Effects of Ionizing Radiation on Plastic Food Packaging Materials: A Review

Abstract

Irradiation of prepackaged food causes chemical and physical changes in plastic packaging materials. The effects of ionizing radiation on these materials have been studied for almost 40 years; the respective literature is reviewed to provide the basis for a safety evaluation of plastics for use in food irradiation. Permeability of plastic films is generally not affected; deterioration of mechanical properties, that may occur with certain polymers, can usually be controlled with adequate stabilizers; and changes in infrared and UV/VIS spectra are slight at food irradiation doses. Gaseous radiolysis products include hydrogen, methane, CO2, CO, hydrocarbons, and for chlorine-containing polymers, hydrogen chloride. A range of volatile products, mainly hydrocarbons, alcohols, aldehydes, ketones, and carboxylic acids, has been characterized for low density polyethylene and polypropylene, other important materials, e.g., polystyrene and poly(vinyl chloride), are less well-investigated. Comparatively little is known on the effect of irradiation on multilayer structures. Radiation-induced changes are shown to depend on the chemical structure of the polymer, on the composition (additives) and processing history of the plastic, and on the irradiation conditions.

The consequences of physical post-treatments (microwave and electron-beam) on food/packaging interactions: A physicochemical and toxicological approach

“…Several studies have investigated the degradation products of stabilizers which may explain the reduced extraction rate. Decomposition products from the Irganox 1010 and Irganox 1076 in the ionized polypropylene c 10 kGy extracts were then identified (Buchalla, Schüttler, & Werner Bögl, 1993). These derivatives were produced when the original molecule broke up and retained a phenol moiety.…”

The Potential of Food Irradiation: Benefits and Limitations

“…These highly reactive materials are responsible for the colour changes in irradiated polymers and could migrate into food and affect taste, odor and safety (Welle et al, 2002;Franz & Welle, 2004;Stoffers et al, 2004). Also post irradiation aging effects could be the result of trapped radicals in crystalline regions of polymers (Buchalla et al, 1993a(Buchalla et al, , 1993b. It must be noted that the radiationinduced changes depend on the polymer composition (additives), processing history of the plastic and the irradiation conditions (presence of oxygen, temperature, dose and dose rate).…”

Effect of electron beam irradiation on the mechanical properties of buriti fiber

“…For instance, ionizing irradiation of a polymeric material is able to break chemical bonds and introduce modification in the material behavior [12][13][14]. Several works [15][16][17][18][19][20] have shown that macromolecular products such as natural fibers, biomaterials and polymers may improve their properties by ionizing irradiation as a result of crosslinking and scission processes, in which radicals are formed throughout the chains.…”