5. Current extensions and locks

Packaging materials are evolving rapidly. Without being exhaustive, the main developments include :

• reused or recycled materials ;

• active and intelligent packaging ;

• multi-layer "barrier" materials ;

• biodegradable materials and/or biomaterials ;

• nanomaterials.

The proposed deterministic or probabilistic methods for assessing contamination have been developed mainly for single-layer materials assumed to be homogeneous. Extensions to multilayer materials are presented. As these materials are much more complex, only a deterministic interval approach is proposed to analyze the effect of uncertainty on food contamination. This approach is generally sufficient for the design of safe packaging...