GLASS PACKAGING

Prof. Ismael Povea-Garcerant

Food Engineering Program
Universidad De La Salle
GOALS
 GLASS PACKAGING
3 GOALS

• Question to be answered
• Is glass THE sustainable environmental material everyone claims?
After this presentation you will be clear on the sustainability of glass
• Objectives
• To have technical criteria about glass processing and material properties
The role of each raw material
for the production of glass
• To get a relationship between glass production and marketing demands
2400 units/
• To correlate glass properties and food preservation
Stackabiliy, is it enough for
minute; is it good
for food
production?
glass?
• After this presentation, it would be clear
• Chemical, mechanical, and thermal properties of glass for food packaging
• How glass containers are made
• Recyclability of glass Final project:
To discuss
about
• Goal environmental
• To demonstrate the applicability of glass as packaging material impact of
glass
INTRODUCTION
 GLASS PACKAGING
5 INTRODUCTION

• Glass deserves a special place in the presentation of the different designs and
package forms for foods

• Is certainly the oldest one with its history longer than 5000 years
• The first glass objects were obtained
• By sculpting blocks of obsidiana (volcano’s magma)
• Human production of molded glass probably goes to Phoenicians (from 2500 to
333 B.C.)

• 100 years before Christ, blowing molten glass and consequently producing hollow
objects with great liberty of shape

• Regarding these last applications, mechanization of the production (around the

19th century) reduced the industrial costs for the glass containers to be acceptable
for food packaging uses
 GLASS PACKAGING
6 INTRODUCTION

• The word glass applies more to a physical state of the matter than to a chemical
composition
• In fact the composition of glasses can be quite different
• Color
• Thermal or mechanical resistance
• Glasses can be made
• Phosphates
• Aluminates
• Borates
• Inorganic halides (a ionic compound containing a halogen)
• Is an amorphous, inorganic product of fusion that has been cooled to a rigid
condition without crystallizing; glass is also indicated as a super-cooled liquid
(ASTM in 1999 )
 GLASS PACKAGING
7 INTRODUCTION

• Glass containers are commonly made with a combination of various oxides or oxygen-
based compounds and are commonly referred to as “soda-lime” glass
• The combining of raw materials
• Sand
• Soda ash
• Limestone
• Cullet
• Glass containers are
• Durable
• Strong
• Impermeable
• Easily shaped
• Inexpensive
• Some oxides will form glass without adding any other elements and are known as network
formers. The most common of these is silica (SiO2).
 GLASS PACKAGING
8 INTRODUCTION

• Introduction

Table 1. Typical glass compositions (%)

Conatituent Flint Amber Green Pyrex® Lead Glass

SiO2 73.2 72.6 72.1 67.5 60

Na2O 11.9 12.8 2.9 13.6 1.0
K2O 0.46 1.01 0.87 1.8 14.9
CaO 11.2 11.1 9.8 9.4 —-
MgO 1.7 0.23 1.74 —- —-
BaO 0.02 —- —- —- —-
PbO —- —- —- —- 24.0
Al2O3 1.17 1.81 1.93 5.0 0.08
Fe2O3 + TiO2 0.08 0.34 0.37 0.15 0.02
Cr2O3 —- 0.002 0.17 —- —-
SO3 0.18 0.08 0.09 —- —-
CHEMICAL STRUCTURE
 GLASS PACKAGING
10 CHEMICAL STRUCTURE

• Chemical composition
• Almost three quarters of the matter are represented by silicon which is the
second most abundant element on earth (it constitutes about 28% of earth's
crust being the second only to oxygen)

• Silicon does not occur free in nature, but it is found as silica of silicon dioxide
(SiO2 in quartz, sand, cristobalite, and many other ores), or as silicate (feldspar,
kaolinite, etc.) where the silicon dioxide is joined to other oxides, mainly
aluminum oxide

• The silica typically shows polymorphism being able to crystallize different

 GLASS PACKAGING
11 CHEMICAL STRUCTURE

• Chemical composition
• The four valences of silicon

Figure 1. Three dimensional tetrahedra of Silicon

• The tetrahedra can be arranged continuously

• Each oxygen being connected to two silicon, leading to a well ordered
crystalline organization of the matter

Figure 2. Crystalline organization

 GLASS PACKAGING
12 CHEMICAL STRUCTURE

• Chemical composition
• The process of glass
• Physical transformation above 1450- l500°C
• Any crystalline structure is lost
• The tetrahedra rearrange in a-periodic, messy, i.e., amorphous structure
• The randomized structure is made possible by the capacity of the 'Si-O-Si' bond
• Leads to the presence of several empty spaces between the silica tetrahedra, filled by
• Sodium
• Calcium
• Magnesium
glass making mixture
raw materials
of

