Preserving the delicate aroma or flavor attributes of packaged foods for increasingly longer periods of time is a quality concern for the food packaging industry. Many of the polymeric films and containers used in these applications exhibit interactions that can affect the integrity of the packaged food's aroma and flavor profile.

Impact Analytical has developed several analytical separation, isolation, and characterization techniques for identifying and resolving problems associated with these types of food packaging interactions including:

1. Cryofocus headspace-gas chromatography-mass specrometry affords a rapid comparative profiling of the volatiles being released from "good" and "bad" sample matrices, down to concentrations of 10 parts-per-billion (v/v).
2. Simultaneous steam distillation and extraction of large samples, followed by liquid chromatographic class separations have been developed for the characterization of low parts-per-billion and even parts-per-trillion concentrations of odorants in foods or containers.

Once the principal odorants in a packaging application have been characterized, quantified and their sensory threshold recognition concentration determined, it is possible to model or predict their effect on the shelf-life.