Samsun Nahar

There is a need for research to support the transition away from single-use plastic packaging towards a circular economy. This research developed simulated wear processes and assessment techniques that emulate aspects of a reuse system in order to evaluate different plastic food packaging types that are typically used for single-use applications. Two thermoformed polyethylene terephthalate materials (rPET and heat-resistant PET) for food packaging trays were tested. Researchers subjected both thermoformed packs to a range of simulated wear processes including wash cycles, simulated damage, surface scratching, and artificial fouling. Assessment techniques included using adenosine triphosphate (ATP) swabs to indicate cleanliness of the pack surface and 3D scan data to measure physical change. The findings show that scratch damage applied to packs, following fouling and wash cycles, produced promising readings under 30 relative light units (RLUs) on ATP swabs. The heat-resistant PET packs exhibited minimal deformation throughout repeated wash cycles. The assessment techniques developed to evaluate plastic materials have provided valuable insight into the cleaning, damage, and deformation of plastic packaging. These insights can support more complex decision making in the design and production of circular food-to-go plastic packaging solutions.

One of the most crucial attributes of emulsions is their particle size, which has implication on the stability, rheology as well as sensory properties in different food applications. Homogenization speed is an important parameter that disrupts fat globules into desirable particle sizes. The effect of emulsification composition and homogenization parameters on particle size distribution of palm stearin oil-in-water emulsion was investigated. A palm stearin oil-in-water emulsion was homogenized at different speed (10k-25k rpm) and the particle size distribution was investigated. When the homogenization speed was increased above >10k rpm, the particle size distribution decreased. Increasing concentration of surfactant from 1 wt.% to 3wt.%, in the emulsion showed a decrease in particle size distribution for all homogenisation speed. Oil droplet size could also be minimized by increasing the concentration of sugar in continuous phase.

Single use plastic packaging and its environmental impacts have received much attention over the last few years from governments, businesses and consumers. One option to reduce plastic packaging waste and its associated environmental impacts is to shift towards circular business models, supplying reusable packaging options that are used many times before being recycled. One technical barrier to the implementation of plastic food packaging reuse is the need to effectively clean the packs and provide cleaning assurance to prevent the possibility of product crossover. This research investigated the feasibility of using Ultraviolet Fluorescence imaging to optically detect residual food fouling and thus assuring cleanliness in the case example of margarine spread tubs. Processing of obtained images was carried out using MATLAB® applying Otsu’s thresholding method. It was established that for the current setup the minimum detectable quantity of fouling was of the order 10^–4 g/mm². The assessment process was correlated against that of Adenosine Triphosphate assay, an industry-standard process for assessing the cleanliness of food contact surfaces. The implications of the investigated technique overcome one barrier to plastic food packaging reuse on an industrial scale. Fast and reliable fouling evaluation of every pack will underpin business and consumer trust in such a circular material flow. The established technique has the potential to form part of the wider reuse system for polymer packaging. Implications on optical detection optimization, packaging design, and suitability for automation are discussed alongside wider food supply chain considerations.

Reuse of plastic packaging for food is a promising route to reduce the environmental burdens, but presents particular challenges due to the need to avoid cross-contamination of contents. This study investigates the challenges associated with cleaning and assessing existing recycled PET (rPET) food-to-go (FTG) pack forms and provides recommendations to enable a shift towards reusable food packaging systems. Pack forms were fouled under controlled conditions and washed in accordance published guidelines. Three fouling media were selected to represent food residue typically found in FTG packs. Investigated parameters included fouling type and quality, wash and rinse times, and detergent dosage. Cleanliness was assessed using adenosine triphosphate (ATP) swabbing and the effect on the material properties was studied via tensile testing, IR spectroscopy and differential scanning calorimetry. The results demonstrate that cleaning effectiveness is dependent on the quantity of fouling, the duration of the wash cycle and the dosing of detergent indicating the potential to optimise parameters for different fouling conditions. It is also concluded that ATP testing is an inappropriate cleanliness assessment method for food packaging due to many opportunities for it to produce false negative readings, its high cost, and slow response. The rPET material properties remained largely unchanged apart from a slight increase in stiffness, however packaging suffered significant deformation.

The study of fluid flow characteristics in collapsible elastic tubes is useful to understand biofluid mechanics encountered in the human body. The research work presented here is aimed at thoroughly investigating the influence of both Newtonian and/or non-Newtonian fluids (low and high shear thinning) during steady flow through an elastic tube on various tube deformations, which enables understanding of the interaction between wall motion, fluid flow, and intestinal transmembrane mass transfer as a crucial contribution to a mechanistic understanding of bioaccessibility/bioavailability. It is observed that for a given steady volume flow rate, the tube is buckled from an elliptical shape to a line or area contacted two lobes as the critical external pressure is increased. The downstream transmural pressure is found to get more negative than that at the upstream as the outlet pressure decreased due to stronger tube collapse resulting in a reduced cross-sectional area. The experimental results depict that the tube cross-sectional area decreased by only about a factor of one for PEG (polyethylene glycol) and about a factor of six for both CMC (carboxymethyl cellulose) and PAA (polyacrylamide) from the undeformed one under an applied external pressure of 105 mbar. The corresponding maximum velocity increased by a factor of two during steady flow of shear-thinning fluids. The shear-thinning behavior of both CMC and PAA solutions is clearly observed at a constant flow rate of 17 ml/s as the tube cross-sectional area decreased due to an increase in compressive transmural pressure. In addition, the viscosity of PAA is drastically decreased due to its high shear-thinning behavior than that of the CMC under the same applied external pressure.