Journal of Nutrition & Food Sciences
Open Access

Abstract

Study on Nanocoated PET Bottles of Tomato Puree against Enteropathogenic Bacteria

M Ramya, M Sylvia Subapriya and Nalini B

The global production of plastics would reach about 227 MT by 2015, with a growth rate increase of about five percent per year. PET is thermoplastic polyester widely used for production of beverage bottles. Plastic bottles made from polyethylene terephthalate (PET) are increasingly used in storage of beverages like soft drinks, mineral water, juices and beer, in comparison to other packaging plastic. PET is considered to be the most inert of polymers with good barrier properties against moisture, oxygen and carbon dioxide with a low migration tendency of its constituents. According to National Association for PET Container Resources (NAPCOR, 2011), among 5,478 million pounds of PET bottles are available for recycling. Different technologies can further enhance PET inherent barrier properties and offer great protection to natural properties of packaged products against oxygen migration and carbon dioxide. Food packed into PET containers is the main source of microorganisms causing diarrhoeal diseases (Figure 1). Hence technology to minimize microbial health hazards is the need of the hour. Therefore barrier enhanced technology such as nanoparticle coatings on PET bottles was tried out in this study.