Anti-fog additives

Food packaging benefits from anti-fogging additives by maintaining its clarity and transparency so the contents can be clearly seen by the consumer at the point of sale. By adding anti-fogging additives to food packaging films, condensed water droplets are spread into a thin transparent layer rather than droplets. In general, food packaging only requires short-term anti-fogging performance that lasts the lifetime of the packaged food. 

We were approached by a polypropylene film manufacturer, supplying packaging for refrigerated salads in supermarkets. Using an alternative glycerol based anti-fog the supplier found that performance under cold fog conditions was especially poor, and that their customers were complaining about poor sales due to condensation on the packaging. Fog formation can mislead customers into believing that products have been on display for a long time or that the food is past is expiry date. 

We supplied the manufacturer with Atmer 7373, a specially formulated anti-fog for polypropylene. When added at 3.75%, Atmer 7373 dramatically reduced fogging on the packaging. Over 95% of packages showed complete clarity and no droplet build up, with water droplets spread evenly in a continuous and transparent layer across the film. 

Different climates as well as multi-layer films are some considerations that need to be taken into account when deciding on which additive and addition level to use.

Using anti-fogging additives in agricultural films offer benefits such as:

• Improved light transmission resulting in higher plant growth rates, higher crop yield per plant and earlier crop maturity
• Reduced burning of plants and crop spoilage
• Reduced constant water dripping