PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY AND SCIENCE

Packag. Technol. Sci. 2009; 22: 107–113

Published online 4 November 2008 in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI: 10.1002/pts.838

Effect of Light-barrier Property of Packaging

Film on the Photo-oxidation and Shelf Life of
Cookies Based on Accelerated Tests
By Li-Xin Lu1,2* and Fang Xu1
1
Department of Packaging Engineering, Jiangnan University, 1800 Lihu Road, Wuxi, Jiangsu 214122, China
2
China National Light Industry packaging Quality Supervising and Testing Center, Wuxi 214122, China

The influences of intensity of ultraviolet (UV) light, light-barrier property of

packaging film on the fat photo-oxidation and accelerated shelf life of cookies were
studied. Unpacked cookies were stored at a temperature of 40∞C and a relative
humidity (RH) of 50% for 10 to 65 days, with an intensity of the UV light of 0.3,
1.9 and 9.5 mW/cm2. Meanwhile, the same batch of cookies was packed with
oriented nylon/polyethylene, polyethylene terephthalate/oriented nylon/
polyethylene and bi-oriented polypropylene/vacuuming aluminized casting
polypropylene and stored at the same temperature and RH and UV-light intensity
of 1.9 mW/cm2 for more than 40 days. The peroxide values (POV) of cookies were
measured under the storage conditions. The results showed that the intensity of the
UV light and light-barrier property of film had notable influence on the photo-
oxidation rate and accelerated shelf life of cookies. According to the threshold of
POV, unpacked cookies were rancid less than 32 and 11 days when exposed in light
of 1.9 and 9.5 mW/cm2 in the accelerated test, respectively. In contrast, the shelf life
of unpacked cookies in darkness, or cookies packed in high light-barrier package
was more than 75 days. Logarithm of POV and store-time relationship under
different UV-light illumination was successfully fitted by linear regression under
the same temperature, RH and the accelerated shelf-life-based oxide index was
estimated. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Received 24 January 2008; Revised 23 September 2008; Accepted 9 October 2008
KEY WORDS: cookies; photo-oxidative; UV light; transparency; packaging materials; shelf life

INTRODUCTION taste and the smell of cookies, but also reduce

As a kind of fat-rich food with a fat content usually
above 20%, cookies are easily effected in its fat by
environmental factors such as light, oxygen during
the course of packaging, storage, transport and
sales, leading the fat in the them to oxidise rancid-
ity, which will cause rancid flavour and taste. Ran-
cidity can not only deteriorate the appearance,
the intrinsic quality and the nutritional value of
cookies, or even produce deleterious substance,
leading to food poisoning of the customers.
Auto-oxidation and photo-oxidation are two
main ways of fat oxidation, but photo-oxidation
rate is hundreds to thousands of times faster than
auto-oxidation.1,2 The absorption of light depends
on the substance called photosensitizer. If the fat

* Correspondence to: L.-X. Lu, Department of Packaging Engineering, Jiangnan University, 1800 Lihu Load, Wuxi, Jiangsu
214122, China.
Email: lulx@jiangnan.edu.cn

Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Packaging Technology
and Science
contains photosensitizer, the photo-oxidation will
be triggered when the fat is exposed to light (either
visible or ultraviolet) directly.3
Cookies are usually displayed in shops under
illumination, with their packaging materials often
totally or partially transparent to show them to
consumers.
However, some investigations have showed that
exposure to light is hazardous for photo-oxidation
of food rich in fat.4 So the light from the fluorescent
lamps in the retail stores can trigger the oxidation
of cookies. Some studies indicated that wavelength
distribution from the light source and light inten-
sity are important parameters affecting fat oxida-
tion, and ultraviolet (UV) light, whose wavelength
is 200–260 nm, affected fat oxidation the most
among those kinds of light. Therefore, the light-
barrier property of packaging materials has a great
influence on the shelf life of food rich in fat when
the temperature, relative humidity and oxygen
concentration are identical in the package.5 At
present, research on photo-oxidation of fat-rich
food is mainly on meat, cheese and some fried
food,4,5 while similar research on cookies is
limited.
It is pointed out that an efficient way to improve
the light-barrier property of packaging materials
is to add UV stabilizers or UV absorbers into the
packaging materials,6 even including transparent
packaging films. Using some metallized packag-
ing film is also effectual to slow down fat photo-
oxidation.7
The aims of this study were: a) to investigate the
effect of UV-light illumination on photo-oxidation
rate in unpacked cookies; b) to estimate the abili-
ties of packaging materials of different light-barrier
properties to protect cookies from fat oxidation;
and c) to develop a relationship between the fat
photo-oxidation rates of the cookies and UV-light
Table 1. Characteristics of the packaging films
Thickness
Film (mm)
PET/ONY/PE, semitransparent 170
ONY/PE, transparent 125
BOPP/vmCPP, almost opaque 45
Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
L.-X. LU AND F. XU
illumination, and to predict the shelf life of cookies
based on the oxide index.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Cookie samples
Baked high-fat-containing (23.5% fat, vegetable
shortening) milk cookies were supplied by a food
manufacturer (Nabisco Food Co. Ltd., Suzhou,
China) as part of its standard production. The
cookies analysed were all randomly sampled from
the same batch of product in order to maintain
homogeneity, which was sent to the laboratory as
soon as they were packed with a weight of 100 g.
Packaging materials
Specifications of the packaging materials evalu-
ated were given in Table 1. Three packaging films
were cut into 540 × 240 mm, respectively, which
was polyethylene terephthalate/oriented nylon/
polyethylene (PET/ONY/PE, 170 mm, semitrans-
parent; Shengda Co. Ltd., Jiangsu, China), oriented
nylon/polyethylene (ONY/PE, 125 mm, transpar-
ent; Shengda Co. Ltd., Jiangsu, China) and bi-
oriented polypropylene/vacuuming aluminized
casting polypropylene (BOPP/vmCPP, 45 mm,
opaque; Zijiang Colour Printing, Shanghai,
China). A DQB-360W multifunctional modified-
atmosphere packaging machine (Qingpa Food
Packaging Machine Co. Ltd., Shanghai, China)
was used to pack the cookie samples with the
chosen films with a gas composition in the pack-
ages the same as atmospheric composition, leaving
out of account the effect of original oxygen
OTR WVTR Rate of UV-light
(cm3/m2⋅d⋅0.1 MPa) (g/m2⋅d) transmission (%)
37.18 1.81 42.9
21.08 3.04 85.7
1.49 0.81 7.1
108 Packag. Technol. Sci. 2009; 22: 107–113
DOI: 10.1002/pts
PHOTO-OXIDATION AND SHELF LIFE OF COOKIES
Figure 1. Packs with different UV-light transparency films
(1) PET/ONY/PE; (2) ONY/PE; and (3) BOPP/vmCPP.
concentration on rate of fat oxidation. The shapes
of packs are showed in Figure 1.
Oxygen transmission rate (OTR) and water
vapour transmission rate (WVTR). The OTR and
WVTR measurements on films were performed
using a BTY-B1 gas property measurement (Lab-
think Co., Ltd., Jinan, China) according to GB/T
1038-20008 and TSY-T water vapour transmission
measurement (Labthink Co., Ltd.) according to the
GB1037-19889 respectively. The data is showed in
Table 1.
Light transmission of the packaging film. Packs
made by films of different light-barrier property
were placed into the PQX-330D programmable
climate-regulating chamber (Southeast Instrument
Co. Ltd., Ningbo, China) that set light illumination
2, in which the UV-light illumination was 1.6 mW/
cm2, measuring the UV-light illumination outside
and inside of these packs using a ZDZ-1 UV power
meter (Jiading Xuelian Instrument Plant, Shang-
hai, China) and calculating the rates of UV-light
transmission of packaging films (Table 1).
Experimental condition
Ten batches (100 g/batch) samples of cookies were
placed in the PQX-330D multi-section program-
Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Packaging Technology
and Science
mable climate-regulating chamber for accelerated
experiments for about 65 days, with a temperature
and the relative humidity (RH) of 40°C and 50%,
respectively, as this RH condition had the less
influence on fat oxidation rate. The illumination of
the UV light was 0.3 (corresponding to no light),
1.9 and 9.5 mW/cm2, which were similar to the UV-
light intensity on the supermarket shelves, and
that under ultra-strong light, respectively.
Meanwhile, the same batch of cookies was
packed with ONY/PE, PET/ONY/PE and BOPP/
vmCPP, respectively for accelerated experiments
under the same temperature and RH and a UV-
light intensity of 1.9 mW/cm2 for more than 40
days.
Experimental methods
Both the acid value (AV) and the peroxide value
(POV) were main indicators that valuate the fat
oxidative rancidity. According to the GB7100-2003
and GB/T5009-2003,10–12 AV and POV were mea-
sured by chemical titration method and spectro-
photometry using V-1100 spectrophotometer
(MAPADA Instruments Co. Ltd., Shanghai, China),
respectively. Compared with these two measure
methods, the result of the latter was more accurate
and the amount of samples was less than the
former. Meanwhile, as it indicated the quantity of
peroxide during fat oxidation more directly, the
POV was chosen as characteristic index of cookies
oxidation in this study. A higher POV means more
peroxide is produced and the oxidation level is
also greater. But the POV will decrease as the oxi-
dation further increases because the peroxide
decomposes faster than it is produced.
The POV of each sample was measured five
times each pack and at an interval of every 3–7
days, with the initial value of each group mea-
sured before tests.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Change of POV of cookies in
accelerated test
The POV of six batches measured under the above
conditions were compared with each other, and
109 Packag. Technol. Sci. 2009; 22: 107–113
DOI: 10.1002/pts
Packaging Technology L.-X. LU AND F. XU

