Influence of Oxygen Transmission Rate of Packaging Film on Outgrowth of Anaerobic Bacterial Spores

Abstract

Modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) has been applied to many food products, particularly respiring horticultural products. For non-respiring products, such as meat and seafood, reduced oxygen environments have been shown to preserve product quality. Recent efforts by seafood manufacturers to employ reduced oxygen packaging (ROP) for fresh fish have been halted by the Food and Drug Administration's import alert # 16-125, which specifies a minimum film permeability of 10,000 cc/m 2 /day for hermetically sealed fresh seafood. The purpose of this work was to determine the impact of package area and factors related to oxygen transmission rate (OTR) on anaerobic spore outgrowth. Studies were conducted to determine effects of temperature and relative humidity on OTR of commercially available packaging films (Clysar 60 J. Gnanaraj and B. A. Welt are affiliated with the Packaging Science Program, Agricultural