Plastics are the most important class of packaging materials. This successful handbook, now in its second edition, covers all important aspects of plastic packaging and the interdisciplinary knowledge needed by food chemists, pharmaceutical chemists, food technologists, materials scientists, process engineers, and product developers alike.

This is an indispensable resource in the search for the optimal plastic packaging. Materials characteristics, additives and their effects, mass transport phenomena, quality assurance, and recent regulatory requirements from FDA and European Commission are covered in detail with ample data.

Dr. Piringer is a chemist working in the field of packaging since 1978 at the Fraunhofer Institute of Food Technology and Packaging in Munich. In 1997 he co-founded the FABES research company which specializes in analysis and evaluation of mass transfer. His main activities are testing interactions between packaging and materials intended to come into contact with food and other products like drugs, cosmetics, fuel, or chemicals. In addition he develops analytical methods for determining the migration of toxicologically relevant substances and decomposition products into packed goods as well as sources of off-flavours occurring during their storage. As a leading expert in this area he serves on national and European Committees dealing in food law for food contact packaging materials. Otto-Gotz Piringer is a member of the Plastics Commission of the German Federal Institute of Risk Assessment in Berlin, formerly known as the German Federal Health Office. He is author and co-author of more than 100 scientific papers.

Dr. Baner, who has degrees in food science, packaging and agricultural engineering, has been researching and working in the packaging field since 1981. He has worked at Michigan State University, the Fraunhofer Institute of Food Technology and Packaging in Munich, the Nestle Research Center in Lausanne and is currently a research packaging scientist with Nestle Purina Petcare in Saint Louis. His research areas encompass the experimental determination and estimation of permeation, diffusion, sorption and migration of flavor molecules and packaging constituents between packaged goods and their packaging. Albert Lawrence Baner is author and co-author of more than 30 scientific papers.