The use of high precision gas mixtures for Modified Atmosphere Packaging (MAP)0 pages

MCQ Gas Blender 100 Series
High Performance Gas flow Dilutor & Gas flow Mixing System with User Interface
www.mcqinst.com Gas Blender 100 Series Application Note 1/4
Introduction
What is MAP?
The commerce globalization and the constantly increasing
demand for food pushed in recent years the goods shelf life
improvement to become a central research topic developed
world wide. Interaction between oxygen and food usually
causes chemical oxidation and aerobic microorganisms
growth, the major causes of food spoilage. Chilling the
goods can help in slowing the deterioration of stored foods
but it’s the oxygen concentration reduction in the
atmosphere surrounding the product that considerably
increases the shelf-life. The oxygen reduction and others
atmosphere modifications are performed by techniques as
known as Modified Atmosphere Packaging (MAP).
MAP in constant development
MAP techniques are now the major packaging method used
on a wide range of fresh or chilled foods (more detailed
information will be discussed further). Even if the majority of
Application Note
products share the same spoilage causes, each food has its
own optimal MAP configuration that maximizes the shelf life
enhancement. This is the main reason that leads the
scientific community to a constant research for new and
more refined solutions. The optimization of MAP processes
mostly relies on the atmosphere surrounding the foods,
focusing today research on different gas mixtures
experimentation.
MCQ solution
MAP development lab-applications thus require working
with high precision gas mixtures and quick and easy mixture
management methods. For all these applications, MCQ
proposes the use of the Gas Blender 100, an instrument
specificcaly designed for in lab experimentation that allow
the user to create three component dynamic gas mixtures
and that offers an intuitive way to manage them with the
MCQ Gas Mixer Manager software.
The use of high precision gas mixtures for
Modified Atmosphere Packaging (MAP).
An MCQ Gas Blender 100 Series Application
MCQ Gas Blender 100 Series
Map Applications
Major MAP applications regard the storage and quality
preservation of fresh and cured meat [1-3], seafood
products [4-6], fruits and vegetables [7-10] and other
generic foods [11-16]. The products are usually minimally
processed thus the MAP solves the main role in their shelf
life extension. The common modified atmospheres are
composed by oxygen, nitrogen and carbon dioxide mixed
together in different proportions depending on the product
and the needs of manufacturer and the consumer. Less
common but still used are those applications that involve
carbon monoxide [2,17,18], nitric oxide [19] and nitrous
oxide [20,21] as modified atmosphere gaseous
components.