-made;
• Natural vs artificial;
• Edible vs non-edible;
• Commercial vs household.

How a particular wrapper is classified is open to interpretation and debate. A spring roll wrapper is natural, in that it is composed of natural ingredients, but it doesn’t actually exist in nature: it is man-made. Plastic film wrap is both man-made, and artificial.

Goals of food wrappers

Wrappings for food are used when the life span, safety, quality or transportability of a food item can be improved by being enclosed in something else.

“Packaging… improves shelf-life and contributes to the wholesomeness of the products.” ^[1]Essuman, Kofi Manso. “Local Packaging of Foods in Ghana.” Food and Nutrition Bulletin, vol. 12, no. 1, Mar. 1990, pp. 1–5, doi:10.1177/156482659001200101.

What a food wrapper needs to do depends on the requirements of the specific food item it is being applied to. Not all food wrappers meet all goals, but then, not all goals are applicable to all food products.

Uses for food wrappers include:

• providing barrier to air, oxygen, light, moisture, microbes and some pests;
• reducing transfer of odours between foods;
• preventing cross-contamination;
• preventing loss of micronutrients that are sensitive to light and / or air, such as Vitamin C in cut citrus fruit;
• reducing food waste;
• preventing either moisture coming in (e.g. for products such as bread, crackers) or moisture going out (e.g. baked goods drying out);
• allowing consumers to transport food from source of purchase to home, and from home to work for lunches, or to other locations for leisure or social occasions;
• use as a cooking tool, for purposes such as trapping steam during cooking (e.g. “Fish En Papillote”, or foil-wrapped baked potatoes), or keeping food together during cooking;
• solid wrappers can be used to block light when desirable.

Most food wrappings are passive, doing their job by simply acting as a physical barrier. Commercially, food manufactures also have access to some food wrappings which can proactively protect food as well because they have been treated with antimicrobial agents:

“Food is wrapped to protect it from the surrounding environment and minimize deterioration. Microorganisms can be introduced to food either before or after it is wrapped for protection. Common wrapping materials used for food preservation such as plastic bags or wrap, wax paper, and aluminum foil are mechanical barriers that do not have any specific antimicrobial properties. Food packaging that contains antimicrobial agents is used primarily by commercial entities rather than consumers.” ^[2]Beck, Dawn E., et al. Food spoilage in beeswax impregnated cotton cloth wraps compared to standard storage methods. University of Montana. March 2021. Page 3.

Artificial Food Wrappers

Artificial food wrappers can be made of paper, metal or plastic.

In the United States, the materials used must be approved, and not transfer “chemicals hazardous to human health into food”:

“Food-grade storage materials are approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as not containing or transferring chemicals hazardous to human health into food. Examples of containers not approved for food contact include trash bags and plastic or fiberboard containers that have previously held non-food materials. Storage materials that are intended for food contact use are generally clearly labeled for food use.”

Environmental impact of artificial food wrappers

An issue with artificial food wrappers is the after-life of them, and what impact that has on the environment.

Aluminum foil, plastic cling film, and plastic freezer or sandwich bags are often not accepted for recycling by municipal waste systems.

Aluminum foil could be recycled — it was during the Second World War.

At home, the usage life of some food wrappers can be extended. Plastic sandwich or freezer bags (that haven’t had meat in them) can be turned inside out and put through the dishwasher in the top rack for sanitization for re-use until the closure system on them stops working. Aluminum foil can be washed and reused in the house until it tears beyond usability or is too impacted with food to clean again. (Heavy duty aluminum foil has a high environmental cost to manufacture BUT can be re-used far more times in the home than light foil.) ^[3]Boatner, Betsy, et al. Household Food Wraps Life Cycle Assessment. University of Michigan. Industrial Ecology. Student project. April 1999. Accessed April 2021 at http://www.umich.edu/~indecol/wrapsproject.ppt

Paper will degrade after use, but if the paper has been treated with plastic (as much freezer paper now is), it could release micro plastics into the soil.

