Nutritional medical products aid and support patients who require specialized nutrition due to illness, chronic diseases, recovery diets, or impaired digestion. Because of this need for heightened nutrition, many ingredients used in medical nutrition products may be extremely sensitive to oxidation. The nutritional components that provide benefit to these formulas can often include sensitive proteins, lipids, and micronutrients. Without proper protection from the environment, these sensitive ingredients have little chance of surviving their shelf life.
While proper formula design is critical to ensuring your product maintains its nutritional value, safety, and efficacy, product packaging is just as important of a factor to consider.
This article will cover common causes of reduced shelf life in medical nutrition products, packaging’s role in maintaining quality, and the innovative packaging options Srlon has to offer medical nutrition manufacturers.
Understanding Shelf Life in Medical Nutrition Products
Simply put, shelf life is how long a product can sit on a shelf before it is no longer useable. More specifically, shelf life is the amount of time that a product maintains its declared nutritional profile, safety, sensory characteristics, and functionality while stored under specific conditions.
Medical nutrition products are often formulated with nutrients that:
- Proteins and amino acids, which are easily oxidized.
- Lipids, which are highly susceptible to rancidity.
- Vitamins, which are often light and oxygen-sensitive.
- Sensitive bioactives that degrade in poor environmental conditions.
If these sensitive ingredients begin to degrade due to poor packaging, the product will become ineffective long before the printed sell by date. Along with risking safety and efficacy of the end product, products that do not meet their labeled shelf life can create cost and regulatory burdens for manufacturers.
Oxidation Risk
Oxidation is one of the most significant factors that will limit shelf life of your product. Oxygen exposure can cause:
- Loss of sensitive fatty acids
- Degradation of vitamins A, C, and E
- Off taste, odor, and color
- Loss of efficacy
Liquids & semi liquids are at a higher risk for oxidation as their larger surface area is exposed to more oxygen. Oxygen can enter your product through the package wall, closure, headspace, or a combination of all three. Even small amounts of oxygen ingressing into your product over time can have major impacts on shelf life.
Role of Packaging in Controlling Oxidation
Packaging can help minimize oxygen exposure by:
- Limiting oxygen transmission through the package wall
- Limit oxygen ingress through closure seals
- Minimize headspace
Surprisingly, many of these concepts have been implemented in the food packaging industry years ago. The need for high oxygen barrier bottles in the food industry is not new. For example, many sauce manufacturers need their product to last 9-12 months on the shelf without any signs of oxidation.
This has allowed companies within the food packaging industry to perfect their PP bottle for sauce designs years ago. When translated over to medical nutrition, these high performing bottles offer excellent oxygen barrier properties while still meeting all material compatibility standards.
Common Medical Nutrition Packaging Materials
Some common packaging materials used for medical nutrition products include:
- PP Bottles
- PET Containers
- Multilayer plastic packaging
- Flexible pouches with barrier films
As you can see these packages styles use many of the same materials. However, the decision on what material to use is more than just picking a bottle off the shelf. Below we will go over why these decisions are so important.
Why Material Selection Is a Strategic Decision
The material you choose for your product package can help you control shelf life, meet regulatory requirements, and provide safety for your end-user. When properly formulated PP is extremely resistant to chemicals found within your product. PP also offers low migration risk, and is easily adapted to many sensitive product formulas.
By using multiple materials that excel at one property you can create a high performing package with less wall weight. An example of Srlon’s multilayer bottle that provides an oxygen barrier 10x better.
Understanding Barrier Properties and Oxygen Permeability
When we talk about barrier properties, we are mainly referring to two properties.
- Oxygen Transmission Rate (OTR)
- Moisture Vapor Transmission Rate (MVTR)
The lower these numbers are the better your package is at preventing oxygen and moisture from entering your package. Improving the barrier properties of your package, even by a small amount can have large impacts on the shelf life of your medical nutrition product.