Figure 3. Schematic representation of the amorphous structure of silica glass (a) and silicate glass (b). In silicate glass, sodium (•) interrupts the network continuity and changes melting temperature and viscosity
GLASS PROPERTIES
 GLASS PACKAGING
14 GLASS PROPERTIES

• Glass properties
• Mechanical properties
• Thermal properties
• Electromagnetic properties
• Chemical inertness
 GLASS PACKAGING
15 GLASS PROPERTIES

• Glass properties - Mechanical properties

• Technically, glass is considered a hard material but at the same time
• Fragile
• Easily susceptible to mechanical failures despite the high strength of the covalent bond
between silicon and oxygen
• An initiated fracture quickly propagates
• The reasons for this lie in two facts:
• The continuous and rigid structure
• Sharp cracks, flaws, sometimes invisible
• For this last reason, the finished glass packages are tested
• Internal pressure resistance
• Vertical load strength
• Resistance to impact
• Differential pressure
• Stress material
• Circumferential
• Longitudinal
• Vertical loads
 GLASS PACKAGING
16 GLASS PROPERTIES

• Glass properties - Thermal properties

• Glass
• Is an amorphous material
• It does not show a real melting temperature
• It progressively softens achieving a liquid-like state
• Cooling process occurs over a temperature range
• In the soda-lime glass
• The higher the concentration of alkali, the more nonbridging oxygen sites are
created;
• It reduces the tetrahedral connectivity
• Decreases the glass transition temperature, less expensive to produce as it
melts at lower temperature and will have also a lower temperature of
deformation
 GLASS PACKAGING
17 GLASS PROPERTIES

• Glass properties - Thermal properties

• When it is quickly cooled
• Tensile stresses are established
• On the contrary if the object is suddenly heated
• Compressive forces are set up with tensile forces on the opposite side
• When the temperature equilibrium is reached these stresses disappear
• Glass is more sensitive to tensile stresses than to compressive ones
• 63°C for 5 minutes to cold water at 21°C
• The thermal strength of glass
• Thickness
• Chemical composition (Pyrex® or Corning®)
• Surface treatments
 GLASS PACKAGING
18 GLASS PROPERTIES

• Glass properties - Electromagnetic properties

• Transparency
• Amorphous structure
• Chemical nature of its ingredients
• Alkaline oxides
• UV barrier effective at higher wavelengths
• In the visible region the glass transparency may be modified
Table 2. Coloring ingredients of glass mixture
Color Constituents

Colorless CeO2, TiO2, Fe2O3

Blue Co3O4, Cu2O + CuO
Purple Mn2O3, NiO
Green Cr2O3, De2O3, + Cr2O3 + CuO, V2O3
Brown MnO, MnO + Fe2O3, TiO2 + Fe2O3, MnO + C2O2
Amber Na2S, S, carbon
Yellow CdS, CeO2 + TiO2
Ornage CdS + Se
Red CdS + Se, Au, Cu, UO3, Sb2S3
Black CO3O4 (+ Mn, Ni, Fe, Cu, Cr oxides)
 GLASS PACKAGING
19 GLASS PROPERTIES

• Glass properties - Chemical inertness

• No chemical reactions
• No relevant leaching phenomena
• Amorphous structure is much less reactive, compared to crystalline one
• Silica has little solubility at neutrality or acidic pH values
• Some interactions phenomena with contacting aqueous phases
• Acidic corrosion may be relevant only for glasses rich in sodium
• Distilled water is generally a weakly acidic media and performs an exchange of
small ions
• Another problem concerning glass as food contact material is the possible
presence of glass fragments
GLASS CONTAINERS
MANUFACTURING
 GLASS PACKAGING
21 GLASS CONTAINERS MANUFACTURING

• Glass container manufacturing

• Glass making
• Container manufacturing
• Post blowing operations
 GLASS PACKAGING
22 GLASS CONTAINERS MANUFACTURING

• Glass container manufacturing - Glass making

• The different ores have each a specific function in glass making
• Silica is
• Boron (B2O3)
• Aluminum (Al2O3) › responsible for the
fundamental structure
of final material

• Recycled glass provides significant energy saving

• Already an amorphous structure and does not require as much energy as the
other raw material
• It is always welcome
• Glass is probably the only material that is endlessly recyclable
 GLASS PACKAGING
23 GLASS CONTAINERS MANUFACTURING

• Glass container manufacturing - Glass making

Table 3. Raw materials and functions in glass making

 GLASS PACKAGING
24 GLASS CONTAINERS MANUFACTURING

• Glass container manufacturing - Glass making

• To make the mass one tenth of the mixture is
• Less viscous
• Melt at lower temperature, at least (soda-lime glass) › constituted of sodium carbonate
and about the same amount is
represented by calcium
carbonate

