Influence of Storage Time and Temperature on Absorption of Flavor Compounds from Solutions by Plastic Packaging Materials

Abstract

Linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE), oriented polypropylene (OPP), polycarbonate (PC), polyethylene terephthalate (PET film and PET bottle), and polyethylene naphthalate (PEN) were stored in a model solution containing 10 flavor compounds at 4, 20, and 40 °C and flavor absorption by the plastic materials was followed in time. The absorption rate and/or total amount absorbed increased considerably with temperature from 4 to 40 °C. Depending on storage temperature, total flavor absorption by the polyolefins (LLDPE and OPP) was 3 to 2400 times higher than by the polyesters (PC, PET, and PEN). Therefore, in the factor of flavor absorption, polyesters are preferred over polyolefins as packaging material.

Factors determining the transport coefficients of aroma compounds through polyethylene films

“…For the two PE films, a significant difference of sorption between the two family of compounds was observed: despite the weakest headspace concentrations of phenolic compounds comparatively to the esters concentrations, phenolic compounds showed the highest affinity for both films. In agreement with the apolar nature of PE films (Ducruet et al, 2001;van Willige et al, 2001), the sorption coefficients increased with hydrophobicity within the ester or phenol family, i.e. in the same chemical class, the higher the log P (Table 1) the greater the sorption coefficient.…”

“…Among them polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) are the most common type for food surface contact because of their chemical resistance and inertness and high water barrier property. However, apolar polyolefins such as PE or PP absorb larger quantities of aroma compounds than more polar polymers, such as polyesters [polyethylene teraphthalate (PET), polycarbonates (PA), or ethyl vinyl alcohol (EVA)] ( van Willige et al, 2001). Low density polyethylene (LDPE) films, which have been extensively studied, absorb a wide variety of flavour compounds such as aldehydes, methyl ketones, methyl esters, and sulphur compounds (Arora et al, 1991;Letinski and Halek, 1992).…”

Barrier Properties of Polymeric Packaging Materials to Major Aroma Volatiles in Herbs

“…The temperature effect on aroma sorption seems to be more important for Nylon, PET, MPET and PLA, compared to PE and PP at the experimental temperature, which might be due to the T g value of the glassy polymers closely to the storage temperatures. The aroma was easier absorbed because of the more polymer chains relaxation, causing the increasing free volume [4]. Determination of Permeability Coefficients.…”

“…Absorption of 10 flavor compounds (linalool, octanol, hexanal, decanal, ethyl 2-methyl butyrate, hexyl acetate, carvone, nonanone, limonene and myrcene) by various packaging materials was also studied in model solutions. The results showed that these compounds were absorbed more in polyolefins (LLDPE and OPP) than polyesters (PC, PET and PEN) [4] indicating a high affinity and interaction between hydrophobic aroma compounds and non-polar polymers such as LDPE. As most previous studies focused on primary aroma compounds in fruits, but not herbs, the aim of this study was to determine the aroma barrier properties of major packaging films (LDPE, PP, PET, M-PET, Nylon and PLA) to key aroma compounds present in tropical herbs, eucalyptol and estragol.…”

Quality of orange juice in barrier packaging material

“…Most of the results obtained when testing various plastic packaging materials on this subject were conducted with model solutions. 11 In real conditions of contact, results are rarely published 12,13 or remain confi dential, in particular for real food in contact with the entire package (bottle and cap).…”