AN ASSIGNMENT

ON

FOOD PROCESSING [FST 414]

TOPIC

WRITE A CONCISE HISTORY OF TRADITIONAL METHODS OF FOOD

PACKAGING

BY

IMOGBOLU JANET IDOKU

SUBMITTED TO

DEPARTMENT OF FOOD TECHNOLOGY

SCHOOL OF SCIENCE AND COMPUTER STUDIES

THE FEDERAL POLYTECHNIC ADO EKITI

EKITI STATE

MARCH, 2025.
Introduction

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.

Fabrics descended from furs used as primitive clothing. Fibers were matted into

felts by plaiting or weaving. These fabrics were made into garments, used to

wrap products or formed into bags. With the weaving process, grasses, and later

reeds, were made into baskets to store food surpluses. Some foods could then be

saved for future meals and less time was needed for seeking and gathering food.

As ores and compounds were discovered, metals and pottery were developed,

leading to other packaging forms. A brief review of the more popular packaging

developments is included in this fact sheet.

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 1,500 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.

paper was made from flax fibers and later old linen rags. It wasn't until 1867 that

paper originating from wood pulp was developed.

Although commercial paper bags were first manufactured in Bristol, England, in

1844, Francis Wolle invented the bag making machine in 1852 in the United

States. Further advancements during the 1870s included glued paper sacks and

the gusset design. After the turn of the century (1905), the machinery was

invented to automatically produce in-line printed paper bags.

With the development of the glued paper sack, the more expensive cotton flour

sacks could be replaced. But a sturdier multi-walled paper sack for larger
quantities could not replace cloth until 1925 when a means of sewing the ends

was finally invented.

The first commercial cardboard box was produced in England in 1817, more than

200 years after the Chinese invented cardboard. Corrugated paper appeared in

the 1850s; about 1900, shipping cartons of faced corrugated paperboard began to

replace self-made wooden crates and boxes used for trade.

As with many innovations, the development of the carton was accidental. Robert

Gair was a Brooklyn printer and paper-bag maker during the 1870s. While he

was printing an order of seed bags, a metal rule normally used to crease bags

shifted in position and cut the bag. Gair concluded that cutting and creasing

paperboard in one operation would have advantages; the first automatically

made carton, now referred to as “semi-flexible packaging,” was created.

The development of flaked cereals advanced the use of paperboard cartons. The

Kellogg brothers were first to use cereal cartons at their Battle Creek, Michigan,

Sanatorium. When this “health food” of the past 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.

Paper and paperboard packaging increased in popularity well into the 20th

century. Then, with the advent of plastics as a significant player in packaging

(late 1970s and early 1980s), paper and its related products tended to fade in use.
Lately, that trend has halted as designers try to respond to environmental

concerns.

Glass

Although glass-making began in 7000 B.C. as an offshoot of pottery, it was first

industrialized 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 molded while hot. Since that early discovery, the mixing

process and the ingredients have changed very little, but the molding techniques

have progressed dramatically.

At first, ropes of molten glass were coiled into shapes and fused together. By

1200 B.C., glass was pressed into molds to make cups and bowls. When the

blowpipe was invented by the Phoenicians in 300 B.C., it not only speeded

production but allowed for round containers. Colors were available from the

beginning, but clear, transparent glass was not discovered until the start of the

Christian era. During the next 1000 years, the process spread steadily, but slowly,

across Europe.
The split mold developed in the 17th and 18th centuries further provided for

irregular shapes and raised decorations. The identification of the maker and the

product name could then be molded into the glass container as it was

manufactured. As techniques were further refined in the 18th and 19th centuries,

prices of glass containers continued to decrease. One development that enhanced

the process was the first automatic rotary bottle making machine, patented in

1889. Current equipment automatically produces 20,000 bottles per day.

While other packaging products, such as metals and plastics, were gaining

popularity in the 1970s, packaging in glass tended to be reserved for high-value

products. As a type of “rigid packaging,” glass has many uses today.

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 A.D. 1200 and cans of

iron, coated with tin, were known in Bavaria as early as the 14th century.

However, the plating process was a closely guarded secret until the 1600s.

Thanks to the Duke of Saxony, who stole the technique, it progressed across

Europe to France and the United Kingdom by the early 19th century. After

William Underwood transferred the process to the United States via Boston, steel

replaced iron, which improved both output and quality.

In 1764, London tobacconists began selling snuff in metal canisters, another type

of today's “rigid packaging.” But no one was willing to use metal for food since it

was considered poisonous.

The safe preservation of foods in metal containers was finally realized in France

in the early 1800s. In 1809, General Napoleon Bonaparte offered 12,000 francs to

anyone who could preserve food for his army. Nicholas Appert, a Parisian chef

and confectioner, found that food sealed in tin containers and sterilized by

boiling could be preserved for long periods. A year later (1810), Peter Durand of

Britain received a patent for tinplate after devising the sealed cylindrical can.

Since food was now safe within metal packaging, other products were made

available in metal boxes. In the 1830s, cookies and matches were sold in tins and
by 1866 the first printed metal boxes were made in the United States for cakes of

Dr. Lyon's tooth powder.

The first cans produced were soldered by hand, leaving a 1 1/2-inch hole in the

top to force in the food. A patch was then soldered in place but a small air hole

remained during the cooking process. Another small drop of solder then closed

the air hole. At this rate, only 60 cans per day could be manufactured.

In 1868, interior enamels for cans were developed, but double seam closures

using a sealing compound were not available until 1888.

Aluminum particles were first extracted from bauxite ore in 1825 at the high

price of $545 per pound. When the development of better processes began in

1852, the prices steadily declined until the low price of $14 per pound in 1942.
Although commercial foils entered the market in 1910, the first aluminum foil

containers were designed in the early 1950s, while the aluminum can appeared

in 1959.

