The Use of Low Permeation Thermoplastics in Food and Beverage Packaging

Abstract

The use of synthetic polymers for food packaging is certainly not new. Many food and beverage items, over the years, have found their way into packages composed of polymeric materials, but no truly large scale inroads have been made by polymers into the majority of food packaging areas now using metal and glass. Perhaps the lack of barrier properties, or conversely the relatively high permeability of synthetic polymeric materials, as compared to glass and metal, is the most dominant reason for this lack of use. This study attempts to examine the applicability of various low permeation polymeric materials, taking only into consideration the permeability of the material, in the packaging of specific foods and beverages. It is not meant to be all encompassing nor absolute in its findings, since the ultimate acceptance of any polymer application for packaging foods will depend upon other parameters such as absorption and extraction in addition to permeation properties.