The use of dairy products in day to day life is very high due its high nutritional value. But shelf life of these products is limited by environmental conditions. Therefore selection of right packaging method plays vital role in increasing the shelf life of dairy products. Advanced processing technologies, high quality packaging material and method can extend the shelf life of these products up to few weeks to months.
Based on applications, the Dairy products can be classified as Liquid Milk, Milk Powders, Condensed Milk, Milk Ice Cream, Cheeses, yogurt, butter, ghee etc. Milk dominated the market and accounted for 34%. Materials used for packaging are Polyethylene, Polyethylene Terephthalate, Polypropylene. Plastic has the highest growth rate in all types of materials and it will remain stable during the forecast period.
It is proved that, high-density polyethylene (PE-HD) bottles are better for storing pasteurised milk as compared to low-density polyethylene (PE-LD) pouch. Also Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic material can be used for milk packaging. Pigmented PET improves versatility by protecting the milk from light. For packaging of fresh yogurt, thermoformed TiO2 pigmented high impact polystyrene (PS-HI) material with either an aluminium foil or plastic laminate or a paper or plastic laminate heat-seal lid or closure is used.
For yogurt low water vapour transmission rate is required in order to prevent it from losing water. To prevent oxidation, O2 barrier packaging is used. Different types of cheeses demands different packaging. O2, CO2 barrier and water vapour transmission rates are some of the factors essential in determining the package atmosphere composition. Although, Cottage cheese has a shelf life of 21 to 28 days, there is considerable loss of quality during this period.
Source: globenewswire.com
