Get to Know Food Vacuum Packaging
Food vacuum packaging helps enterprises, producers and retailers to safely package the frozen foods.
Vacuum packaging(VP) and modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) can extend the shelf life of frozen foods through limiting the growth of microorganisms. However, in some cases, a type of bacteria called non-proteolytic Clostridium botulinum (C. botulinum) may grow under low oxygen conditions.
It is important that appropriate control measures must be in place to minimize the growing of this microbe and the risk of producing harmful toxins in VP/MAP frozen foods.
The primary function of vacuum packaging is to suck out and block the oxygen, so as to prevent food deterioration. The principle is that, the vacuum packaging is to suck out the oxygen of the packaging and the food cells to eliminate the "living environment" of microorganisms, so as to avoid food spoilage due to the microbial activities. Because most microorganisms, such as molds and yeasts, need oxygen to survive.
The experiment results show that: When the oxygen concentration in the packaging is ≤1%, the speed of microbial growth and reproduction will drop dramatically. And most microorganisms will be inhibited and stop reproducing when the oxygen concentration is ≤0.5%. But bearing in mind that vacuum packaging cannot inhibit the food spoilage and discoloration caused by the reproduction of anaerobic bacteria and enzyme reaction. Therefore, it’s required to be combined with other auxiliary methods, such as refrigerating, quick-freezing, dehydration, high temperature sterilization, irradiation sterilization, microwave sterilization, salt curing, etc.
Vacuum packaging can inhibit the microbial growth and reproduction, since the oxygen condition that microorganisms attached to the surface of food need to survive will be eliminated by vacuum packaging.
Vacuum oxygen removal not only inhibits the microbial growth and reproduction, but importantly prevent the food oxidation. Because the fatty foods contain a lot of unsaturated fatty acids, which is easily oxidized and resulted in bad taste and deterioration. Besides, vitamins A and C will be loss due to oxidation, and the unstable substance in food coloring will be also oxidized and cause food discoloration. So, that’s why oxygen removal is an effective way to prevent food spoilage.
Vacuum packaging can generally be divided into several forms such as co-extruded vacuum pouch, co-extruded stretch film, vacuum shrink bag, vacuum skin packaging and so on, of which, the co-extruded vacuum pouch/film are the most widely used.
Co-extruded vacuum packaging is safe and reliable, convenient to use and with small investment and area coverage.
Advantages of vacuum packaging
Easy to use.The vacuum pouch can be easily and safely opened. When eating, the food is ready to be served without heating.
Easy to ship and store. The vacuum pouch is lightweight and foldable, taking small space and saving the shipping and storage cost. Due to the lightweight and
Save energy. Because the packaging is lightweight and sterilized, the energy consumption of vacuum pouch is 30%-40% less than rigid packaging.
Long-term storage. Using vacuum package for food is no need to be refrigerated or froze, with stable shelf life,comparable to metal and easy to long-term use.
Structure & Features of the Co-extruded Vacuum Pouch
Product | Material Structure | Features |
Medium barrier vacuum pouch/film | PA/PE/PA/PE PE/PA/PE Medium barrier material PA is used as the barrier layer | It is the most widely used for long-term packaging in freeze storage or short-term packaging in cold storage. |
High barrier vacuum pouch/film | PA/PE/PA/EVOH/PA/PE | It’s suitable for a long-term packaging of fresh meat, processed meat, cheese, seafood and other products in cold storage. |
Medium barrier retort vacuum pouch/film | PA/PP/PA/PP | It’s suitable for product in retort application and high temperature sterilization, like spiced egg, dried tofu, chicken wing, etc. |
High barrier retort vacuum pouch/film | PA/PP/PA/EVOH/PA/PP | It’s suitable for product in retort application and high temperature sterilization. High barrier of EVOH significantly improves products’ shelf life |
