plastic packages for personal care products: evaluation of light barrier properties

The use of transparent packages has great marketing appeal since they allow consumers to actually see the product they wish to buy. However, the light that passes through the packaging material may catalyze oxidation reactions in photosensitive products and reduce their shelf life. The use of UV absorbers in packages for personal care products is an increasing tendency in the market due to growing consumer preference for more natural, non-additive products. UV absorbers prevent photo-degradation of the product as a result of the UV light barrier properties of the packaging, which protect the product against UV rays in the wavelength range of 200-380 nm. Although a number of studies indicate the need for the use of UV absorbers, they do not mention any technical reference data that could be used as quality parameters for packaging systems. Therefore, the objective of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of UV absorbers as light barriers in plastic packages of personal care products in order to generate technical data required to establish specifications for these packaging systems.