Aseptic Packaging

The first invention was likely a device for carrying food. Hunters and gatherers needed to lighten the burden of bringing food back to a central camp. These early camps were undoubtedly located near water, because the means of transporting liquids was still a long way off. As populations grew and were forced to move farther away from a secure source of water, the need to carry liquids became urgent. Skins and shells, followed by pottery and ceramics and then glass, metals, and plastics, became the materials needed for storing, preserving, and transporting liquids. In 1989, the Institute of Food Technologists, an organization of food scientists devoted to improving the production and distribution of food, selected aseptic packaging as “the most significant food science innovation of the past fifty years” (Mermelstein, 2000). Most consumers do not recognize the term “aseptic packaging,” but they instantly recognize this packaging concept as the familiar “juice box.” This revolutionary packaging system first appeared in U.S. supermarkets in the 1970s. Aseptic packaging is defined as “the filling of a commercially sterile product into sterile containers under aseptic conditions and sealing of the containers so that reinfection is prevented” (Robertson, 2002, p. 51). Aseptic packaging is more than just a container; it is a system that allows food manufacturers to fill a sanitized package with a sterile food product in a hygienic environment. The word “aseptic” means that unwanted organisms have been eliminated from the packaging system.