• These two ingredients decompose to oxides, releasing almost 200 times the
volume of CO2 of glass produced
• The presence of both sodium and calcium oxides
• Speeding up the process
• Making it more feasible from an economic point of view
• Sodium silicate may tend to bloom on surface
• Impairing transparency
• The large quantity of carbon dioxide is not only an environmental problem
but also a technological one (bubbles)
 GLASS PACKAGING
25 GLASS CONTAINERS MANUFACTURING

• Glass container manufacturing - Glass making

Figure 4.Schematic representation of a furnace (side port) for glass making

 GLASS PACKAGING
26 GLASS CONTAINERS MANUFACTURING

• Glass container manufacturing - Glass making

• Typically
• The surface of a furnace may range from 50 to 65 m 2

• Depth from 1 to 2 m
• The entire furnace is made of refractory bricks
• Ingredients start to melt around 1250°C
• The mass is refined at about 1500°C (for better removal of the gases),
• and then the molten glass is cooled to about 1150°C
• Typical furnaces can produce 3.5-8.0 tons of glass each hour
• This obviously takes place 24 hours each day, 7 days a week, 365 days a
year, because it would be nonsense to switch off the furnace for the weekend
and ignite it on Monday
 GLASS PACKAGING
27 GLASS CONTAINERS MANUFACTURING

• Glass container manufacturing - Container manufacturing

• Blow and blow
• Press and blow

Figure 5. Schematic representation of blow and blow process Figure 6. Typical shapes of glass containers with wide mouths and narrows necks
 GLASS PACKAGING
28 GLASS CONTAINERS MANUFACTURING

• Glass container manufacturing - Post blowing operations

• A dramatic rapid cooling takes place during short time of about 10 seconds and
this introduces strong stresses in the formed container, making it quite fragile.
• Some operations are therefore performed in order to strengthen the final
containers, after the bottle or the jar exits the mold
• Hot end
• Annealing
• Cold end
• Quality control
USE OF GLASS CONTAINERS IN
FOOD PACKAGING
 GLASS PACKAGING
30 USE OF GLASS CONTAINERS IN FOOD PACKAGING

• Used for
• Liquids
• Solids
• Semi-solid
• Containers in heating phase, the limit of allowed temperature differential is
considered as 60°C
• In the cooling cycle stricter temperature differential of 40°C is regarded as the
maximum limit
• Cleaning empty bottles before filling
• Air blowing
• Warm water rinse
• Washing with detergent solution
• Combination of the above
• The returned containers for reuse are subjected to washing with caustic soda solution
 GLASS PACKAGING
31 USE OF GLASS CONTAINERS IN FOOD PACKAGING

• Filling of liquid foods

• Gravity
• Vacuum
• Pressure
• Their combination
• Closures
• Hermetic sealing
• Heat processing of filled glass bottles such as pasteurization and sterilization
should be controlled in temperature program avoiding abrupt thermal shock

• The labels in paper or laminated film are attached onto sealed bottles by proper
adhesive
CONCLUSIONS
 FOOD PACKAGING TRENDS
33 CONCLUSIONS
REFERENCES
 FOOD PACKAGING TRENDS
35 REFERENCES

• ALMENAR, E. (2015). Food Packaging Class Notes.

• DONG Sun Lee, Kit Yam, Pergiovanni Luciano. Food Packaging Science and
Technolgy. CRC. 2007
• ROBERTSON Gordon. Food Pacakging, Principles and Practice. 2007
• ITENE. Memorias de Ciencia y Tecnlogía de Envases, Emabalaje y Transporte.
Valencia, 1998
• POZZO S. DETERMINACION DE VIDA UTIL DE ALIMENTOS. Universidad
Nacional de Colombia. Seminario 2013
• F Devlieghere, AH Geeraerd, KJ Versyck, B Vandewaetere, J Van Impe, J
Debevere. Growth of Listeria monocytogenes in modified atmosphere packed
cooked meat products: a predictive model. Food Microbiol18:53-66, 2001
• HK Davis. Fish. In: RT Parry, ed. Principles and Applications of Modified
Atmosphere Packaging of Foods. London: Blackie Academic & Professional,
1993, pp. 189-228
 FOOD PACKAGING TRENDS
36 REFERENCES

• RT Parry. Introduction. In: RT Parry, ed. Principles and Applications of Modified

Atmosphere Packaging of Foods. London: Blackie Academic & Professional,
1993, pp. 1-18
• A Amanatidou, EJ Smid, LGM Gorris. Effect of elevated oxygen and carbon
dioxide on the surface growth of vegetable-associated microorganisms. J Appl
Microbiol 86:429-438, 1999
• D Zhang, PC Quantick, JM Grigor, R Wiktorowicz, J Irven. A comparative study
of effects of nitrogen and argon on tyrosinase and malic dehydrogenase activities.
Food Chern 72:45-49,2001.