Health
Glass Loves You Back
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Packaging comes into direct contact with what we eat and drink.
- Its composition and properties play an important role in protecting the product.
- Glass stands out for its high chemical inertness and barrier function.
- These properties remain when recycled glass is used to make new containers.
What Touches Our Food Matters
Jars, bottles, containers… Packaging is part of everyday life. Its primary role is simple: to protect food and beverages during transport, storage and preservation.
But packaging is also in direct contact with the product itself. These materials are known as Food Contact Materials (FCMs). Their composition and properties are therefore important factors in preserving the quality and safety of the products we consume.
Packaging Matters Too
Materials designed to come into contact with food receive particular attention. Depending on their composition and how they are used, certain substances may migrate from the material into the product.
This is why research continues to study these interactions, helping us better understand the characteristics of different materials and supporting food safety.
Why Glass Protects
One of glass’s most important properties is its chemical inertness. In other words, it interacts very little with what it contains.
A report published by Professor Dieter Schrenk in 2014 describes glass as a particularly effective barrier and highlights the very low transfer of its main constituents into food products.
Source : Dieter Schrenk, Literature report on food packaging materials and their potential impact on human health, 2014.
Check the source
A Simple Composition
Well-Known Ingredients
Glass packaging is mainly made from mineral raw materials: sand, soda ash and limestone. Recycled glass, known as cullet, is also added to the recipe.
The result is a homogeneous material capable of protecting a wide variety of products.
Recycled, Still Glass
Collected glass can be used to manufacture new containers.
Using cullet does not change the fundamental nature of the material. The new packaging retains the intrinsic properties of glass, including its chemical inertness.
Confidence, Simply
When packaging protects what you eat or drink, its properties matter.
Glass stands out for a discreet yet essential quality: its inertness. It forms an effective barrier, interacts very little with its contents and helps preserve the product as it was intended to be enjoyed.
These properties remain at the heart of the material when glass returns to the recycling loop to become new containers. One more reason to pay attention to packaging when choosing a product.
