Packaging is one of the most important methods of keeping the quality of food products for storage, transportation and end-use. The price of materials employed for packaging food has traditionally been high and used t...Packaging is one of the most important methods of keeping the quality of food products for storage, transportation and end-use. The price of materials employed for packaging food has traditionally been high and used to be more expensive than the food itself. Technological innovations made possible to produce packaging materials cheaply. One of these processes is known as co-extrusion. This technique makes a film with two or more layers with different plastics not laminating the layers together with an adhesive, eliminating the use of solvents and producing a film in just one step instead multiple steps. In this background, our paper relates to the evolution on packaging for foods by using patenting documents. A search for patent documents was performed on free patent databases using keywords and International Patent Classification （IPC） codes related to this technology. As results： （a） 17% of the 21,472 documents found are focused on multilayer packaging for food; （b） 12 countries hold more than 90% of patents （38% Japan; 23% The United States of America; 7% Canada and 6% Germany）; and, （c） two peaks were perceived in the period of 1992-1994 and 2003, and matches, respectively, the Persian Gulf （1990-1991） and Iraq Wars （2003-invasion of Iraq）, so the historical tendency is confirmed： ＂wars also generate scientific and technological innovations＂.展开更多
文摘Packaging is one of the most important methods of keeping the quality of food products for storage, transportation and end-use. The price of materials employed for packaging food has traditionally been high and used to be more expensive than the food itself. Technological innovations made possible to produce packaging materials cheaply. One of these processes is known as co-extrusion. This technique makes a film with two or more layers with different plastics not laminating the layers together with an adhesive, eliminating the use of solvents and producing a film in just one step instead multiple steps. In this background, our paper relates to the evolution on packaging for foods by using patenting documents. A search for patent documents was performed on free patent databases using keywords and International Patent Classification （IPC） codes related to this technology. As results： （a） 17% of the 21,472 documents found are focused on multilayer packaging for food; （b） 12 countries hold more than 90% of patents （38% Japan; 23% The United States of America; 7% Canada and 6% Germany）; and, （c） two peaks were perceived in the period of 1992-1994 and 2003, and matches, respectively, the Persian Gulf （1990-1991） and Iraq Wars （2003-invasion of Iraq）, so the historical tendency is confirmed： ＂wars also generate scientific and technological innovations＂.