After cans were invented and progressively improved, it was necessary to find a

way to open them. Until 1866, a hammer and chisel was the only method. It was

then that the keywind metal tear-strip was developed. Nine years later (1875),

the can opener was invented. Further developments modernized the mechanism

and added electricity, but the can opener has remained, for more than 100 years,

the most efficient method of retrieving the contents. In the 1950s, the pop top/tear

tab can lid appeared and now tear tapes that open and reseal are popular.

Collapsible, soft metal tubes, today known as “flexible packaging,” were first

used for artist’s paints in 1841. Toothpaste was invented 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, aluminum 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.

Styrene was first distilled from a balsam tree in 1831. But the early products were

brittle and shattered easily. Germany refined the process in 1933, and by the
1950s foam was available worldwide. Insulation and cushioning materials as

well as foam boxes, cups and meat trays for the food industry became popular.

Vinyl chloride, discovered in 1835, provided for the further development of

rubber chemistry. For packaging, molded deodorant squeeze bottles were

introduced in 1947, and in 1958, heat shrinkable films were developed from

blending styrene with synthetic rubber. Today, some water and vegetable oil

containers are made from vinyl chloride.

Another plastic was invented during the American Civil War. Due to a shortage

of ivory, a U.S. manufacturer of billiard balls offered a $10,000 reward for an

ivory substitute. A New York engineer, John Wesley Hyatt, with his brother

Isaiah Smith Hyatt, experimented several years before creating the new material.

Patented in 1870, “celluloid” could not be molded, but rather carved and shaped,

just like ivory.

photographic uses in 1909. Although DuPont manufactured cellophane in New

York in 1924, it wasn't commercially used for packaging until the late 1950s and

early 1960s. In the interim, polyethylene film wraps were reserved for the

military. In 1933, films protected submarine telephone cables and later were

important for World War II radar cables and drug tablet packaging.

Other cellophane and transparent films have been refined as outer wrappings

that maintain their shape when folded. Originally clear, such films can now be

made opaque, colored or embossed with patterns.

The Polyethylene Terephthalate (PETE) container only became available during

the last two decades with its use for beverages entering the market in 1977. By

1980, foods and other hot-fill products such as jams could also be packaged in

PETE.

Current packaging designs are beginning to incorporate recyclable and recycled

plastics but the search for reuse functions continues.

Labels and Trademarks

One rather recent development in packaging is the labeling of the product with

the company name and contents information.

In the 1660s, imports into England often cheated the public and the phrase “let

the buyer beware” became popular. Inferior quality and impure products were

disguised and sold to uninformed customers. Honest merchants, unhappy with

potential buyers.

Official trademarks were pioneered in 1866 by Smith Brothers for their cough

drops marketed in large glass jars. This was a new idea—using the package to

“brand” a product for the benefit of the consumer.

In 1870, the first registered U.S. trademark was awarded to the Eagle-Arwill

Chemical Paint Company. Today, there are nearly 750,000 registered trademarks

in the United States alone. Labels now contain a great deal of information

intended to protect and instruct the public.

From containers provided by nature to the use of complex materials and

processes, packaging has changed. Various factors contributed to this growth:

the needs and concerns of people, competition in the marketplace, unusual

events (such as wars), shifting lifestyles, as well as discoveries and inventions.

During the past two decades, a consumer-led concern of the environmental

impact of packaging has changed the packaging industry. An estimated $200

billion dollars was invested in the past two decades by packaging firms to refine

packaging for a reduced environmental impact. Just as no single cause

influenced past development, a variety of forces will continue to be required to

create the packages of the future.

The major problem with earthenware pots and glass jars – apart from how to seal

them effectively - is that they break relatively easily, especially if they’re being

transported. In around AD 105, the Chinese were using a kind of paper, made by

shaping treated mulberry bark into sheets. Over the next thousand years, the

paper-making technique was refined and it gradually made its way along the

Silk Road to the Middle East and Europe, arriving in what is now the U.K. in

1310.

Medieval and early Modern Packaging

Fast forward to the Middle Ages. During this time period, packaging had a mini

boom, with both wooden barrels and boxes becoming highly sought after.
Anyone with the surname Cooper will know that their name means barrel

maker and that the profession is still going strong today, particularly in the wine

and whiskey industries.

Back then, however, wooden barrels were used for transporting another

alcoholic favourite, rum, but also dried food, fresh water, fruit and vegetables,

grains, salted meat and oil. What’s more, they could be moved efficiently, rolling

on or off whatever made of transport necessary and then standing up on their

ends, secure and unlike to wobble over as a result of their wider, stabilising

middles.

The Middle Ages gave way to the early modern period and the age of great

exploration and discovery across vast uncharted oceans and territories. It was

imperative that supplies lasted the journey and barrels provided a solution.

Anyone with the surname Cooper will know that their name means barrel

maker and the profession is still going strong today. The West was also catching

up with China and seeing the benefits of paper packaging. Though not yet

tenable because of cost of manufacture, it was clear to see how suitable it might

one day be, lightweight, easy to transport and breathable as it is.

Packaging for Revolution

With the advent of the industrial revolution and as a result of major

technological advances, there was a surge in the mass production of products

available to the masses. One stumbling block, however, was that though the
products themselves were more affordable than ever before, packaging was often

prohibitively expensive and reserved mainly for luxury items.

 Marsh, K. and Bugusu, B. (2007). Food packaging—roles, materials, and

environmental issues. Journal of Food Science 72, (3), 39-55.

 History of Packaging Products. Retrieved 08/24/2016 from

uspackagingandwrapping.com/blog/The-History-of-Packaging.html

 Paula Hook and Joe E. Heimlich

 Revised and adapted by Cynthia Bond