(Not So) Secret Lives of Food Packaging, The (Food in Mode History:Traditions and Innovations)

by: Anne Murcott (Author)

Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic

Publication Date: 2024/1/11

Language: English

Print Length: 218 pages

ISBN-10: 135002211X

ISBN-13: 9781350022119

Book Description

Tracing developments from the classical period to the early industrial revolution and beyond, Anne Murcott provides us with an accessible and entertaining social history of food packaging. From tin cans, glass jars and bottles, plastic trays and stretch-wrap, Murcott shows the importance of food packaging for global food systems. As a pioneering excursion into the many aspects of the history of food packaging, the book examines shifts from domestic to commercial production, the emergence of associated technologies, changes in retailing, implications for policy and practice, along with current conces about overpackaging. Taking a wide historical and geographical angle, Murcott draws on sources such as trade magazines, manufacturers’ archives, company histories, packaging textbooks, histories of inteational trade and interviews with key industry ‘insiders’. Written by a leading figure in the field, this book will benefit students of social studies of food production and consumption, of cultural studies, as well as researchers and those interested in the history of food.

About the Author

Tracing developments from the classical period to the early industrial revolution and beyond, Anne Murcott provides us with an accessible and entertaining social history of food packaging. From tin cans, glass jars and bottles, plastic trays and stretch-wrap, Murcott shows the importance of food packaging for global food systems. As a pioneering excursion into the many aspects of the history of food packaging, the book examines shifts from domestic to commercial production, the emergence of associated technologies, changes in retailing, implications for policy and practice, along with current conces about overpackaging. Taking a wide historical and geographical angle, Murcott draws on sources such as trade magazines, manufacturers’ archives, company histories, packaging textbooks, histories of inteational trade and interviews with key industry ‘insiders’. Written by a leading figure in the field, this book will benefit students of social studies of food production and consumption, of cultural studies, as well as researchers and those interested in the history of food.