EVALUATION OF α-TOCOPHEROL STABILITY DURING THE PROCESSING OF ACTIVE PACKAGING FILMS

Addition of antioxidants (AO) to polyolefins is a common practice during film's manufacture because they protect the polymers from degradation. For this reason, part of the antioxidant is lost because of its ability to function as a free-radical scavenger. One of the most common synthetic antioxidants is butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), however, nowadays there is an increased interest in replacing synthetic by natural ones. alpha-tocopherol is one of the most interesting natural AO, which can also be used to protect packaged foods from oxidation during storage. In this work, active films with different alpha-tocopherol and BHT contents were prepared through a two-step process (mixing and extrusion) with the aim of determining the amount of alpha-tocopherol and BHT in the film after processing, in order to optimize alpha-tocopherol quantity for further use as an antioxidant for the stabilization of food packaged products.