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THERMOFORMED CONTAINER WALL THICKNESS EFFECTS ON ORANGE JUICE QUALITY
Author(s) -
MIN Sea C.,
ZHANG Howard Q.,
YANG HEEJAE
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
journal of food processing and preservation
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.511
H-Index - 48
eISSN - 1745-4549
pISSN - 0145-8892
DOI - 10.1111/j.1745-4549.2011.00526.x
Subject(s) - thermoforming , shelf life , orange (colour) , pasteurization , orange juice , food science , flavor , tray , materials science , chemistry , composite material , mechanical engineering , engineering
Microbial, physical and flavor qualities of pasteurized orange juice packaged in cylindrical 118‐mL and 177‐mL containers with the same bottom diameter and thickness but different wall heights and thickness were compared with study effects of the wall thickness of the containers on the qualities. The 118‐mL or 177‐mL containers were thermoformed from a laminated package using the same amount of the material. Thermoforming conditions for forming 118‐mL containers were optimized: 154C forming temperature, 103.2‐s heating time and 0.25‐MPa forming pressure. Resulting containers were compared with 177‐mL containers for which optimized forming conditions had been previously determined. Significantly smaller numbers of aerobic microorganisms were counted and longer retentions of color and flavors were obtained by the 118‐mL containers. A greater wall thickness of 118‐mL containers might allow less oxygen transmission to orange juice, which could reduce the rates of the microbial growth, color change and flavor degradation in the juice. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS This article may provide useful insights about a packaging manufacturing process from a technical point of view, the optimization of thermoforming operation, leading to some important points related to a possible shelf life extension. It demonstrates how critical packaging reduction can be using the same amount of packaging material to produce a larger container for a larger amount of product on the consequences on the shelf life.