The (Not So) Secret Lives of Food Packaging - (Food in Modern History: Traditions and Innovations) by Anne Murcott (Hardcover)

About the Book

"The first social history of food packaging"--

Book 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.

Review Quotes

Food packaging is so easily overlooked, yet ubiquitous and essential. Anne Murcott shows that the global industrial food system could not exist and could not have emerged without a parallel technology made of glass, paper, wood, metal and plastic. Anne Murcott moves fluently through disciplines and around the globe, taking us on a fascinating trip through an unfamiliar circuit of inventors, designers, chemists, drivers, bureaucrats and even freezers.
Richard R. Wilk, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology, Indiana University, USA

Scholars and activists, concerned about urgent issues from environment to health, are discovering packaging matters. The (Not So) Secret Lives of Food Packaging provides a rich and timely exploration into how packages assemble markets and shape our relationship to food. Murcott skillfully blends history, sociology, and STS to unpack both the material and symbolic worlds of our modern packaging landscapes.
Xaq Frohlich, Associate Professor of History, Auburn University, USA

Surely the most comprehensive study of food packaging ever written, this book takes us on a breathtaking journey through the history of the most powerful yet neglected marketing device. By paying close attention to the development of an incredible range of technologies - glass, carton, metal and plastic containers; jars, bottles, cans, canisters, and even modified atmosphere packaging - she reveals the incredible depth - material, cultural, sociological - of the most tangible, yet often unseen, market surface, and thus helps us better address the underlying challenges.
Franck Cochoy, Professor of Sociology, University of Toulouse Jean Jaurès, France

About the Author

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).