Multilayer allows for you to choose the materials that perform the best task while keeping overall wall thickness low. Other benefits of multilayer packages include UV protection, improved structural integrity, and better compatibility with sensitive ingredients.
Storage and Transport: Extending Shelf Life Beyond the Factory
Packaging is only useful if it can keep your product protected from the time it’s manufactured until it’s used. Storage and transport can play a large factor in the shelf life of your product.
During storage and transport, products can be exposed to:
- Temperature changes
- Humidity
- Stress/Vibration
- Long Distance Travel (sometimes across countries/world)
If your package doesn’t have the wall strength to support these elements your product could be at risk. Poorly designed seals, brittle materials, and weak walls can cause leaking, contamination, and oxygen ingress. Ensuring your package is designed to withstand storage and transport conditions is vital to ensuring your product’s shelf life isn’t reduced.
Environmental Protection Through Smart Packaging Design
In addition to oxygen exposure, packages should help protect your product from:
- Light
- Bacteria and Microbes
- Physical Damage
- Loss of efficiency during administration
Features such as opaque coloring, UV protection, tamper evident/patient cuff closures, and hygienic dispensing can help provide that protection. Many medical nutrition products are used in clinical applications where exposure to bacteria can put patients at risk. By providing packages with these features you can help ensure that your products don’t fall victim to these environmental factors.
Medical Nutrition Product Packaging Solutions
Advancements in medical packaging have come a long way from basic cups and caps. Solutions we offer medical nutrition manufacturers include:
- Multilayer High Barrier Bottles
- Oxygen Scavenging layers
- Advanced closure and sealing options
Many of these technologies come from the need for high barrier bottles in the food industry. As mentioned before, PP bottle for sauce products require a long shelf life while maintaining the integrity and flavor of the product. Srlon has taken these design concepts and applied them to medical grade materials to create packages that provide better performance without unnecessary bulk.
Regulatory Needs and Designing Sustainable Packages That Maintain Shelf Life for Medical Nutrition Products
Not only does your package need to keep your product up to quality standards, but it also needs to meet any regulatory requirements put forth by the appropriate agencies.
Packages should help you maintain the quality and stability of your product throughout its shelf life. Choosing packaging materials and suppliers that have already proven their compliance will decrease your risk of approval problems and help you hit the ground running in new markets.
We understand the need for sustainable packaging. However, that shouldn’t come at the cost of your products shelf life. Reducing material, improving recyclability, and maintaining barrier properties can be difficult. Utilizing PP based and multilayer packages can help you hit your sustainability goals.
Conclusion
Packaging has come a long way to just being a place to store your product. Package design should be used as a tool to help prolong shelf life and ensure product quality. Controlling oxidation and protecting your products from the stresses of storage and transport are just some of the ways packaging can help you.
Srlon has years of experience in providing high barrier packaging solutions to the food and other industries. Medical nutrition products can benefit from these designs that allow you to maintain the highest quality of your product.
FAQ
1: What are some packaging factors that could affect the shelf life of my medical nutrition product?
Oxygen and moisture transmission rates, headspace, package/seal integrity, and light protection can all play a role in the shelf life of your product.
2: How do material choices affect my product’s shelf life?
Materials have different oxygen and moisture barrier properties. Material also breaks down over time at different rates.
3: Can innovative packaging help prolong the shelf life of my medical nutrition product?
Yes! Improved barrier properties, multi-layer packaging, and innovative packaging technology can slow down the rate that your product degrades.
4: How does packaging help my product maintain its nutritional integrity?
Medical nutrition product packaging can help protect your products from environmental factors such as air, humidity, light, and bacteria.
5: How can the packaging of medical nutrition products be made safe and effective in terms of regulation?
Packaging shall be able to comply with food-contact safety, migration restrictions, labeling, quality documentation expectations.
6: What effects do the permeability and barrier properties of the packaging have on the shelf life of the medical nutrition products?
Reduced permeability decreases oxygen and moisture entry, and this has a direct effect of slowing oxidation and loss of nutrients, which increases shelf life.
