New Developments in Coextruded High Barrier Plastic Food Packaging

The past year has witnessed the introduction of a number of new food packages using coextruded high barrier plastics. Further commercialization of coextruded plastics is promised as they begin to challenge metal and glass for long shelf life food packaging. While current coextruded packages are using technology developed a number of years ago, several new process and material developments are on the horizon which will impact future applications. This paper previews some promising new technology on polymers for coextrusion, coextruded structures with multiple barrier layers, and scrap recycle.