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The effect of various packaging methods on kimchi quality was investigated in order to develop the packaging techniques for preventing commercial kimchi products from inflation and explosion, due to fermentative gas evolved during storage and distribution. Kimchi was packaged in different methods; 1) atmospheric packaging(AP), 2) check valve packaging(CV), 3) double packaging(DP), and 4) vacuum packaging(VP). The quality of kimchi during storage at l0℃ was evaluated in terms of gas composition, free volume, pH, titratable acidity color index and sensory properties. The gas composition inside packages showed different curves according to the packaging methods. Due to fermentative gas accumulation in both AP and CV, CO₂ concentration increased by 2 stepwise pattern, while O₂, concentration decreased exponentially. In DP, O₂ concentration remained constant, but CO₂ concentration increased by 2 stepwise pattern and then decreased. In contrast, VP produced low O₂ and high CO₂ concentrations only at the end of storage. The free volume in both AP and CV showed typical sigmoidal curves similar to CO₂ concentration changes. It remained constant in DP, but started to increase at the late stage of storage in VP. There was no significant effect of packaging methods on pH changes of kimchi. In titratable acidity, DP maintained relatively higher than others. Regarding to the color change of crushed kimchi juice in all packages, L and b values decreased exponentially but a value remained constant during storage. Color index(L-b/a) of crushed kimchi juice decreased exponentially and remained constant at the end of storage. The growth of lactic acid bacteria was VP, CV, AP, DP in increasing order. In sensory test, the sourness scores of DP were fairly higher than those of others, but the texture was not significantly affected by the packaging methods. The preference for kimchi showed VP$gt;AP, CV$gt;DP in order of score. In this study, it could be proposed to employ DP and VP method as the effective packaging techniques for preventing commercial kimchi products from inflation.
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