Low cost eco-friendly polyethylene film for packaging of wheat flour

Abstract

At present polymer packaging industry is compelled to use PET based polymeric materials to manufacture packaging materials for food packaging including wheat flour. Though these PET based materials possess the required properties these materials are very expensive and non recyclable. Therefore many researchers are investigating the possibilities of manufacturing polyethylene based packaging materials, which are eco-friendly to replace expensive PET based materials.

In this study an effort was made to identity good quality low cost eco-friendly products for packaging of wheat flour. The trials were carried out using different blends of LLDPE, LPDE and high molecular weight PE. In this study packaging materials were produced using the multi-layer co-extrusion technique. Both field trials and laboratory trials were used to analyze the samples. As the most efficient packaging system for flour is form-fill seal machine system, prepared samples was sent to packaging plants to check whether the sample was able to reach the required runability at form-fill seal machine. The physical properties such as tensile strength tear strength and puncture resistance were measured. Depend on observed values PE blends were gauging down to minimum tolerance limit to contain up to 1kg relative dense products. The Water Vapor Transmission Rate (WVTR) of the film also measured because the shelf life of wheat products very heavily depends on its water activity. Finally a low cost eco-friendly PE based packaging material for wheat flour was developed.