Automatically adjusted food wrap with temperature

Apio, a subsidiary of Landec, Inc., of Menlo Park, Calif., which operates food technology, has developed a fresh food packaging bag for the Breathe Way, which features a “beginning” that oscillates with changes in temperature and can regulate oxygen in the film. The CO2 transmissivity compensates for and adapts to the increased food respiration rate that results from increased temperature. This temperature activation "switch" depends on physical changes rather than chemical changes, so the switch is reversible. BreatheWay raw material is a branched chain crystalline (SCC) acrylic copolymer produced by Landec's patented technology, which converts from a solid state to a gel in a very narrow temperature range.

Intelimer is coated on a special porous substrate. When it undergoes a physical change from a solid state to a gel, the crystalline gas barrier layer disappears, and the oxygen and carbon dioxide permeability increase by a factor of two. Another new use of BreatheWay is to make banana bags to 200 convenience stores in South Carolina and it is expected to expand to 5,000 convenience stores throughout the United States in 2006.

Source: Plastics Industry