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Mr Vikram Bhadauria, Director, Alok Masterbatches Ltd
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With the changing lifestyle, ready-to-eat (RTE) packaged food products have become common in one’s life. Chemical properties of the packaging material have been found influencing the physical properties of the content. It is quite common to get a distinct smell of the package with the aroma of the packed food stuff. Plastic-like taste of water from plastic water bottles is a common example. Vikram Bhadauria, Director, Alok Masterbatches Ltd., says, “These taste and odour aspects are classified as Organoleptic Behaviour”. Non-toxicity, non-carcinogenic and non-bio-accumulative properties are the baseline benchmarks for food and pharma packaging. Organoleptic integrity is a challenge for this industry, and the goal is to keep the packed content free of the smell and taste of the packing material.
A packaging expert for the food and pharma sector faces several challenges viz. toxicity issues, barrier properties, aesthetics, brand protection, package integrity, and organoleptics, etc. The organoleptic aspect of packaging is one of the most complex problems as it requires in depth knowledge of all the chemical entities going into the packaging material as well as their reactive and migration behaviour under normal life of the package as well as under extreme cases. Bulk of the taste and smell issues are caused by reactive interactions between two chemicals (package/package or package/content), or by migration of particles from the package into the content. Therefore, all possible interactions of the chemicals with the content have to be considered, which is impossible without an in depth knowledge of the package and content chemistry.
There are several brands of food containers in the market, but only a selected command a brand premium due to their unmatched quality. The consumer has reposed their faith on these brands for their durability as well as the fact that whether they subject the container to microwave cooking, or leave the container in the freezer, the food tastes and smells the same. These companies have mastered the materials science of their raw materials and have thus eliminated the organoleptic issues from their products.
Moreover, the factors that influence the organoleptic properties of a plastic container are also of considerable significance. Mr Bhadauria says, “There are three major factors that influence the final organoleptic properties of any plastic package. These include resin, masterbatch, and processor.”
He further says, Clean resins with no non-reacted monomers and catalysts, frugal additive packages and minimal low molecular weight fractions are best suited for food/pharma packaging. These components tend to volatise during processing, and migrate out during the service life of the package, which causes smell and taste interference.
Masterbatch is another significant factor which affects the organoleptic properties of a plastic container. Numerous suppliers and raw materials, and constantly changing product preferences make masterbatch the most difficult components to control and comprehend. A basic colour masterbatch formulation maybe made up of 6 to 8 components.
More demanding process conditions and complex end use requirements may require around 12 to 20 raw material components in a single masterbatch. A masterbatch manufacturer has a raw material of several 100 products, and it is often impossible for him to keep track of the organoleptic behaviour of all the components.
Raw materials have food certification, heavy metal classifications and toxicological data, which serve as guidelines for masterbatch manufacturers. But there is no such data available for taste and odour. A raw material maybe FDA approved, but, still may introduce smell or taste to the final product. It then boils down to the empirical experience and material science expertise of the masterbatch manufacturer to ensure organoleptic integrity of the final product.
Informing on the role of processor in the whole operation, Mr Bhadauria says, “Often the resin and masterbatch selection decision rests with the processor. This makes him the key deciding factor which defines the organoleptic properties of the product. Besides, the processor has two other parameters which he can monitor to eliminate the taste and odour problems. These parameters are processing temperature and storage.”
Organoleptic expertise at Alok Masterbatches Ltd (AML)
• AML has done a lot of work in its labs to ensure delivering its customers with masterbatches having excellent organoleptic integrity.
• A specialised R&D and production team along with a dedicated production line have been working on this issue. While a lot of the data is confidential, we have formed a basic framework for our formulation guidelines for these products:
• All organic additives are required to have a narrow molecular weight curve to avoid any low molecular weight fractions that can cause volatilisation or migration problems.
• All animal based additives have been switched to vegetable base.
• During the pigment selection process, any pigment based on sulphur, phosphorous or chloride chemistry is avoided. Pigments are selected considering their possible interaction with intentional or unintentional additives present in the package as well as the content.
• Certain chemical functional groups are known to aggravate poor organoleptic properties. These include, but are not limited to, amides, amines, hydroxyls and esters. Care is taken to eliminate these at the formulation stage itself.
• A new production facility has been dedicated to the food, pharma and cosmetics industry. This prevents cross contamination from other products, and allows the team to concentrate its efforts on the requirements of these industries.
• This facility follows Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP), and the inventories are closely monitored and aged so that any raw material entering the facility spends minimum time in storage.
AML has been at the forefront of regulatory compliance for a host of end use industries:
• Food: FDA, IS (Indian Standard) etc.
• Toys: EN 71
• Electrical & Electronics: Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS)
AML has taken steps to ensure that its products headed to the European Union are REACH-compliant. |
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