Odour investigation of granular polyolefins for food flexible packaging by means of a sensory panel and an electronic nose

Luisa Torri (1) , Luciano Piergiovanni (2) , Ernesto Caldiroli (3)

1 Food Science and Microbiology
2 Food Science and Microbiology
3 Giflex-Gruppo Imballaggio Flessibile

This work was carried out to study the odorous properties of polyolefins destined for food flexible packaging. 25 homo- and copolymer of ethylene and 5 homo- and copolymer of polypropylene in pellet grade were analysed by means of a sensory panel. The principal component analysis performed on sensory data showed a perceptible and quantifiable difference between samples. Generally, polypropylene materials resulted less odorous than the most part of polyethylene pellets, especially less than ethylene vinyl acetate copolymers. The feasibility of using a commercial electronic nose, equipped with 10 metal oxide semiconductors, to discriminate the odour of plastic materials was also explored. The obtained instrumental results were satisfying and well-correlated with the panel answers, as showed by the statistical approach based upon partial least squares regression. Furthermore, the application of a cluster analysis made it possible to differentiate the samples in strongly, medially and weakly odorous polymers.

Mots clés: Life Sciences

Luisa Torri, Luciano Piergiovanni, Ernesto Caldiroli. Odour investigation of granular polyolefins for food flexible packaging by means of a sensory panel and an electronic nose. Food Additives and Contaminants, 2008, 25 (04), pp.490-502. ⟨10.1080/02652030701513776⟩. ⟨hal-00577473⟩