Designing an Oxygen Scavenger Multilayer System Including Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) Adsorbents for Potential Use in Food Packaging

Oxygen scavengers are valuable active packaging systems because several types of food deterioration processes are initiated by oxygen. Although the incorporation of oxygen scavenger agents into the polymeric matrices has been the trend in recent years, the release of volatile organic compounds (VOC) as a result of the reaction between oxygen and oxygen scavenger substances is an issue to take into account. This is the case of an oxygen scavenger based on a trans-polyoctenamer rubber (TOR). In this work, the design of an oxygen scavenger multilayer system was carried out considering the selection of appropriate adsorbents of VOCs to the proposed layer structure. Firstly, the retention of some representative organic compounds by several adsorbent substances, such as zeolites, silicas, cyclodextrins and polymers, was studied in order to select those with the best performances. A hydrophilic silica and an odor-adsorbing agent based on zinc ricinoleate were the selected adsorbing agents. The principal VOCs released from TOR-containing films were carefully identified, and their retention first by the pure adsorbents, and then by polyethylene incorporated with the selected compounds was quantified. Detected concentrations decreased by 10- to 100-fold, depending on the VOC.