Open AccessEffects of relative humidity on ethanol vapour releases from hydrophilic filmbased sachet in active food packaging
Author(s) -
H. Kampawong,
Weerawate Utto,
Rittirong Pruthtikul
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
food research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.218
H-Index - 7
ISSN - 2550-2166
DOI - 10.26656/fr.2017.5(5).202
Subject(s) - relative humidity , chemistry , ethanol , humidity , water vapor , chromatography , organic chemistry , meteorology , physics
Active food package incorporating an ethanol vapour-controlled release sachet has beenknown for its efficacies to delay microbial proliferation in fresh fruit and vegetable. Highhumidity inside the package could be utilized as a stimulus for conditional releases as ameans to stabilize the sachet prior to being used. The present research was undertaken toinvestigate the effects of relative humidity on ethanol vapour release from the hydrophilicfilm-based sachet. The prototype 4-side sealed sachets were made of either ethylene vinylacetate (EVA) or laminated film comprising EVA and Nylon/PE (designated as ENP). Agas chromatogram equipped with a flame-ionized detector (FID-GC) was employed toanalyze ethanol vapour concentration levels released from both sachet types andaccumulated in headspaces of sealed glass beakers having different relative humidity (RH)levels. For a given RH level, the concentrations in the headspaces containing the ENPbased sachets were lower than those containing the EVA-based sachets. Delays of ethanolvapour release up to 24 h were observed in the ENP-based sachet system, whilst these didnot occur among EVA-based sachets. Both sachets could release ethanol vapour withfaster rates and subsequently higher concentrations accumulated at the very high relativehumidity level (90-99% RH), compared to lower RH levels (60-89% RH). However, therelease rates and concentration levels accumulated in 60-75% RH were not different fromthose in 80-89% RH. Extents of water vapour uptake by films were relatively small whenthe films were kept at the lower RH levels, but these became exponentially increasedwhen the RH levels were ≥90%RH. Experimental data on water vapour uptakes were wellpredicted by an exponential model (R20.92-0.99; and root mean square of errors (RMSE)0.004-0.054). Overall, experiment findings indicate that the ENP film caused delayedethanol vapour releases from the sachet. The relative humidity levels had significanteffects on the releases from hydrophilic film-based sachets