Is there such a thing as insect repellent food packaging?
One of our customers insisted us to use insect repellent packaging material to pack their products, Monomer which having insect repellent properties will help to avoid infestation. Can anyone help me to get more clarity on this?
Is there any material available in industry?
I have never heard of insect repellant packaging material. I guess the question is, what are you currently packaging their material in? If it is paper or carboard based, then they may be asking you to go with plastic packaging film is the only thing I could think.
I would hesitate using something like that in food-contact applications. Certainly a plastic film can be used that doesn't allow much odor migration which would attract pests. Instead, focus on packaging your product in an insect-free environment to lower your risk.
Some years back I was in a DART packaging manufacturing plant in Commerce, CA and the manager was telling me about an insect repelling packaging piece he had heard about.
It was about to be used by a sandwich maker and the packaging had a double wall with the interior wall being food safe and the outer wall having repellant embedded into the foam.
I never heard anything more about and asked a couple of other managers about it while doing inspections but never heard anything about it again.
I suspect this is just a reference to an impervious material with strong O2/H2O barrier properties like a hermetically sealed plastic pouch.
Most insect repellants tend to be organic and often volatiles ones, which will penetrate plastic polymer barriers more easily than water. I wouldn't want anything like that impregnated in my food packaging material.