The (Not So) Secret Lives of Food Packaging (Paperback)

Anne Murcott

ISBN 10: 1350022101 / ISBN 13: 9781350022102

Published by Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, London, 2024

About this Item

Paperback. 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 concerns 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 international 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. "The first social history of food packaging"-- Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9781350022102

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The (Not So) Secret Lives of Food Packaging (Paperback)
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, London
• Publication Date: 2024
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1350022101
• ISBN 13: 9781350022102
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

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 concerns 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 international 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 Authors

Anne Murcott is Honorary Professorial Research Associate, at SOAS, University of London, Professor Emerita at London South Bank University and Honorary Professor of Sociology at the University of Nottingham, UK. In 2009 she received an honorary doctorate from the University of Uppsala, Sweden. Her most recent book is the textbook The Sociology of Food & Eating (2019).

Peter Scholliers is Professor of Contemporary History at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. He edited Food, Drink and Identity: Cooking, Eating and Drinking in Europe since the Middle Ages (2001), and published Food Culture in Belgium.

Peter Scholliers is Professor of History at Vrije Universiteit Brussel. He specializes in European food history and has written numerous works on Belgian foodways.

Amy Bentley is Associate Professor of Food Studies in the Department of Nutrition,
Food Studies and Public Health at New York University, USA