Oxygen Barrier Properties of Whey Protein Isolate Coatings on Polypropylene Films

Oxygen permeation characteristics of whey protein isolate (WPI) coatings on polypropylene (PP) films were investigated to examine the feasibility of WPI coating as a novel biopolymer oxygen barrier for food packaging applications. Heat‐denatured aqueous solutions of WPI with several plasticizers including glycerol, sorbitol, sucrose, propylene glycol, and polyethylene glycol were applied on the surfaces of PP films previously treated with corona discharge. Among plasticizers used, sucrose conferred the best oxygen barrier property to the WPI‐coated films. Oxygen permeability (OP) of the resulting WPI‐coated films increased significantly with temperature, showing very good agreement with the Arrhenius model. OP of the coated films also increased exponentially with relative humidity.