Food Packaging Permeability Behaviour: A Report

TLDR

Polymer materials dominate the food packaging market, and their permeability to gases—affected by temperature and humidity—is critical for extending shelf life and ensuring suitable material selection. This report compiles current knowledge on the permeability characteristics of polymer food packaging materials.

Abstract

The use of polymer materials in food packaging field is one of the largest growing market area. Actually the optimization behaviour of packaging permeability is of crucial importance, in order to extend the food shelf-life and to reach the best engineering solution. Studying the permeability characterization of the different polymer material (homogeneous and heterogeneous polymer system) to the different packaging gases, in different environmental condition, is crucial to understand if the selected material is adapted to the chosen food contact field. Temperature and humidity parameters are of crucial importance for food quality preservation, especially in real life situations, like food market, and house long-life use. The aim of this report was to collect information about the state of the art on the permeability characteristics of the polymer packages used on food field.