Use-friendly Active Packaging of Powdered Infant Formula in Single-serve Portion Augmented with Anti-oxidative Function

In the modified atmosphere packaging of powdered infant formula, the oxygen inside the package may cause its quality deterioration and needs to be minimized for quality preservation. A way of oxygen scavenger inclusion in the single-serve package without contacting the product was devised for removing oxygen residing initially and permeating through the seal layer during the storage. A polyethylene/pulp multi-layer porous filter bag of 5 × 7 cm containing 13 g of powdered infant formula was packaged in an 8 × 9 cm size aluminium laminated film package with a Fe-based oxygen scavenger of 1.8 g. After nitrogen flushed packaging, the active packages were stored at 30oC for 254 days with periodical quality measurement. The active package could remove the initial residual oxygen of 1.4% completely and maintain absence of oxygen for the whole storage, which contributed to reduced oxidation observed in lower product peroxide value compared to that of the product in the control package. There was no influence of packaging treatment on content of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural, reaction product of initial nonenzymatic browning. The devised oxygen-scavenging singleserve package showed a potential to improve the preservation of infant formula powder and extend the shelf life.