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

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 2/4 used as a filler gas because of its low solubility in water and lipid compared with that of carbon dioxide, thus preventing pack collapse. Carbon dioxide Carbon dioxide is the major anti-microbial factor in MAP but many factors contribute to its real effectiveness. Gas concentration, storage temperature and especially the original population of microorganisms inside the product can affect the validity of the CO2 option....

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 3/4 more efficiency and an innovative quick and easy way for mixtures management, all in a compact case. The Gas Blender 100 works with 3 components gas mixtures, each gas media connected to a dedicated instrument channel for which MCQ guarantees high accuracy (1.0% of set point), high repeatability (0.16% of reading value) and the fastest response time for set point value change (50ms) now available in the market. The instrument...

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 4/4 References [1] M. García-Esteban, D. Ansorena and I. Astiasarán, Comparison of modified atmosphere packaging and vacuum packaging for long period storage of dry-cured ham: effects on colour, texture and microbiological quality – Meat Sci 67, 1 (2004) 57-63. [2] L. Martínez, D. Djenane, I. Cilla, J. A. Beltrán and P. Roncalés, Effect of different concentrations of carbon dioxide and low concentration of carbon monoxide on the...