Nutrient fluid is one common health care product. If the barrier property or seal integrity of the packaging is insufficient, the nutrient fluid may change in color due to the oxidization of some ingredients contained in nutrient fluid. There are usually a large amount of protein, vitamin and other ingredients that are liable to react with oxygen inside the nutrient fluid. Once such reaction ocurrs, the effacacy of the nutrient fluid may be reduced. Therefore, the packaging materials that are used for nutrient liquid should have ultra high oxygen barrier property, which can protect the nutrient liquid from oxidization and guarantee the quality of the products within their shelf life.

Plastic tubes are very common packaging form for nutrient liquid, which are easy to carry and use. This article provides one simple test method of oxygen barrier property of plastic tubes for nutirnt liquid for your reference. The specimens are provided by one nutrient fluid manufacturer. The testing instrumet is Labthink’sC230G Oxygen Transmission Rate Test System.

Figure 1. Plastic Tube for Nutrient Liquid

This instrument uses a coulometric detector to determine the oxygen transmission rate. The specimen is mounted as a sealed semi-barrier between two chambers at ambient atmospheric pressure. One chamber is slowly purged by a stream of nitrogen at a given temperature and relative humidity and the other chamber is purged by a stream of oxygen at the same temperature as the nitrogen stream but may have a different relative humidity than the nitrogen stream. In this case the environment would more closely simulate actual shelf conditions. As oxygen gas permeates through the film into the nitrogen carrier gas, it is transported to the coulometric detector where it produces an electrical current, the magnitude of which is proportional to the amount of oxygen flowing into the detector per unit time. Note: For the package specimens, nitrogen flows inside the package while oxygen flow outside the package.

Figure 2. C230G Oxygen Transmission Rate Test System

The tests can be performed according to the following procedures.

(1)   Fix one specimen in the special sample fixture and then fix the specimen on a test support for package test. Seal the specimen and connect it to the instrument with pipes. Then cover the specimen and test support with a sealing bag.

(2)   Set specimen name, test temperature, test humidity and other test parameters.

(3)   Click Start Test to start the test.

(4)   Turn on the gas supply. Adjust the humidity and carrier gas flow rate.

(5)   When the test is finished, the test results will be calculated and displayed automatically.

For more details about C230G Oxygen Transmission Rate Test System, please visit www.labthink.com

About Labthink Instruments Co., Ltd:

Labthink Instruments Co., Ltd is one leading supplier of packaging testing instruments, which is headquartered in Jinan, China and operated in Boston, U.S.A.