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Bioactive packages and package closures

This invention relates to the arrangement, production and industrial applications of new packaging materials represented by devices such as bioactive stoppers, lid seals, seals, caps, lids, plugs and valves designed to close bottles, flasks, jars, boxes, cans, barrels, tanks and other containers used to package and store food and dietary products and cosmetic products.

These new so-called bioactive packages are constituted, alone or in combination, by metal and/or cellulosic and/or synthetic materials, and are characterised by the fact that at least one of their elements and/or constituents incorporates, and/or contains, and/or diffuses biochemical and/or biological substances that confer new functional properties on these packages. A package is generally defined as an assembly of materials designed to receive, contain and protect a good intended to be stored, transported and sold. In particular, a food package must, by virtue of its intrinsic properties, enable optimal preservation of the food contents throughout its lifetime, from production to consumption. It must protect the food from external germs, offer selective gas barrier properties, withstand changes related to temperature or hygrometry of the environment during storage, sale and use by the consumer and comply with regulations.

The packages currently used provide passive functions of receiving, packaging, physical containment and mechanical protection of foods from the environmental factors encountered during the steps of production, storage, transport and sale. The European regulations on packages in contact with food are designed to protect the consumer's health. The European directive 89/109/EC stipulates that the materials and objects intended to come into contact with foods must satisfy the principle of inertial. The materials and objects intended to come into contact with foodstuffs, products and drinks for consumption must not, under the normal or expected conditions of use, transfer constituents to these foodstuffs in an amount that could present a health hazard or lead to an unacceptable change in the composition of the foodstuffs. This directive therefore does not allow the use of active packages that satisfy the following definition according to Wagner (1989): “An active package provides more than simple production. It interacts with the product and in some cases responds to changes in the environment or the product itself”.

A new European regulation has modified the directive 89/109/EC and now takes into account the concept of “active” packages, which authorises the principle of “deliberate transfer or absorption of compounds to or from the food in order to maintain or enhance the conditions of preservation of the product”.

The packaging materials can therefore modify the composition of the foodstuffs only if the modifications comply with the community provisions applicable to foodstuffs, as defined in the directive 89/107/CEE relating to food additives.

Substances such as food additives deliberately incorporated into certain active materials intended to come into contact with foodstuffs so as to be released into the packaged foodstuffs can be allowed. According to Gontard, these active packages can be classified into three main categories:

1) Interactive packages that act in a controlled manner on the food so as to enhance and preserve its quality over the course of the distribution chain. The activity of these packages is intended to control the risks of food deterioration associated with various mechanisms of lipid oxidation, tissue browning, vitamin destruction or microbial contamination. Numerous products are available on the market in the form of oxygen-absorbing bags or carbon dioxide-absorbing bags, produced by Mitsubishi Gas Chemical (Japan), Multiform Dessicant (United States), Bioka (Finland) and Standa (France).

2) Indicator packages that react with the properties of the food and the preservation conditions so as to inform the consumer of said conditions. The devices generally used are Weather/Temperature indicators based on enzymatic- or polymerisation-type reactions. They are produced by various companies: 3M Monitor (Great Britain), Trigon Industries (Great Britain), Lifelines Technology (United States), Pillsbury Co. (United States), Marupfroid (France). Coloured indicators of gas concentration of pH in the package are also sold by Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co. and Toppan Printing Co. (Japan) and by Trigon Industries (Great Britain).

3) Preparatory packages that make it possible to modify the properties of the food so as to facilitate its consumption. These are essentially self-heating or self-cooling packages proposed by Print Pak Inc. (United States), Baritalia (Italy) and Bréger (France).

In addition, some packaging devices used temporarily during the food production steps are considered to be technological packages. The new bioactive stoppers, caps, lids, lid seals, valves and seals according to the invention differ from the active packages that already exist by virtue of their specific arrangements, their biochemical or biological contents and by their new functional activities. These new packages or package closures are arranged so as to adapt to various types of containers, such as bottles, flasks, boxes, brick cartons, jars, terrines, cans, jugs, barrels, casks, tanks and cisterns, and are characterised by the fact that they comprise at least one element or one constituent capable of producing and/or diffusing at least one non-hydrating substance constituted, in a pure or combined form, by biochemical and/or biological compounds, belonging to the additives and dietary supplements and/or ingredients and processing aids used in the production of foodstuffs and cosmetic products, which substance is in particular a colouring agent, and/or an antioxidant, and/or a preservative, and/or a flavouring agent, and/or a sweetener, and/or an acidulant, and/or an emulsifier, and/or a thickener, and/or a stabiliser, and/or a flavour enhancer, and/or a gas and/or a bioactive ingredient.

The chemical and/or biological compounds can in particular be: chemical elements (oxygenated free radicals, mineral salts, etc.); nitrogenated, chlorinated, iodized, bromated, sulphated, phosphated molecules, etc.; biochemical elements (carbohydrates, fats, proteins, metabolites, etc.); biological elements (flavourings, vitamins, enzymes, immunoglobulins, etc.); microbiological elements (bacteria, yeast and fungi, etc.).