Weight loss of coffee cream in polystyrene packaging
Ľubomír Valík *, Monika Hrušková, Pavel Ačai a, Silvia Mošovská
Department of Nutrition and Food Quality Assessment, Institute of Food Science and Nutrition, Faculty of Chemical and Food Technology, Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava,
Radlinského 9, 812 37 Bratislava, Slovakia
a Department of Food Technology, Institute of Food Sciences and Nutrition, Faculty of Chemical and Food Technology, Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava, Radlinského 9, 812 37 Bratislava, Slovakia
E-mail: * lubomir.valik@stuba.sk
Abstract: This study aimed to quantify the weight loss of coffee cream (10% fat) packaged in 10 g and 5 g polystyrene (PS) tubes over 316 days. A total of 13,760 weight measurements were performed across four production batches. Significant linear dependence between the absolute weight of coffee cream and time was observed, with negative slopes of -0.009 g/d and -0.007 g/d, and R² values of 0.990 and 0.996 for 10 g and 5 g tubes, respectively. Considering the surface area of the PS tube without its aluminium lid, water vapour transmission rates were calculated as 3.34 ± 0.08 g/m²·d for 10 g tubes and 2.56 ± 0.07 g/m²·d for 5 g tubes. Time required to decrease the weight of the cream by 10% was 137.0 ± 3.0 days for 10 g fillings and 84.0 ± 1.9 days for 5 g fillings. Conversely, a loss of 1 g occurred over 110.7 ± 2.4 days and 144 ± 3.3 days in 10 g and 5 g tubes, respectively. These findings provide producers with an estimate of the excess amount of coffee cream needed to maintain the declared value in PS packaging material, depending on the intended shelf life.
Keywords: coffee cream, polystyrene packaging material, water vapour transmission, weight loss prediction
Acta Chimica Slovaca, Vol. 18, No. 1, 2025, pp. 59—64, DOI: 10.2478/acs-2025-0007