A Polyethylene Base Moisture Activating Oxygen Scavenging Film Co-Extruded with Tea Polyphenols-β-Cyclodextrin Inclusion Complex

Antioxidant packaging is an effective method to protect oxygen-sensitive food from oxidation. In order to concurrently obtain a storage stability and excellent oxygen scavenging of antioxidant film for the high moisture food, a moisture activating oxygen scavenging film was prepared by using tea polyphenols as the oxygen scavenger. The moisture activating function was achieved by introducing the β-cyclodextrin embedding technology, and the tea polyphenols–β-cyclodextrin inclusion complex was co-extruded with low-density polyethylene (LDPE) to improve the storage stability. The results indicate that the tea polyphenols is well embedded by β-cyclodextrin according to the Fourier transform infrared spectra (FT-IR), and a relatively homogeneous dispersion of oxygen scavenger is observed while the oxygen scavenger content is less than 5%. The oxygen scavenging increases with the increase of oxygen scavenger from 1% to 5%, and a maximal oxygen absorption of 0.0150 mol/m2 is exhibited at oxygen scavenger content value of 5%. Then, the oxygen scavenging significantly decrease under the oxygen scavenger content of 7% and 10%. Moreover, the oxygen scavenging amount sharply increase after steeping in water or storage in extremely high humidity of RH 84% while the oxygen scavenging is restrained under RH 32–75%, indicating that the moisture activating oxygen scavenging is functioning. The oxygen scavenging is obvious restrained under low temperature of 4 °C while the oxygen scavenging is activated at 23 °C and 50 °C with similar oxygen scavenging amount. Besides, both of the tensile and heat-sealing strength deteriorative with the increase of oxygen scavenger content, while they are acceptable at oxygen scavenger content of 5%. Finally, the prepared oxygen scavenging film was used for packaging orange juice and received a good antioxidant effect. Thus, the acquired moisture activating oxygen scavenging film has a good stability under regular storage condition, and shows a potentially application for oxygen-sensitive food with high moisture content.