The evolution of Health & Taste in packed Food & Beverage market

by APT Eateries A Taste to Remember

Have you ever wondered about how we’ve progressed to be able to get food delivered on our doorstep without compromising on its edibility and freshness? The history of the evolution of food packaging and the development of its related technology is more significant than you might initially think it to be. If you’re curious about how we’ve attained our current capabilities to transport and package edibles then the following will aid you to answer all your curious queries about food packaging.

Traveling to the past.

To understand and appreciate the improvements, we initially need to better acquaint ourselves with how the need for packaged food emerged. In ancient times, the food didn’t require to be packaged as there was no real need for transportation of edible items since they were consumed locally. Every edible product was consumed within the day and therefore, also didn’t require packaging to maintain its edibility.

The need for packaging didn’t arise until the concept of food trading as a business was created. This is when the indigenous people made use of natural substances shells, dried gourds, hollow logs, and leaves for packaging. Although this did fulfill the transportation criteria, it couldn’t keep the edible items fresh for long. This is where people realized that there was a need for better packaging technology to maintain the taste of the food. All of this happened near about 20,000 years ago.

Jumping from 20,000 to about 10,00 years ago, ceramics were getting more and more popular in the Middle Eastern area. It wasn’t long until people realized that it could serve as a better vessel for storing and transporting food. But with the growing ideas, also grew peoples’ ambitions. Now they wanted to transport edibles to further regions of the world. Unfortunately, the ceramic didn’t prove just as effective as it was expected to be.

Developing technology.

One could argue that the packaging material we knew stemmed from the concepts of boxes and other wooden vessels. Almost 5,000 years ago, Egyptians developed a better way to store beverages and food items - within wooden crates. This didn’t take long to usher new ideas within the minds of the relatively modern man. Crates and barrels were now being used to transport beverages to regions further than ever before. Compared to previous methods, they demonstrated to ability to better maintain the taste of the products that were being transported.

Skipping 1,500 years ahead, man discovered the art of pottery and realized that he could now custom-make vessels for specific food items. This ushered an era of trade which spanned the world. Edible items could now be transported further than ever before. This also included perishables namely beverages to be transported more efficiently.

1,000 years after the era of pottery, came our first step towards the food packaging we know of today - Glass Blowing. It was the Syrians who first developed and discovered the art of glass blowing. It wasn’t long until the people realized that they could tailor-make food vessels which, unlike pottered vessels, weren’t porous and could store edibles in comparatively air-tight containers. Food trade and the need for food packaging boomed in this age. Owing to the glass container’s non-porous nature, food items could be secured to last for longer durations without compromising on its edibility.

The road towards the Modern era.

The only problem mankind faced now was the fact that Glass Blowing was as expensive as it was complex to carry out. The arrival of the 1930s developed foam packaging for edible items. The production of foam packaging was as efficient and easy as it was cost-effective. In fact, foam packaging is still used widely as the primary method to serve food in some countries. Although foam packaging was efficient for packing edible products, it wasn’t as effective for storing beverages. Therefore, beverages were still being stored and transported in glass containers.

The next development came in the 1950s when aluminum gained popularity for producing cans to store beverages. Aluminum was comparatively more malleable than glass and could be freely formed into the desired shape for storing beverages. Many reputed brands opted to go with aluminum as their preferred element to store beverages. This was mainly because, much like glass, aluminum could be formed into air-tight cans to preserve beverages.

In the year 1958, heat shrinkable plastic took center stage for being the ideal component to use for packing beverages. It was much cheaper than both aluminum and glass while providing with the same benefits. Plastic took the world by storm as its various iterations were now being used to package and transport both beverages and edible items. Various advancements were made using as the primary ingredient to create effective food and beverage packaging.

The Modern Era

After the advancements and developments, we arrive in the current period. The ongoing age is one where we are freely able to transport food and beverages to any part of the world, regardless of how isolated it might be. As time passed by, we still grew more ambitious. Owing to air-tight packaging, we were able to create Meal Ready to Eat (MREs) for those who serve in the army. These MREs were so well packed and preserved that some could even last beyond a year without compromising their edibility. Beverages could also now be stored in a powdered form and can be consumed by just mixing with water.

When we had conquered the lands, our ambitions took us to space. Food packaging had developed enough so that any kind of food or beverage could now be packed and sent into space for astronauts to consume without having any ill-effects from the same.

To Conclude

Talking about the modern day, delivery services, namely Swiggy and Zomato, are dominating the market and leading the food industry to a volatile state. Individuals prefer to stay at home rather than going out and experience the restaurants first-hand. This is mainly because these companies boast of impressive delivery speeds without compromising the quality of the food. Similarly, in the food packaging industry, traders like Viva and Haldiram are the contributing players. With the passing year, the industry has transitioned to using modern methods of packaging owing to the rapidly increasing number of nuclear family and to manage the strict time schedule.