Determination of The Permeability of Polyethylene and Polypropylene Plastic Films Against O2 and CO2
Erni Romansyah1,a), Nursigit Bintoro2,b), Joko Nugroho W.K2,c), and Arifin Dwi Saputro2,d)

1Doctoral Candidate, Department of Agricultural Engineering and Biosystem, University of Gadjah Mada (UGM), Yogyakarta, Indonesia
2Lecture, Department of Agricultural Engineering and Biosystem, University of Gadjah Mada (UGM), Yogyakarta, Indonesia

Abstract

The oxygen and carbon dioxide permeability of the packaging plastic films are very important parameters in Modified Atmosphere Storage of agricultural products. A study was conducted to determine the influences of the type and thickness of packaging plastic films against oxygen and carbon dioxide. The materials used in this research consisted of Polyethylene (PE) and Polypropylene (PP) in three different thickness. Permeability measurement of the plastic films were carried out based on the research conducted by Kubik and Zeman with some modifications. The results showed that the type and thickness of the plastic film significantly influenced the transport properties of the plastic film consisted of the permeability against oxygen, carbon dioxide, and the ratio of those two values (p<0.05). However, there was no significant interaction effect of the two factors to the transport properties of the plastic film tested (p<0.05). These findings indicated that permeability values against oxygen and carbon dioxide were solely depended on the type or thickness of the plastic film. It was also known that PE plastic film had larger values of both PO2, PCO2, and beta than PP and was found to be significantly different (p<0.05). The values of beta of the tested plastic film were found to be suitable for packaging fresh agricultural produce.

Keywords: plastic film, packaging, permeability, polyethylene, polypropylene

Topic: Food Processing and Packaging