A simple method for determining light transmittance of polymer films used for packaging foods

✍ Scribed by K N Turhan; Associate Professor; Dr F Şahbaz

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2001
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 104 KB
• Volume: 50
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0959-8103
• DOI: 10.1002/pi.758

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

Sensitive components of food may undergo degradation reactions when subjected to light. The packaging of the food may slow down such reactions by absorbing and reflecting a fraction of the incident light. Riboflavin is a light‐sensitive vitamin and undergoes first‐order degradation when subjected to visible light. Rate constants of this reaction were evaluated under 20 W coolwhite light at pH = 9.0 at 25 °C, with no light shielding or by shielding the light with methylcellulose films. Based on this photodegradation reaction, a new model was proposed to define percentage light transmittance of methylcellulose films. Depending on composition, the percentage transmittance was in the range 66–96%. Variation of light transmittance was explained in terms of solubility and crystallinity.

© 2001 Society of Chemical Industry