A device for determining the permeability of polymer films used for food products packaging

We have designed and developed a device which allows the measurement of the permeability of wrapper films under experimental conditions as close as possible to the actual environment and storage conditions of wrapped food products. The system can also work under standard conditions. The objective is to evaluate the efficiency of the film as a barrier to gases and vapours under the practical conditions of its use. The experimental device presented here allows control of the principal parameters that are known to affect the permeability of the film namely: temperature, relative humidity and partial pressures of gas on each side of the film. All these parameters can be varied over a range of values wide enough to allow simulation of any transient state of the wrapped product. The possibilities of the apparatus are illustrated by an example of measurements of the permeability to oxygen and carbonic anhydride under experimental conditions which mimic those of a food product during the conditioning commercialization cycle.