442 Novel food packaging techniques needed for an export market than for a home market. Depending on the business strategy, the company can favour either short or long best-before times. It should be noted that the selling time of the product does not necessarily have any other connection to the real shelf-life but, naturally, the selling time is always shorter than the shelf-life. This chapter gives a description of the VTT Precision Packaging Concept for the optimization of food packages. At the end of the chapter, examples of optimization are given using different gas-packec foodstuffs 21.2 Issues in optimizing packaging The basic aim in the optimization of food packages is to create a tool for decision-making policy for launching new products. The packaging optimization concept should not only advantageously help food manufacturers, but also packaging material and packaging manufacturers to evaluate and compare the feasibility of their new and present products. In todays competitive market, packaging innovation can be a big advantage in efforts to persuade the consumer to buy a certain brand, and the packaging optimization concept may help to educe the economic support and time needed for package development. Several factors should be considered in the optimization process for packages, covering the performance in logistics, marketing properties, consumer convenience, costs, and environmental stresses(see Fig. 21. 1). The general goals in package optimization are the cost-effectiveness of the packaging process and environmental issues, e.g. source reduction of packaging materials. The importance of these factors is discussed below 21.2.1 Performance in logistics One of the most important tasks of a food package is to afford protection from environmental conditions, like oxygen, light and moisture. This is crucial for maintaining the quality and safety of most packaged foods. Therefore, it is essential that a package has sufficient mechanical strength to protect the packaged product from environmental stresses during distribution and storage Environmental issues, however, demand that packaging material consumption is kept to a minimum and that packaging materials be recoverable. This requires the food industry to use thinner materials that still have both sufficient mechanical strength and barrier properties. An optimized, downsized package may also reduce wholesaler and retailer costs On the other hand, in some cases it may also be favourable to use relatively thick, recyclable monomaterial layers (e.g. polyethylene)suitable for energy recovery. In other words, an optimized food package minimizes the waste in the overall packaged product New packaging solutions should also be technically feasible. That is, they ay not set any limitations on either packaging speeds or the quality of seals ackage dimensions need to be logistically congruent with the secondaryneeded for an export market than for a home market. Depending on the business strategy, the company can favour either short or long best-before times. It should be noted that the selling time of the product does not necessarily have any other connection to the real shelf-life but, naturally, the selling time is always shorter than the shelf-life. This chapter gives a description of the VTT Precision Packaging Concept for the optimization of food packages. At the end of the chapter, examples of optimization are given using different gas-packed foodstuffs. 21.2 Issues in optimizing packaging The basic aim in the optimization of food packages is to create a tool for decision-making policy for launching new products. The packaging optimization concept should not only advantageously help food manufacturers, but also packaging material and packaging manufacturers to evaluate and compare the feasibility of their new and present products. In today’s competitive market, packaging innovation can be a big advantage in efforts to persuade the consumer to buy a certain brand, and the packaging optimization concept may help to reduce the economic support and time needed for package development. Several factors should be considered in the optimization process for packages, covering the performance in logistics, marketing properties, consumer convenience, costs, and environmental stresses (see Fig. 21.1). The general goals in package optimization are the cost-effectiveness of the packaging process and environmental issues, e.g. source reduction of packaging materials. The importance of these factors is discussed below. 21.2.1 Performance in logistics One of the most important tasks of a food package is to afford protection from environmental conditions, like oxygen, light and moisture. This is crucial for maintaining the quality and safety of most packaged foods. Therefore, it is essential that a package has sufficient mechanical strength to protect the packaged product from environmental stresses during distribution and storage. Environmental issues, however, demand that packaging material consumption is kept to a minimum and that packaging materials be recoverable. This requires the food industry to use thinner materials that still have both sufficient mechanical strength and barrier properties. An optimized, downsized package may also reduce wholesaler and retailer costs. On the other hand, in some cases it may also be favourable to use relatively thick, recyclable monomaterial layers (e.g. polyethylene) suitable for energy recovery. In other words, an optimized food package minimizes the waste in the overall packaged product. New packaging solutions should also be technically feasible. That is, they may not set any limitations on either packaging speeds or the quality of seals. Package dimensions need to be logistically congruent with the secondary 442 Novel food packaging techniques