Aroma scalping characteristics of polybutylene succinate based films

Abstract

The removal of aroma compounds from packaged food items - aroma scalping – can be primarily controlled by the choice of packaging materials. Although the utilization of biodegradable polymers as packaging materials can greatly contribute to the sustainability of the packaging industry, only limited data on their aroma scalping properties are available. In this work, the aroma scalping characteristics of a series of films made from biodegradable polybutylene succinate (PBS) and polybutylene succinate-co-addipate (PBSA) for common aroma compounds in foods (ethyl acetate, ethyl butyrate, ethyl hexanoate, hexan-1-ol, heptanal and (R)-(+)-limonene) are reported. The aroma scalping characteristics of a film made from poorly biodegradable low density polyethylene (LDPE) are reported for comparison.The aroma scalping characteristics, namely sorption and diffusion coefficients, of the tested aroma compounds were determined at 23 °C by means of sorption microgravimetry, and the permeability coefficients were estimated using the solution-diffusion model. The permeability coefficients for the films made from PBS, PBSA and LDPE were comparable for the more polar compounds: hexan-1-ol, ethyl acetate and ethyl butyrate. Conversely, the permeability coefficients of the less polar aroma compounds (ethyl hexanoate, heptanal and (R)-(+)-limonene) in PBS and PBSA-based films were by one to two orders of magnitude lower than those of the LDPE. In addition, a new mathematical model was proposed for the kinetics of the transient sorption of aroma compounds of low volatility (psat < 1 kPa).