Fruits breathable packages developed from blown films of polypropylene/talc nanocomposites

KAROLTH ESPINOSA; AGUSTÍN LUIS; LUCIANA A. CASTILLO; SILVIA E. BARBOSA

Conferencia; 6th International Conference on Science and Technology of Composite Materials; 2015

In the last decades, a novel conservation technique has emerged as ?Modified Atmosphere Packaging? (MAP). The aim of this work is to develop packages from polypropylene/nanotalc films which were obtained by blow molding, to storage cherry tomatoes at controlled conditions of temperature and relative humidity (25ºC and 50% HR), without refrigeration. In this sense, fruits were packaged in thermo-sealed bags made from these nanocomposites films containing different talc concentration (0, 1, 3 and 5% w/w). Additionally, tomatoes control samples were exposed to the same conditions than the packages. Loss weight and carbon dioxide concentration inside the bags were measured once a week, during five months. The results show that control tomatoes lost about 95% of its initial weight after five months. For packaged tomatoes in nanocomposites bags, the loss weight was 27-42%, considering the same storagetime. After two months, packages lost almost entirely carbon dioxide content.