Quality assurance of reusable plastic packaging

Single use plastic packaging is widely accepted to cause significant negative environmental impacts. One option to reduce these impacts is to develop commercially viable and socially acceptable reuse systems. Such closed loop packaging systems require careful consideration of reverse (or circular) logistics, financial modelling, and quality control (fulfilling legal requirements and ethical obligations). One of the most prominent barriers to the concept of reusable packaging for food is safety, dictated by challenges of effective cleaning and pack integrity assessment. This talk will explore the potential of a new, real-time, non-contact technique that routinely allows assessment of the cleanliness and integrity of packaging surface surfaces following cleaning. Ultraviolet induced fluorescence of fluorophores within foodstuffs (e.g. within proteins) and polymers enables the rapid detection of residual fouling and pack degradation. The talk will highlight the future challenges of reliable high speed quality assurance as well as other economic and logistical challenges facing the reusable packaging industry.