Applying and influence of polymer materials for packaging dairy beverages

Abstract

© 2017, Association of Chemists and Chemical Engineers of Serbia. All rights reserved. Functional food is positioned above the traditional, with the potential to improve human health. Thanks to very good physico-mechanical and barrier properties polymers became very popular in food industry as packaging materials. Wild range of fermented dairy products could be packed in these packaging materials according to their inertness as well. Functional milk beverage was obtained from milk with 0,9% milk fat content by applying 10 vol.% of kombucha’s inoculum cultivated on a black tea sweetened with sucrose. The beverage was packed in different packaging materials: polyamid-polyethylen (PA/PE) coextruded foil bags and polyprophylen (PP) cups closed with aluminium (Al) foil lids under atmospheric conditions (ATM). Beverages were storaged for 15 days at 4 °C. The quality of kombucha inoculum, milk and obtained kombucha fermented milk beverage were analysed. Characterization of the packaging materials was done by investigating physico-mechanical, barrier and structural properties. The composition and changes in the headspace atmosphere, after production and during the storage, were analysed. The influence of packaging material properties and packaging conditions on the biochemical transformations of the milk’s components (the content of: lactose,L-lactic acid,D-galactose, ethanol, B1 and B2 vitamins) influenced by kombucha starter were analysed as well. On the bases of the obtained results of characterisation of packaging materials, it can be concluded that PA/PE and PP materials are proper to be used for analysed beverage’s packaging. Also, there is no significant difference in content of components which were quantified, between analysed materials in correlation with the packed fermented milk beverage.