and Science
30

Ony/PE
25 PET/Ony/PE
BOPP/vmCPP

20

POV(meq/kg)
15

10

0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
Time(d)

Figure 2. Effect of UV-light illumination on the POV of Figure 3. Effect of packaging films of light-barrier property
cookies (unpacked). on the POV of cookies under UV-light illumination of
1.9 mW/cm2.

the data are showed in Figures 2 and 3. The POV

of cookies was in uptrend slowly during the
period of 50 days in the two batches of cookies, one
of which was under a UV-light illumination of
0.3 mW/cm2, and the other was packed with
almost opaque packaging material, arriving at the
maximum at about 45 days after initiation and
then became downtrend. But the maximum POV
measured in these conditions did not exceed the
threshold according to GB7100-2003.10 The reason
is that the speed of fat oxidation in dark-stored
cookies is very slow, and the peroxide decomposes
faster than it is produced as the oxidation degree
growing greater. Meanwhile, in the four batches of
cookies that were displayed in light, the increasing Figure 4. Colour degradation of cookies after 25 days
velocity of POV was obviously faster than two storage (1) cookies unpacked under 9.5 mW/cm2; (2)
batches of dark-stored cookies. The rate of oxida- cookies unpacked under 1.9 mW/cm2; (3) cookies packed
tion of cookies under illumination of 1.9 mW/cm2, with BOPP/vmCPP under 1.9 mW/cm2; and (4) cookies
which is similar with fluorescent light from retail unpacked under 0.3 mW/cm2.
stores, was more than twice as the batch of cookies
under illumination of 0.3 mW/cm2, reaching the
maximum at 39 days. In contrast, the shelf life Photo-oxidation rate of cookies
of an unpacked cookie sample is about 11
days under illumination of 9.5 mW/cm2 in this As a study on the grain food oxidation and
accelerating test. Besides, the colour of light- shelf life indicated that the vegetable oil-oxidized
exposed cookies faded after 25 days (Figure 4), rancidity mechanism conformed to the first
caused by fat photo-oxidation of it being exposed order kinetics of reaction,13 the experimental data
to strong UV light. (average POV) were changed into logarithms to

Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 110 Packag. Technol. Sci. 2009; 22: 107–113
DOI: 10.1002/pts
PHOTO-OXIDATION AND SHELF LIFE OF COOKIES Packaging Technology
and Science

Figure 5. Ln(POV) and store-time relationship fitted by Figure 6. Ln(POV) and store-time relationship fitted by
linear regression under different UV-light illumination. linear regression under different UV-light transparency of
packaging films.

