Food-grade gas has become critical in the manufacture of food and beverages – especially when it comes to extending shelf life.
Industrial gas plays a critical role in the manufacturing of food and beverages, helping to keep food fresher for longer, which in turn creates a better value proposition for a manufacturer.
One company that specialises in these gases is Supagas, a company that has worked in this space since its inception in 1968 and continues to work with a range of food and beverage manufacturers.
George Elhlou, national specialty gases manager at Supagas, said the company incorporates all specialised gas applications across the industry on the back of continued development in the space.
“We are talking about applications which are scientific based,” said Elhlou, “such as research and development at universities and research facilities, and we also look after modified atmosphere packaging for food.”
One area of particular focus for the company is Modified Atmosphere Packaging (MAP). MAP keeps food fresher for longer by sealing the product in its packaging with a gas mix that is designed to slow down the decaying process.
“A lot of products without Modified Atmosphere Packaging will obviously spoil quicker due to oxygen degradation. It’s not a one approach fits all. But MAP tends to be a combination of CO2, nitrogen, and oxygen mixtures, and each product determines the mixture of gases needed,” said Elhlou.
MAP machines are used to flush oxygen out of packaging and inject the agreed upon gas mix before sealing, ensuring a longer shelf life and in turn giving a manufacturer the opportunity to look at markets further abroad.
Each product’s gas composition is worked out between Supagas and its clients prior to its application, with Supagas ensuring the mix is the best possible solution.
“These are specific food packaging machines and there are different types and designs for different products,” said Elhlou.
“The most common machine for this is tray sealing, but it could be in any form.
“A bag of potato chips is a great example. Typically, they will most likely get flushed with pure nitrogen, expelling the oxygen, which is what makes it spoil.”
However, red meat, for example, requires some level of oxygen in its MAP.
“We would have mixtures which include oxygen. The oxygen is used for maintaining the red pigmentation of the meat,” said Elhlou.
This method means the product remains pleasing to the consumer’s eye and mitigates the risk of the product not selling prior to its expiry dates.
As critical as industrial gases are in the production process, the evolution of the technology has not required much updating over the years.
“It’s not about ground-breaking technology, not a lot has changed in that regard,” said Elhlou.
“Nitrogen and CO2 are the dominant gases used. It’s about ensuring we do enough experimental work with the client to determine what is the most efficient mixture for their product.”
Meanwhile, David Petroff, national industrial bulk manager at Supagas, said customers contacted Supagas not just for its expertise in gas applications but also for its ability to help the company grow.
“One of our critical roles is to work with them to pick the best type of solution for them,” he said.“If you can imagine a customer has an idea of what they want but we help them sharpen the focus onto what will work best for them.
“The concept of small, medium and large customers is very important to be able to pick the appropriate size of tanks, for example, or packages they use, to do gas flushing, tray sealing, mat packaging, carbonation and so forth.”
Supagas also supports companies of any size, from small to large manufacturers, while also helping clients when the product gains a high level of success.
“Some customers start off much smaller. For example, we have a beverage client that started off in a small shed. It’s important you don’t offer a bulk system to someone who has just started out,” said Petroff.
“Instead, we supplied the client with smaller carbon dioxide cylinders to help with the carbonation process.”
Petroff said the client’s product became ‘wildly successful’ in the market and as a result the company moved to a larger factory and contacted Supagas to help them figure out what new gas applications and mixes would be needed for expansion.
“We supplied them with larger cylinders and their maturity grew as they became more successful with their drinks, so they needed more production lines,” said Petroff.
“It’s important that you size something that not only suits the client’s budget, but also what they are trying to achieve. But then you might get to a point where cylinders aren’t efficient or appropriate for the output and that’s where bulk systems come into the equation.”
On the flip side of the coin, some Supagas clients have remained the same size by choice and the gas experts work with them to make sure they always have the most efficient gas applications available.
“There are small to medium enterprises who want to stay at that size and are reluctant to grow into something that isn’t manageable, so our job is to help make sure they are competitive in the market,” said Petroff.
“We have to be efficiency minded; that is one of the primary reason’s clients come to us.”
Petroff said, until recently there wasn’t always a strong emphasis on the shelf life of food and beverage products, but globalisation and more export markets means this feature is critical for companies looking to expand its products into foreign markets.
“As a consumer you want something that looks and is fresh,” he said. “When things like meat or potato chips, for example, are being packaged and distributed domestically, it isn’t so critical. But if any company wants to export something then shelf life needs to be extended to six or even 12 months because it may not get on the shelf for three months.”
Petroff said it was all about making sure the product remained in the best possible condition to entice consumers and mitigate the risk of product recalls when a product is out of date or spoiled.
“There has always been some confusion in the market about use-by dates and best-before dates,” said Petroff.
“Use-by dates are generally about when the product is expected to spoil such as becoming mouldy and so on. Whereas best before is more about a recommended time but if you miss it, you might still be ok to consume the item.”
The use-by and best-before dates are calculated by the manufacturer after a series of trials and experiments determine the best window of time for a product to remain viable on the shelf.
“This is crucial in being able to understand the shelf life of the product, because no one wants a recall, so they need to be pretty spot on with those dates,” said Petroff.
“It’s about how much gas flushing they need to do before sealing, so that’s where we come in to help them come up with the best gas mixture for them. And we do this across multiple sectors to help companies make sure their product meets customer expectations.”
Elhlou said Supagas has a strong presence in the rapidly growing ready meals market, where further growth is expected in the coming years.
“In terms of numbers, it’s hard to get that data, but in terms of growth, ready-to-eat meals have been one of the bigger growing markets for volume,” he said.
As a result of rapid growth, as Elhlou has already mentioned, manufacturers require upgrades and overhauls of existing industrial gas applications, which have added importance for ready meal products.
Petroff believes the COVID-19 pandemic, and advancements in packaging technology, have played big roles in the growth of the ready meals market.
The trick for ready meals is keeping them fresh in pack for as long as possible without freezing them, Petroff said.
“These days when these meals are packaged and frozen, they are being snap frozen and everything gets locked in and it will last for months, but when you have ready-to-eat meals, they have a much shorter shelf life,” he said.
“The gas helps preserve the food as long as possible without freezing. The idea is you open it, heat it up a little and then you have a fresh meal.”
Petroff said companies in the ready meal space were ideally placed to go from starting out to good growth by improving efficiency in packaging and extending shelf life.
The same concept rings true across the food and beverage sector. Extending product shelf life through the correct application of industrial gases and packaging bring with it a range of positive outcomes, said Petroff.