It gives me an immense pleasure and satisfaction that ten issues of this journal have been published very successfully without any disruption but the recent outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic has made the entire world into stand-still condition and made a great impact to global economy, the industry and also to packaging research. In fact, COVID-19 is such a horrible, dangerous, invisible virus which has brought in a paradigm shift in all facets of human lives, globally. More than 185 countries have been affected due to this pandemic. The whole world has been facing a serious challenges for last quarter to peer through the unimaginable magnitude of crisis which has exposed to vulnerability, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity (VUCA) situation. This situation has also made an impact due to lengthy lockdown which has declined in GDP, more number of unemployment, falling of business confidence and the industry has been trying to find its way through near-term survival. The situation has also forced to shut the educational institutions and switched over to on-line education system.
In addition, it is expected that Post COVID-19, the world would enter into a new World as there would be an impact of certain mega trends like changes in life style and food habit, shifting of consumer preferences, change in consumer’s behavior like more consciousness to health, hygiene and safety, cultural transformation like work from home, on-line education, social distancing, sanitization, demands on E-commerce, digital marketing. Due to this, it is presumed that the activities in the areas of packaging research would also get affected in the next quarter.
However, despite of having all these challenges, I am pleased to present herewith the second issue (volume 4, number 2) of the Journal of Packaging Technology and Research (JPAC) which is an international peer-reviewed publication that publishes original, high-quality research papers on topics related to packaging Science and Technology. This journal aims at publishing inter-disciplinary approaches to global issues related to packaging like development of innovative environment friendly packaging materials to meet the requirement of environmental regulations, safety aspects of packaging.
The current issue has covered six important articles—factorial design study of corrosion in tin-free steel (TFS) plate for tomato paste, lignocellulosic agricultural biomass as a biodegradable and eco-friendly alternative for polymer-based food packaging, printing dynamics: nip pressure and its relationship with materials’ viscoelasticity, water vapor permeability of chitosan/zeolite composite films as affected by biopolymer and zeolite microparticle concentrations, ameliorative effect of zeolite packaging on shelf life of milk, physical and morphological characteristics of edible composite film of sodium caseinate/pectin/zedo gum containing poulk (Stachys schtschegleevii) extract: optimizing bioactivity and physicochemical properties which are contributed by the researchers of the reputed Research Institutions and Universities of India and overseas.
It is expected that the published research papers in this journal will be highly useful for the researchers who are involved in basic as well as applied research in the field of packaging.
Finally, I wish to take the opportunity to invite the researchers to submit their research papers, review papers, case studies for double-blind international peer review. The peer-reviewed research paper will be made available for the benefit of researchers. To submit online or to read papers published, please visit the journal webpage at https://w.w.w.springer.com/engineering/industrial+management/journal/41783.
N. C. Saha
Editor-in-Chief
drsaha59@gmail.com
Narayan Chandra Saha, Former Director, Indian Institute of Packaging, Mumbai, India
Footnotes
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