Table 2. Ln(POV ) – t relationship fitted by linear regression and shelf life of cookies under
accelerated test

UV-light Shelf life of cookies

illumination Packaging Equation of under accelerated
(mW/cm2) films linear regression SSE R-square test (d)

0.3 unpacked Ln(POV ) = 0.0231t + 0.783 0.0813 0.9314 95

1.9 unpacked Ln(POV ) = 0.0617t + 1.051 0.3850 0.9216 32
9.5 unpacked Ln(POV ) = 0.175t + 1.096 0.4379 0.9294 11
1.9 ONY/PE Ln(POV ) = 0.0523t + 1.051 0.2106 0.9352 37
1.9 PET/ONY/PE Ln(POV ) = 0.0375t + 1.051 0.1076 0.9753 52
1.9 BOPP/vmCPP Ln(POV ) = 0.0269t + 0.872 0.0864 0.9192 76

show the relation between store time and POV
logarithms (Ln(POV)) according to the first order
kinetics of reaction (Figures 5 and 6).
As mentioned above, under favourable condi-
tions, fat oxidation in cookies followed a free
radical chemical process where the initially formed
hydroperoxides may further decompose, produc-
ing micro-molecule substance such as aldehyde,
ketone and others. At the same time, it represented
that the decrease in POV does not mean that the
oxidation process stopped, but that the data were
not suitable to indicate the oxidation degree. There-
fore, only the rising POV had been discussed in
experiment.
The results showed that the fat oxidation process
in the cookie conforms to the relation of first order
kinetics, which was:
Ln ( POV ) = kt + Ln ( POV0 ) (1)
where k is the fat photo-oxidation rate of cookies
(meq/kg d), t is the store time of cookies (d) and
POV0 is the initial POV of cookies (meq/kg).
Above two groups of contrast experiment data
were fitted with linear regression, and obtained
regression equations are shown in Table 2. As the
fitting regression equation significance examina-
tion shows, the linear degree of correlation is
remarkable.

Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 111 Packag. Technol. Sci. 2009; 22: 107–113
DOI: 10.1002/pts
Packaging Technology
and Science
The shelf life of cookies obtained from the accel-
erated test with a temperature of 40°C and RH of
50%, based the critical POV (19.7 meq/kg) referred
in GB7100-200310 (Table 2).
As a whole, the effects of UV-light illumination
and its transmission of packaging films on the
fat oxidation rate and shelf life of cookies were
notable. For unpacked cookies, the fat oxidation
rate increased with the increase of UV-light illu-
mination. Meanwhile, for packed cookies, the fat
oxidation rate decreased with the increase of
the light-barrier property of the packaging film.
Besides, under the same illumination of 1.9 mW/
cm2, the fat oxidation rate of packed cookies was
less than that of unpacked cookies.
Relationship between photo-oxidation
rate and UV-light illumination
In the further analysis of the influence on rate con-
stants of fat oxidation by UV-light illumination, it
was pointed out in this paper that the photo-
oxidation rate of the cookies was in a linear cor-
relation with the UV-light intensity. The
mathematical equation is expressed as:
k = 0.01567S + 0.02769 (2)
where S is the UV-light illumination (mW/cm2)
irradiated to the surface of cookies. The coefficient
of multiple determinations (R-square value) of the
fitting equation is 0.986 and the sum of squared
error (SSE) is 0.002.
On the condition of accelerated tests, the shelf
life of the POV based on illumination could be
expressed as:
Ln ( POVc ) − Ln ( POV0 )
tS = (3)
0.01567S + 0.02769
where tS is the shelf life of cookies based on the
POV (d); POVc is the critical POV of the qualified
cookies based on the national standards of cookies
(meq/kg). The shelf-life-based oxide index under
the same temperature, RH condition, but different
UV-light illumination, could be estimated based on
this equation.
Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
L.-X. LU AND F. XU
CONCLUSIONS
The UV-light led fat photo-oxidation in cookies to
be vigorous and shorter in their shelf life. Data
performed in this study showed that the shelf life
of cookies which were packed with high light-
barrier property or placed on somewhere without
light was twice or three times more than the same
samples packed with semitransparent or transpar-
ent packaging materials or displayed under light.
The barrier property of packaging materials which
obstructs light transmission through the packag-
ing material in the short wavelength range (UV
light for instance) was important to prevent cookies
from photo-oxidation. So it is important to select
appropriate packaging films for the cookies to
retard fat photo-oxidation.
Besides, a linear relationship between the fat
photo-oxidation rate of the cookies and UV-light
illumination was proposed, which can predict the
shelf life based oxide index under the same tem-
perature, RH but different UV-light illumination.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This project was financially supported by the key Lab
of Printing and Packaging Material at Beijing Institute
of Graphic Communication, Beijing, China.
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