EFFECT OF GAMMA RADIATION ON FLEXIBLE FOOD PACKAGING MATERIAL

The food packaging industries have got a problem of deterioration of sterilized food due to the attack of micro organism. This is due to the re-contamination of the food during packaging process. The recontamination after packaging can be avoided by sterilizing the packed foods. This will help to increase the shelf life of the food by killing the micro organism. Sterilization of the packed food is possible by irradiation process. It works by disrupting the biological processes that lead to decay. In this work a new packaging material is proposed to be developed that can be used for gamma irradiation process. Gamma radiation has got good penetrating power that may disrupt the physical and chemical structure of the substrate so radiation stability is required for the packaging material. The properties of the selected material for the present work have to be analysed after the irradiation process