Effect of Radio Frequency Sterilization on Macroscopic and Mechanical Properties of PE and PP Packaging Materials

The influence of radio frequency(RF)treatment on common packaging materials was studied,which provided a reference for the selection of food packaging materials under RF field. The effects of RF treatment time(1,2,3,5,7 min)on the appearance and mechanical properties of different packaging materials were studied in this paper. Four kinds of food simulants were selected as the contents,which were water,volume fraction of 3% acetic acid,volume fraction of 15% ethanol,olive oil,and the outer packaging materials were selected from polyethylene(PE)and polypropylene(PP). The results showed that the PE and PP packaging materials were melted at the edge of the package after 3,5 min of RF treatment respectively. The mechanical properties of the package after RF treatment were tested. It was found that the tensile strength,elongation at break and Young's modulus of the two materials tested didn't change significantly with the increase of RF treatment time,indicating that the RF treatment didn't affect the mechanical properties of these two plastic films obviously.