Question

1. What types of food packaging could be used to block the penetration of the food by ultraviolet light?

Answer 1

UV is useful as well as dangerous to human beings. The food that we eat is also damaged by UV exposure. It causes the auto-oxidation of fat. Other defects include color change of meats, degradation of vitamins and development of bad flavors. It also has many other defective effects on food.

In order to prevent specialized packing mechanisms involving the usage of certain UV filters have been introduced. These filters absorb a major portion of UV falling on the food. Benzophenones and Benzotriazoles are the commonly used organic UV absorbers. They are used to make the UV filters. Apart from these, inorganic compounds like titanium dioxide and zinc oxides are also used in making these filters. UV filters in the transparently packed foods protect them from every external source of UV. So UV filters protect the quality of food. UV filters help in stabilizing the flavour of food, prevent auto-oxidation of fat etc.

The transparent covers used to pack the food are incorporated with UV filters. This covers can then be used to pack the food.