Ensuring Food Safety: Vital Moisture Barrier Testing for Military Food Packaging

Military operations and strategic reserves demand food with a long shelf life. This extended durability relies heavily on superior packaging that can protect food quality under diverse conditions. This article utilizes the Labthink C330H Water Vapor TransmissionRate Test System to evaluate a military food packaging material, including the test principle, process, instrument parameters, and scope of application, offers a reference for monitoring and selecting effective moisture barrier packaging solutions.



During military operations or special missions, food is an indispensable supply for maintaining troop vitality and enhancing combat effectiveness. Considering military strategy and material reserves, military food generally has a shelf life of more than 2 years, which requires its packaging materials to have excellent performance to ensure the food remains in good quality during storage. Furthermore, the uncertainty of supply and environmental conditions places higher demands on packaging materials. Among these, moisture barrier performance is one of the important properties of military food packaging, it is a key factor affecting the amount of water vapor permeating from the environment into the package. Moisture creates condition for microbial growth and reproduction, therefore food is prone to absorbing moisture, caking, and softening, and increases the risk of mold when exposed to moisture. Using packaging materials with high water vapor barrier properties (i.e., excellent moisture resistance) can significantly reduce the amount of water vapor permeating into the package, playing an important role in preventing food spoilage.

A fundamental characteristic of military food packaging is compact, as the advancements in packaging technology and polymer materials, military food packaging is shifting from tin cans towards lighter, more compact soft plastic composite bags and tubes. Since different flexible materials have varying moisture barrier properties, rigorous testing and monitoring are essential to ensure military food remains safe and effective throughout its intended shelf life.

Referencing Standard and Testing Instrument

One effective way to measure WVTR is using the electrolytic sensor method. This technique is standardized in ISO 15106-3. Labthink C330H Water Vapor Transmission RateTest System is designed to test material water vapor transmission rate based on electrolytic sensor method conforming to ISO 15106-3. This instrument is applicable to determination of water vapor permeability of plastic films, sheeting, paper, packages in food, pharmaceutical, medical devices, consumer goods, photovoltaic and many other industries.




A prepared sample of the packaging material is clamped to the test chamber. Nitrogen gas with stable, high humidity flows on one side of the film, while dry nitrogen flows on the other. Due to this humidity difference, water vapor permeates from the high-humidity side through the film to the low-humidity side. The permeated water vapor is then carried by the dry nitrogen to an electrolytic moisture sensor. This sensor detects the electrical signal resulting from water vapor, the system calculates the water vapor concentration. For testing complete packages, dry nitrogen flows inside the package, while the outside is exposed to high humidity.

Test sample and process

Test sample: testing the water vapor transmission rate of an aluminum-plastic composite film used for military food packaging.

Test Process:

  1. Sample Preparation: Three specimens are cut from the packaging material with a sample cutter.
  2. Sample Loading: A vacuum grease is applied to the surfaces of the testing system's chambers, and each of the three specimens is carefully mounted and clamped, ensuring a tight seal.
  3. Test Execution: Set the test parameters such as sample name, thickness, test mode, temperature, and humidity in the system. Adjust nitrogen gas pressure and flow rates to meet standard requirements. Tab “Test” to start the test, and the system automatically performs the test according to reset parameters and displays the WVTR results after completion.

Test result and analysis

For the three aluminum-plastic composite film specimens tested, the WVTR results were 0.079 g/(m²·24h), 0.083 g/(m²·24h), and 0.088 g/(m²·24h). Take average WVTR for the three specimens as the sample’s WVTR, which was 0.083 g/(m²·24h).

Water Vapor Transmission Rate (WVTR) is a critical indicator of military food packaging's moisture protection. With the Labthink C330H Water Vapor Transmission Rate Test System, assessing this vital characteristic in an aluminum-plastic composite film is straightforward and highly intelligent. The system yields accurate and dependable results, providing a true reflection of the material's moisture barrier performance.


Visit https://en.labthink.com/en-us/index.html to learn more or contact us via trade.en@labthink.com. 



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Case Study: Oxygen Barrier Properties of Recycled PET Bottles

Image
Recycling plastic bottles is vital for environmental protection, but it can affect their oxygen barrier properties, making them less suitable for oxygen-sensitive products. Our case study on PET bottles with varying amounts of recycled material found that increasing the recycled content from 25% to 50% only slightly reduced their oxygen barrier. This suggests that using more recycled material does not significantly compromise the bottles' performance. The Problem The growing trend of recycling waste plastic bottles requires an understanding of how reclaimed materials affect a product's performance. For PET bottles, a crucial metric is their ability to act as an oxygen barrier. High oxygen permeability can compromise the quality of packaged goods, limiting the use of recycled materials in food and beverage containers. This study aims to quantify that effect by testing bottles with varying percentages of recycled content. The Test Two types of PET bottle samples were tested...
Read more

Why Water Vapor Permeability is Critical for OLED Displays and How to Measure it

Image
OLED is extremely sensitivity to water vapor, even microscopic amounts of moisture can lead to rapid degradation, causing unsightly dark spots, short circuits, and significantly shortening the display's lifespan. This is why the OLED Display Water Vapor Transmission Rate Test is so important. The impact of WVTR testing extends far beyond mere measurement; it directly influences the quality, longevity, and market viability of OLED products. Ensuring OLED Device Lifespan and Performance: OLED components are extremely vulnerable to moisture. Water vapor ingress causes metal electrodes to oxidize and organic layers to degrade, leading to critical issues like dark spots and short circuits.To achieve an OLED device lifespan of at least 10,000 hours, the industry recognizes a critical WVTR target of 1 x 10 ⁻⁶ g/(m ²· day). This tester precisely measures and verifies that encapsulation materials meet this stringent requirement. Optimizing Materials and Processes: By testing the ...
Read more

Container Closure Integrity (CCI) testing - methods and instruments

Image
Container Closure Integrity (CCI) testing is performed within the pharmaceutical, biotech, and food and beverage industries, primarily to ensure product sterility and prevent contamination, maintain product quality and stability, identify packaging defects, and meet regulatory requirements. Regulatory bodies like the FDA (in the United States) and similar agencies worldwide have stringent requirements for container closure systems, particularly for sterile and pharmaceutical products. These regulations mandate that manufacturers demonstrate the integrity of their packaging to ensure product safety and efficacy. There are various instruments used for Container Closure Integrity (CCI) testing, employing different methods to detect leaks. Such as vacuum decay testers, pressure decay testers, High Voltage Leak Detection (HVLD) instruments, and mass extraction leak detectors, these instruments employ deterministic methods which provide quantitative, objective results. Probabilistic methods ...
Read more