Maricel

• Petit fours


  Small confectioneries usually served as appetizers, desserts, or snacks
• Types of petit fours

  • Petit fours sec
  • Petit fours glacé
  • Petit fours salés
• Petit fours sec


  Dry type of petit four including dainty biscuits, baked meringues, macaroons, puff pastries like cream puffs and éclairs
• Petit fours glacé


  Iced type of petit four including small puff pastries or a variety of tiny cakes which are covered in fondant glaze, caramel, or butter icing
• Petit fours glacé


  • Most have sponge or foam types of cakes as base, cut into small squares, rectangles, triangles, and rounds, served as a one-layer cake with frostings and decors on top, can also be served in two or three layers with fillings or dried fruits, chocolate cream, decorated with candies, nuts, choco chips, marshmallows, and marzipan fruits and flowers
• Petit fours salés


  Salted or savory type of petit four including bite-sized appetizers usually served in cocktails, before a dinner, and in buffets, including biscuits or toast breads with pates, eggs, anchovies, and bacons, ham, and sausages
• Petit fours are served at the last phase of a meal as a dessert; without which a meal is never complete
• The term "petit four" is a French word that means "small oven"
• Displaying petit fours is a very important aspect in the food business, as it creates a huge impression on customers to entice or persuade them to buy and eat the products
• Choosing the right container for the right type of petit four, right occasion, and right customers should be the goal, with a presentation that is flawless, attractive, finely crafted, and elegant
• The shelf life of petit fours depends on the perishability of its ingredients, with more perishable ingredients resulting in a shorter shelf life
• Petit fours with fillings like custard, whipped cream, or frosting with milk do not stay long at room temperature and should be refrigerated or frozen
• Petit fours secs that include dainty biscuits can be kept at room temperature in airtight containers, while macaroons can be refrigerated if stored for a longer time
• Puff pastries can be refrigerated or frozen, with the filling kept separately in a sealed plastic bag
• Thawing of frozen petit fours glacés takes 1 to 3 hours depending on their size and compactness
• Food packaging


  Extends food's life by protecting it from physical damage, contamination, insects, rodents, and microorganisms, controlling moisture loss, and minimizing contact with air, light, heat, and contaminating gases
• Purpose of food packaging


  • Protects food from physical and chemical spoilage
  • Enhances the shelf stability of preserved food stuffs
  • Facilitates the handling of food
  • Simplifies storage of food stuffs
• Flexible or soft Packaging Materials

  • Cellophane
  • Aluminum foil
  • Polyethylene
  • Wax coated papers
  • Saran film
  • Laminated wrapping
  • Others (box edible packages, plastic bags)
• Rigid Containers


  • Glass jars
  • Cans
  • Rigid plastic containers
  • Paperboard carton
  • Oven glass casserole
  • Bags and boxed gas
  • Wooden boxes
• Non-rigid Materials


  • Paper (carton, greaseproof paper)
  • Cloth (Muslim cheese cloth and burla)
• Packaging materials


  • Protect food from adverse loses and changes in weight, texture, flavor, nutritional component and protection against contamination and physical damage
• Shelf-life of food products

  Determined by understanding deterioration mode and kinetics, with moisture-sensitive foods like cereals using critical moisture gain as acceptance criteria
• Food packages in proofers

  Undergo physical abuses during filling, sealing, processing, distribution, and storage, requiring materials to stretch and shape into the desired form
• Grease resistance


  Affects both external and internal environments of products, with plastic packages potentially spreading grease, leading to changes in color, texture, and flavor of the product
• Proper food sanitation


  Crucial for preventing microorganisms from entering the product, ensuring resistance to insects like ants and maintaining a healthy internal environment
• Light and odor resistance packages

  Can prevent changes in food pigments, proteins, amino acids, and vitamins like riboflavin
• Food package interactions during storage or preparation

  Can lead to undesirable mass transport mechanisms, such as flavor absorption and volatile packaging migration, affecting product quality and barrier properties
• General requirements and functions of food packaging materials/containers

  • Non-toxic and compatible with the specific foods
  • Sanitary protection
  • Moisture and fat protection
  • Gas and odor protection
  • Light protection
  • Resistant to impact
  • Tamper proofness
  • Transparency
  • Ease of opening
  • Pouring feature
  • Reseal features
  • Ease of disposal
  • Size, shape, weight limitations
  • Appearance, printability
  • Low cost
  • Special features
• Primary and secondary containers

  Primary containers are used to package foods like nuts, oranges, and eggs, with secondary outer boxes, wraps, or drums providing protection and holding units together
• Primary containers


  Those which come in direct contact with the food, more concerned with than secondary containers
• Hermetic closure


  A container that is completely impermeable to gases and vapor, including its seams
• Non-hermetic closure


  Prevents micro-organism entry, while a hermetic container protects products from moisture gain, oxygen pickup, and is essential for strict vacuum and pressure packaging
• Hermetic containers


  • Rigid metal cans and glass bottles, with faulty closures potentially making them non-hermetic
• Non-hermetic containers


  • Thin flexible films are not completely gas and water-vapor impermeable, with good but imperfect seals. Flexing packages and pouches can lead to minute pinholes and crease holes, even in gas- and water-vapor-tight materials like aluminum foil
• Hermetic rigid aluminum containers can be formed without side or bottom seams, with the top end double seam being the only seam for hermetic
• Glass containers are hermetic if lids are tight, with inside plastic or cork rings. Vacuum packed containers also have tighter covers due to atmospheric pressure differential
• Crimping covers, like pop bottle caps, can create a gas-tight hermetic seal, but bottles fail more frequently than cans, becoming non-hermetic