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Decovery® CQ 6010: Protects from moisture and gives food packaging a second life.
Today, a large amount of paper and board food packaging is laminated with plastic materials like polyethylene (PE), or aluminum. They protect food inside a package, but limit paper packaging being recyclable. Decovery® CQ 6010 offers a partially-biobased, high MVTR-performance, recyclable solution.
Story · March 7, 2023
Ensuring freshness, quality and shelf life in food packaging
In food applications, barriers to air, oxygen, water, moisture, oil, grease and light are essential for maintaining food freshness and taste. The heat sealability of barrier films, including hermetic seal, is also critical for preserving maximum shelf life.
Barrier coatings are used to enhance the characteristics of paper and paperboard for those food applications that require some barrier performance.
Depending on their composition and construction, barrier coatings can effectively control the absorption of gasses and liquids both on the surface of the paper or paperboard, and transmission of gases and liquids across the paper and paperboard surface.
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Moisture/water vapour transmission rate (MVTR): What is it and why it matters
Many packaged products are sensitive to moisture, so controlling water vapor is critical to the product’s quality. The permeability of packaging materials has a direct effect on shelf-life, as a limited shelf life caused by sub-optimal materials can lead to greater product waste through spoilage.
MVTR measures the rate at which water vapor passes through a substrate at a specific temperature and relative humidity (RH) over a period of time.
Typically, wet food products such as meat, seafood, pet food, cheese, muffins, etc., require a certain level of moisture to be maintained inside a package. On the other hand, packaged dry food products like cereals, chips, snacks, pet foods, etc., require a dry, moisture-free level to maintain taste, texture and overall product quality.
Decovery® CQ 6010 offers excellent MVTR barriers, making it suitable for a wide range of food applications.
The recyclable alternative to conventional non-recyclable paper food packaging
While a MVTR barrier is crucial for a variety of food packaging, most food packaging still uses multi-layer materials, such as composites of extrusion polymers like polyethylene (PE) and in some applications, aluminum laminated paper.
PE does a good job at protecting the food inside the package, but it limits the paper packaging from being recyclable.
Covestro’s new barrier coating resin, Decovery® CQ 6010, makes it possible to get rid of layers such as PE, while still offering protection for the food as a barrier. This, in turn, makes paper packaging completely recyclable. It provides high MVTR performance to paper packaging as well as low water uptake (Cobb) combined with excellent oil and grease resistance.
Decovery®: Safeguarding our planet and its people
The CQ 6010 barrier coating resin is made with Decovery® – our family of partly plant-based resins which is created using transparently sourced feedstock such as bark, castor beans and corn.
Despite its ecological credentials, Decovery® is designed for the creation of high-performance coatings and inks that treat our planet more gently. Decovery® products can deliver:
- Up to 52% verifiable (C14) bio-based content1
- Up to 34% reduced carbon footprint2
- Transparently sourced materials (feedstock transparency, supplier audits)
- Life cycle assessment (LCA) & value chain transparency
1) Depending on product grade; verified by Beta Analytic Inc. (Bio based and Biogenic Carbon Testing Laboratory) 2) Compared to standard fossil based dispersion coatings
A wide range of end applications
Our CQ 6010 barrier coating resin is designed to be an alternative for materials that are difficult to recycle such as composites of extrusion polymers like LDPE. The base resin is easy to formulate and, depending on the paper substrate, can achieve low to very low MVTR barrier values. This makes Decovery® CQ 6010 suitable for a wide range of end applications, such as:
- Fat dry food e.g., chocolate bars
- Frozen food boxes
- Packaging for ice creams/cones
- Fresh fruit and salad boxes
- Recyclable paper pouches to replace secondary plastic packaging
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