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

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