Consumers benefit from Modified Atmosphere Packaging (MAP) every day. In a supermarket, we expect to find a wide variety of fresh food; fresh bread, meat, poultry, pasta and fruit and vegetables as well as dried food and snacks such as milk powder, crisps and nuts. Many of us also turn to ready-meals which fit our busy lifestyles.

All of these foods are preserved using Modified Atmosphere Packaging to ensure that they do not spoil before they reach our homes. Foods begin to deteriorate as soon as they are picked or prepared for packaging so MAP is used to extend the shelf life of a food product by replacing the atmospheric air inside a package with a protective gas mix. The gas in the package is chosen specifically to ensure that the food will stay fresh for as long as possible. For example, nitrogen, due to its dry and inert qualities, is often used to replace oxygen in food packaging as oxygen causes food spoilage and is detrimental to food shelf life.

Using Nitrogen for MAP

Nitrogen is inert, behaves neutrally with foods and does not contribute to their decomposition process. It can therefore be used to successfully drive out oxygen from food packaging. Furthermore, due to its water solubility and low fat, it also prevents a collapse of food packaging.

Benefits

• Extended Shelf life
• Increased export opportunities to geographic areas which take longer to reach
• Preservation of nutritional value, flavour, taste, aroma and texture

Nitrogen Supply for MAP

Traditionally, nitrogen has been supplied via high pressure cylinders or in bulk storage containers. Such methods of supply are not ideal due to the need for repeated deliveries, safe storage space, purity monitoring, leak-checks and staff safety training.

The modern nitrogen supply solution, a nitrogen gas generator, is much more user-friendly.  Installed on site and generating gas on demand, a nitrogen gas generator eliminates the need for repeated deliveries and gas cylinder changeovers, with none of the health and safety risks of pressurized gas or liquid storage. The Peak Gas Generation i-Flow industrial nitrogen generator is amongst the best in its class of pressure swing adsorption (PSA) based nitrogen gas generator systems. Harnessing the latest air separation technologies, i-Flow delivers high quality, industrial grade nitrogen gas, at flow rates & purities that can meet the demands of any industry. The i-Flow nitrogen generator produces food grade nitrogen on an industrial scale and is ideally suited for MAP applications.

Sources

https://www.gasworld.com/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modified_atmosphere