Analysis and modelling of wicking through carton liquid packaging

One of the more important issues in carton liquid packaging systems is the wicking of liquid content through the carton (usually coated with polymeric films) packaging. A suitable carton packaging for liquid content should have slow rate of wicking to provide satisfactorily long shelf life of the packaged product. In this study, the phenomenon of wicking of various liquid products, through coated carton packaging, was investigated. Thus, methods for the analysis of wicking through carton packaging had been developed. Mathematical models relating the rate of wicking to the physical-chemical properties of the liquid content and of the carton board were proposed. Model parameters for a widely used carton packaging material were obtained based on experimental data. The models obtained were proven capable of giving reliable correlation of the rate of wicking to the physical-chemical parameter of the liquid content and of the coated carton packaging.