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The Use Of Nitrogen Membrane Generators In The Food Industry

By Tammie Caldwell


Whenever a person visits a grocery store, they will always find packaged foods that are fresh and ready to eat. What they may not realize is that this is possible due the operation of nitrogen membrane generators that are used in the food industry. The use of this equipment enables companies to accomplish their goal of having products stay fresh long enough so that they can reach stores across the country.

One can tell how fresh a food is by the color, flavor, and aroma of it. If these three factors are not in place, a person will not buy the product because it is not appetizing. Also, one has to be careful of getting sick due to products that are not well preserved for a reasonable amount of time. This can cause companies to lose money and customers to lose faith in the companies if there are no solutions.

To make sure that the customer is satisfied, the companies make use of various processes in order to create the best environment for the quality of the food to be maintained. To do this, there has to be a way to prevent oxygen from interacting with the natural chemicals found in food. This interaction is known as oxidation, which can be seen when cut fruits like apples turn brown.

This is one of the reasons why nitrogen is used in the packaging of food. It does not change the color, flavor or aroma of the food the way oxygen would. It also helps to minimize the bacterial growth that easily occurs in food. This is due to the fact that nitrogen is an inert gas and will not react with other chemicals in edible products.

Oxidation does not only affect the color of the food in question, but it also interacts with natural oils creating rancidity. To prevent this process from taking place, nitrogen blanketing is used to stop the process of rancidity which helps to maintain the freshness of the product. Items with naturally occurring oils in them include chips and other snack foods that have a significant amount of oil.

The nitrogen used must also be of a quality that is compatible with food. There is an industry standard which suppliers have to comply with in order to be able to use this gas in the packaging of food. The purity level of the nitrogen is also important and depending on the food can range from 95% to 99.9% purity. An oxygen meter is used by companies to measure the minimum amount of oxygen in the package that can remain without spoilage to determine how pure the nitrogen should be.

When this level of purity has been decided, a company can then choose the type of system they will use to package their food item. Membrane technology is one of the systems used to create a certain level of purity which is usually below 98%. This is usually good enough for certain types of foods depending on what the company needs.

By having their products up to standard, companies in the food industry can provide the best service to their customers. Their products can be taken over long distances of several miles and the quality will remain the same. As a result, the customer can have convenience items that they can take with them on the go, knowing that they will last for a specific amount of time.




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