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Oxygen Transmission Rate and Barrier Flexible Packaging

All of us need oxygen to live, but it can make a brand owner’s life difficult.

Sterling Anthony

All brand owners know whether their products are vulnerable to the spoiling effects of oxygen. But not all know how to systematically manage that vulnerability with packaging. Brand owners who include the oxygen transmission rate (OTR) in their decision-making need a solid understanding of its capabilities and its limitations.

OTR measures the steady-state diffusion of oxygen through a permeable material. Diffusion occurs at different rates at different conditions of temperature and relative humidity (RH). That’s why testing is done under standardized conditions and the results expressed in standardized terms, for example cc/100 in2 /24 hours (or a metric version).

This article is not about packaging that has undergone a change to its internal oxygen content. Exempted, therefore, is modified-atmosphere packaging (MAP), which purges oxygen and replaces it with an inert gas. Also exempted is vacuum packaging, which removes oxygen, causing the packaging film to tighten to the contours of the product. Those exemptions notwithstanding, the packaging still must provide adequate barrier.

The term, “barrier flexible packaging,” clouds the fact that all flexible packaging provides barrier, some just better than others. An OTR is useful for comparing options under identical ambient conditions. The OTR, conversely, might not correlate with the ambient conditions that the packaged product will encounter throughout its supply chain. Standardized test conditions of 73°F and 0% RH, for example, might not be consistently encountered throughout a regional supply chain, and even less so throughout a national one.

An OTR less-than-or-equal-to 1 cc/100 in2 /24 hours is considered high barrier. Its relevance should be evaluated by asking, “Is that much barrier needed? What structures can provide it? What is the cost? What are the involved technologies? And how can that barrier be leveraged for a competitive advantage?”

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