Shelf life of packaged foods

We know that the food shelf life refers to the time that elapses between its production and packaging and the point at which it loses its physicochemical and / or organoleptic properties, that mean, its deterioration and its safety for consumers.

Several elements intervene in the shelf life foodstuff, for example: quality and freshness of the raw material, the composition and recipe, that mean, the additives used, the water activity, the total acidity and pH value it contains, the oxidation and reduction of the volume and the oxygen. In addition, the shelf life of packaged foodstuff will also depend on the type of container that contains it and its adequate storage at room and temperature.

There are several methods to determine the shelf life of a food: challenge test, predictive microbiology, accelerate shelf life tests … and the most accurate is the real-time study with the direct method.

In the same way as food, the shelf life of food packaging will depend on the use of a good raw material for its manufacture, and on how it is structured by layer to provide a good protective barrier. This, in addition to the quality of the food, whether processed or not, will influence on the atmosphere inside the container that contains foodstuff and directly lengthen or shorten the shelf life.

Each polymeric material (plastic material) has a different permeability to gases, it will allow a certain amount of gas to pass through, which will depend on time, the size of the container and the composition of the plastic. The more barrier to gases, the less permeable the container will be, so that fewer external agents can pass through the container, such as oxygen that promotes oxidation, dehydration and alteration of the organoleptic and / or physicochemical properties of the product containing.

At COPACK we are demanding and meticulous in choosing our raw material suppliers and therefore our packaging is safe and with a good quality. The quality of the packaging that we supply to our customers makes that they trust for COPACK brand.

COPAK envases activos makes its long experience in food packaging available to its customers.