Aluminum foil substitutes

Aluminium foil has long been a reliable film material for packaging wet goods and has a very good barrier property. This kind of aluminum foil itself has a very strong barrier and can block moisture and gas emissions. Many people believe that aluminum foil is unmatched compared to plastic film, however, as Eric Bartholomay, production development manager at Toray Plastics (America) Inc. points out, creases will appear on aluminum foil when bent, and It is unavoidable to bend the aluminum foil when stacking soft bags on the shelves. This will affect the effect of shelf display. Aluminum foil, which is commonly used in food packaging, is thin, and creases can also result in the creation of small holes that can affect barrier properties.

Toray recently developed a PC metallized acrylic film specifically designed to replace this foil-covered packaging material. As early as the beginning of this year, Unilever chose Torayfan PC1 film to replace the traditional PPFP (paper-polyethylene-foil-polyethylene) packaging for its popular Knorr and Lipton products. After six months of trial sales, this new film has superior barrier protection performance, which has played a very good role in enhancing brand performance and reducing packaging costs.

ExxonMobil Chemical Corporation (Booth No. N-4533) has also developed a film that can replace aluminum foil. The company's extremely barrier metallyteTM film is a new generation of ExxonMobil metallyte OPP film, which features enhanced barrier protection and is more attractive than aluminum foil. Among the best barrier properties, metallyte 18XM383 is an uncoated metallized film that protects sensitive products from moisture, fragrance spills, product oxidation, and UV degradation of materials.

Metallyte XM383 has a very strong barrier to water vapour emission (WVTr) and emits less than 0.1 g of water vapor per square meter per 24 hours. In addition, it also has good oxygen barrier properties, and the oxygen transmission rate is less than 7 cubic centimeters per square meter per 24 hours. In an inert gas environment (MAP), it helps to protect food from oxidation. Compared to other metalized films, the metallyte XM383 also enhances the shelf appeal of branded products. This makes this film an excellent choice for products with very high barrier properties to packaging.