ABSTRACT
The primary functions of food packaging are containment, protection, information, and convenience. Protection is often considered the main function, maintaining the food properties during its transport, stocking, and commercialization. In this way, the package must protect the food against insects, dirt, moisture, and gases, with special attention to the oxygen, carbon dioxide, and ethylene. The moisture barrier property of a polymeric lm must be carefully chosen to protect dehydrated foods against air humidity, while the lm gas barrier properties must be considered to design a modied atmosphere packaging system. Other potentially important barrier properties, susceptible to be analyzed in lms with food packaging applications, are the barrier capacities to odors, light, and fat (Hatzidimitriu et al., 1987; Nelson and Fennema, 1991; Blanco-Pascual et al., 2014).