Natural / Edible Wrappers

There are many different types of natural food wrappers. Some are provided by nature itself, with no additional work required from us; others are constructed by us from natural elements:

“Nature does edible packaging well. Apple and grape skins protect the fruit from microbes and the environment. Humans have also been making consumable packaging for decades: sausage casings made of collagen and cellulose, and ice cream cones are examples. People in some parts of Asia use plates and bowls made of banana leaves that later become cattle feed. ” ^[4]Patel, Prachi. The time is now for edible packaging. Chemical and Engineering News. 26 January 2020. Vol. 98, #4. Accessed April 2021 at https://cen.acs.org/food/food-science/time-edible-packaging/98/i4

Some natural wrappers are edible, some are not.

A good example of traditional non-edible natural food wrappers is leaves such as corn husks, banana leaves, and bamboo leaves. Grape leaves are an example of an edible natural wrapper.

Some of the natural wrappers such as corn husks, banana leaves, and bamboo leaves, even though non-edible, also add flavour to the food inside them.

Other edible wrappers include casings for sausages, and tortillas. In a sandwich, the two slices of bread could be seen as being “wraps” as they hold the sandwich filling. Some people also classify bread bowls for chili and soup as an edible wrapper.

Modern edible packaging

Industry is now trying to create packaging that transcends definitions, being both artificial and edible.

The idea is to reduce the environmental impact of single-use artificial food wrappers.

But, will people want to eat it?

The exterior of product packaging can get contaminated with microbes, dust, etc… Other people may have handled it, flies or rodents could have walked over it. That’s why packaging exists, to assume that burden of contamination, so that the food inside does not have to.

Many people will likely feel that it doesn’t seem very hygienic to consume it.

Some edible packaging that already exists comes with non-edible packaging around it:

“Asian rice candy comes up frequently in edible-packaging discussions. Kids love to pop the gooey candy, which comes in a thin, edible rice paper wrapper, into their mouths. But the rice paper package is also wrapped in an outer layer of plastic or wax paper. That double layer illustrates a conundrum with edible packaging or tableware: if consumers are expected to eat it, it needs to be protected from dust, germs, and other contaminants.” ^[5]Patel, Prachi. The time is now for edible packaging. Chemical and Engineering News. 26 January 2020. Vol. 98, #4. Accessed April 2021 at https://cen.acs.org/food/food-science/time-edible-packaging/98/i4

In a way, it could be argued, this has been happening for a while. Ice cream cones, which are an edible container for ice cream, come inside non-edible packaging:

“Researchers and food industry experts all agree that edible packaging will require an outer layer, just like ice cream cones are wrapped in paper and sold in a box.” ^[6]Patel, Prachi. The time is now for edible packaging. Chemical and Engineering News. 26 January 2020. Vol. 98, #4. Accessed April 2021 at https://cen.acs.org/food/food-science/time-edible-packaging/98/i4

So there’s the question of, if the edible packaging still requires packaging on top of that, how much further are we ahead?

Additionally, there’s the issue of whether edible packaging would be better for the environment, or will it have adverse effects not yet thought of. One type of edible packaging, milk or casein protein, comes from dairy at a time when some people are already assailing dairy herds for their environmental impact:

“At the US Department of Agriculture, chemical engineer Peggy Tomasula has made transparent films from the milk protein casein, which “behaves much like plastic and is a way to utilize a product of the dairy industry” ^[7]Patel, Prachi. The time is now for edible packaging. Chemical and Engineering News. 26 January 2020. Vol. 98, #4. Accessed April 2021 at https://cen.acs.org/food/food-science/time-edible-packaging/98/i4

Literature and Lore

This extract from “Local Packaging of Foods in Ghana” (1990) looks at the traditional use of leaves as food wrappers in Ghana.

“Most traditional maize products consumed in southern Ghana are wrapped in leaves. Leaves commonly used for wrapping food include those of Thespesia populnea (Malvaceae family), Marantoclea spp. (Marantaceae family), and the plantain (Musa paradisiaca) and the sheaths of maize (corn, Zea mays).

Some items are packaged raw before cooking. Others are wrapped in the leaves immediately after cooking, while they are still hot. In the preparation of fante kenkey, a maize product, for example, the raw dough is wrapped completely in four or five layers of brown plantain leaves before cooking. For ga kenkey the raw dough is incompletely wrapped in a single layer of maize sheaths. Portions of the dough remain exposed and may be lost in the water during cooking.

