PACKAGING OF SNACK FOOD



Snack food generally do not form a part of the main meal but are items eaten in between meals for pleasure and during relaxation. Snack food are highly subjected to impulse buying and have gained popularity, today, due to:

  • growing urban population
  • increase in number of nuclear families
  • increase in the number of working women
  • media penetration leading to attraction for novel food, and
  • higher disposable incomes

Though snack food are categorised and perceived differently from region to region, by manufacturers and consumers, conventionally, snack food embrace a group of savoury, crispy items, which are ready-to-eat and are shelf stable for 2 to 16 weeks at the normal room temperature. In the last five years, revenue from the Indian savoury snacks market has increased significantly to reach Rs. 6 billion, more than twice its size previously. However, per capita consumption remains very small, as the un-packaged snacks sector is considerably cheaper. Future growth will depend upon the extent of change in the purchase pattern of consumers. from buying unpacked products to the more Western snack food purchase pattern.

Chips, Wafers, Crisps

These include deep fried potato chips, strips, sticks, rings etc. and represent a substantial share of the snack food market. Banana wafers, jack fruit chips, tapioca wafers, which are popular in South India, also fall into this group.

Extruded Food

These are of two types:

• The traditional items made from flours and spices and extruded in the form of sticks, strips or spirals such as sev, boondi, papdi, gathia, chakli etc. These items traditionally prepared in households are now marketed in pre-packed forms with different flavours and seasonings.

• The non-traditional pre-formed partly cooked pellets derived from potato, starch from cereals and fried at high temperatures for a short time to give expanded light textured products.

Product Characteristics and Packaging Requirements

Irrespective of the group under which snack food fall, most of them have low moisture content and high fat content and, therefore, are highly affected by moisture, oxygen and changes in flavour. In the category of fried snack food, the presence of oil becomes the key factor for spoilage. The oil is spread over large surface areas and exposed to the oxygen in the atmosphere, unsaturated fatty acids in the oil are prone to oxidative rancidity in the presence of air. These reactions are accelerated by heat, moisture and light, as well as the added salt in the product.

Packaging Materials for Snack Food

Flexible Plastics

The overwhelming majority of snacks today are in flexible bags. For snack food in the Indian market, a range of flexible materials are used depending on the product and the market segment.

Low value, typically traditional snack food and wafers may be branded or non-branded. Non – branded snacks are packed for shorter shelf-life in unprinted low density polyethylene (LDPE) and polypropylene (PP) pouches. For branded snacks and nuts laminated structures are used.

Some of the typical structures are:

• BOPP / LDPE

• BOPP / Polyester / LDPE

• Metallised Polyester / LDPE

• BOPP / Metallised Polyester / LDPE

• Polyester / LDPE

• Polyester / Al foil / LDPE

snack food are:

• PVDC coated glassine

• PVDC coated glassine / OPP

• Sulfite paper / OPP

• Co – extruded HDPE

• Oriented Polypropylene Films (uncoated, coated, co – extruded)

• LDPE / EVA films

• HDPE / EVA ionomer seal layer

• OPP / PE / PVDC coated OPP

• OPP / PE / metallised heat sealable OPP

• PVDC coated PET

• OPP / PVDC / OPP lamination

Biaxially oriented films are most widely used for snack food packaging in australia. OPP has qualities of toughness (against puncture and abrasion) and clarity and is rendered heat sealable by coextrusion with polyolefin copolymers or by coatings like PVDC.

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