A history of packaging

A History Of Packaging Very early in time, food was consumed where it was found. Families and villages were self- sufficient, making and catching what they used. When containers were needed,nature provided gourds, shells, and leaves to use, Later, containers were fashioned from natural materials, such as hollowed logs, woven grasses and animal organs. Paper and Paper Products Paper may be the oldest form of what today is referred to as "flexible packaging." Sheets of treated mulberry bark were used by the Chinese to wrap foods as early as the First or Second century B.C. During the next fifteen hundred years, the paper-making technique was refined and transported to the Middle East, then Europe and finally into the United Kingdom in 1310 Eventually, the technique arrived in America in Germantown, Pennsylvania, in 1690. But these first papers were somewhat different from those usedtoday. Early paper was made from flax fibers and later old linen rags. It wasn't until 1867 that paper originating from wood pulp was developed. Glass Although glass-making began in 7000 B.C. as an offshoot of pottery, it was first industrialised in Egypt in 1500 B.C. Made from base materials (limestone, soda, sand and silica), which were in plentiful supply, all ingredients were simply melted together and moulded while hot. Since that early discovery, the mixing process and the ingredients have changed very little, but the moulding techniques have progressed dramatically. While other packaging products, such os metals and plastics, were gaining popularity in the 1970s, packaging in glass tended to be reserved for high-value products. As a typeof "rigid packaging," glass has many uses today. Metals Ancient boxes and cups, made from silver and gold, were much too valuable for common use. Other metals, stronger alloys, thinner gauges and coatings were eventually developed. The process of tin plating was discovered in Bohemia in 1200 A.D. and cans of iron, coated with tin, were known in Bavaria as early as the 14th century. However, the plat- ing process was a closely guarded secret until the 1600s. Thanks to the Duke of Saxony, who stole the technique, it progressed across Eu- rope to France and the United Kingdom by the early 19th century. After William Underwood via Boston, steel replaced iron, which improved both output and quality. nsferred the process to the United States Collapsible, soft metal tubes, today known as "flexible packaging," were first used for artists paints in 1841. Toothpaste was inventod in the 1890s and started to appear in collapsible metal tubes. But food products really did not make use of this packaging form until the 1960s. Later, aluminium was changed to plastic for such food items as sandwich pastes, cake icings and pudding toppings. Plastics Plastic is the youngest in comparison with other packaging materials. Although discovered in the 19th century, most plastics were reserved for military and wartime use. Current packaging designs are beginning to incorporate recyclable and recycled plastics but the search for reuse functions continues. Esh Source: http://ohioline.osu.edu/cd-fact/0133.html GROUP