Boiling or baking sterilizes foods pre-packaged in leaves. Fante kenkey, for example, has a shelf life of five to seven days, but other products such as ga kenkey and abolo store for only two or three days because of incomplete wrapping, which results in recontamination and spoilage, especially by moulds.

Products wrapped in leaves after cooking generally have a shelf-life of only two days. Etsew (another form of fante kenkey) and agidi, which are wrapped while hot in plantain leaves and the leaves of Marantoclea spp. respectively, can be stored for three days. Cooked rice and beans are stored in bulk in a large pan and sold wrapped in the leaves of T. populnea. They cannot be stored for more than 12 hours in the leaf.

Leaves for packaging are poorly handled and transported. They are often dirty and are kept in the open with little or no provision for washing before use. They may therefore be a source of microbial contamination of food. When broad leaves are stored for more than a week they deteriorate through drying out or decay. Maize sheaths, however, can be stored for several months and are the only type of leaf that is sometimes retrieved and re-used for packaging.” ^[8]Essuman, Kofi Manso. “Local Packaging of Foods in Ghana.” Food and Nutrition Bulletin, vol. 12, no. 1, Mar. 1990, pp. 1–5, doi:10.1177/156482659001200101.

History

Cellophane was the earliest clear packaging film.

It helped to protect and preserve food, while letting customers inspect it. And by combining clear cellophane areas with solid packaging areas, product manufacturers could direct consumers’ attention to the best-looking parts of their products.

It came along at the right time in history, just when grocery stores were switching to self-serve.

Cellophane allowed self-service of meats, cheeses, etc., to be done hygienically by customers themselves from open chiller cabinets.

Tucked safely behind cellophane, food took on a clean, sanitized aspect. Even if others had looked at the package before you, the food was still “clean” behind the cellophane.

“Its transparency showed the insides of the package while shutting off consumers’ access to the product through other senses. At supermarkets, where meat was already cut and bread packaged, and where consumers rarely had a chance to actually taste, smell, or touch foods, they needed to rely mostly on visual information in selecting products ” ^[9]Hisano, Ai. Cellophane, the New Visuality, and the Creation of Self-Service Food Retailing. Harvard Business School. Working Paper 17-106. 2017.

Today’s cereals are in a waxed bag inside a box. At first, though, it was the other way around:

“The Kellogg brothers were first to use cereal cartons at their Battle Creek, Michigan, Sanatorium. When this “health food”… was later marketed to the masses, a waxed, heat-sealed bag of Waxtite was wrapped around the outside of a plain box. The outer wrapper was printed with the brand name and advertising copy. Today, of course, the plastic liner protects cereals and other products within the printed carton.” ^[10]Hook, Paula and Joe E. Heimlich. A history of packaging. Ohio State University Extension. 11 May 2017. Factsheet CDFS-133.

Recipes

Pork in corn husks

Further reading

Boatner, Betsy, et al. Household Food Wraps Life Cycle Assessment. University of Michigan. Industrial Ecology. Student project. April 1999. Accessed April 2021 at http://www.umich.edu/~indecol/wrapsproject.ppt

Pauer, Erik & Wohner, Bernhard & Krauter, Victoria & Tacker, Manfred. (2019). Assessing the Environmental Sustainability of Food Packaging: An Extended Life Cycle Assessment including Packaging-Related Food Losses and Waste and Circularity Assessment. Sustainability. 11. 925. 10.3390/su11030925.

Sources

Hisano, Ai. Cellophane, the New Visuality, and the Creation of Self-Service Food Retailing. Harvard Business School. Working Paper 17-106. 2017.

Hook, Paula and Joe E. Heimlich. A history of packaging. Ohio State University Extension. 11 May 2017. Factsheet CDFS-133.

Patel, Prachi. The time is now for edible packaging. Chemical and Engineering News. 26 January 2020. Vol. 98, #4. Accessed April 2021 at https://cen.acs.org/food/food-science/time-edible-packaging/98/i4

Tiersky, Ethel. Everything You Need to Know about Wrapping Food Right. Shelflifeadvice.com. 23 April 2016. Accessed April 2021 at http://shelflifeadvice.com/content/everything-you-need-know-about-wrapping-food-right

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