Determinação da taxa de permeabilidade ao vapor de água e óxigênio: aplicação em embalagens plásticas flexíveis da indústria alimentícia

Abstract

Package has multiple functions, including protecting a product. This protection is mainly associated with two aspects. The first is the protection against physical and mechanical damage during transport and storage. The second, dealing specifically with food, is the protection against environmental factors, such as gases, water vapor, light and odors. Thus, a package must have an adequate barrier that prevents or hinder a contact between the external environment and the product inside. Therefore, specific analyzes are necessary to verify this barrier that the package can provide, that is, how permeable or not it is to these factors, such as the permeability rate to water vapor and oxygen. Since when it comes to the food industry, attention should be paid to these factors, because the oxygen in contact with food allows the growth of spoilage aerobic microorganisms, and the increase in humidity, in foods with low water activity, favors the growth of microbial growth, fat oxidation, loss of crunchiness, among others. In this sense, the present work focused to evaluate, in the form of a bibliographic review, the analyzes to determine the permeability rate to water vapor and oxygen applied to flexible plastic package used in the food industry.