Adhesion of fermented diary products to packaging materials. Effect of material functionality, storage time, and fat content of the product. An empirical study Original Research Article

In this empirical study, we have shown that adhesion of dairy products such as fermented milk and yoghurt on packaging materials is dependent on the product contact time to the surface. Approximately 10% of all fermented milk products remain on the inside of today’s packaging material. The viscosity of the product seems to have a major effect on how much product that will be adhered to the surface. The initial adhesion (the first 24 h) of product to material surface shows significant discrepancies whereas on longer time scales (days) it seems to be rather constant and independent of the fat content in the fermented milk or the material polarity. This effect would be explained by the fact that both fat and proteins show strong amphiphilic behaviors. By using FT-IR/ATR measurements it is concluded that the deposit on the surface contains proteins.