Ensuring food safety throughout the supply chain, including during packaging and distribution, is critical. Packaging these foods extends shelf life, protects against contamination, pest attacks, pilferage, rancidity, and various forms of spoilage and taste loss. It also facilitates safer transportation of the food, allowing for critical product information to be communicated on the packaging itself, such as nutritional facts, origin, and safe handling instructions, all of which benefit consumers.

Safety Imperatives

MAP plays a vital role in reducing foodborne illness risks and extending shelf life, making it essential to adhere to food safety regulations and guidelines, including labeling requirements and approved packaging materials. MAP technology can impact the sensory qualities of ready-to-eat foods, such as taste, texture, and appearance. Therefore, precise control of the packaging process is necessary to preserve these qualities and reduce the need for added preservatives.

Leak Testing

Proper leak testing is crucial to prevent unnecessary returns, loss of reputation, legal consequences, and business loss. For quality assurance, users can opt for sample or in-line testing solutions—based on CO₂ or a water bubble test. Reliable package leak detection systems are easy to operate and capable of detecting even the smallest leaks, with tests logged and documented digitally for customer assurance.

System Maintenance

From mixing gasses to introducing them into packaging, utmost care is required. A faulty mixture or leak can compromise product quality, leading to nutrient, taste, color, or structural degradation, and potential contamination by microorganisms. To ensure consumer safety, rigorous testing and maintenance are essential, requiring high-quality equipment and stringent hygiene standards. Inline gas analysis can monitor the modified atmosphere continuously to support this.

Tests

Once packaged, products must be tested for the correct gas composition and leaks. Only through this rigorous approach can the full benefits of MAP be realized, ensuring top-quality products reach consumers. Proper sanitation of MAP equipment is critical to prevent contamination, as improper handling can increase the risk of food waste. Careful consideration of these factors during packaging can mitigate such risks.

Gas Monitoring

Ambient air gas monitoring systems protect employees and ensure safe CO₂ use, which, though non-toxic, can be hazardous in confined spaces. Accumulations of CO₂ can displace oxygen, posing health risks as concentration increases. Monitoring systems with acoustic and visual alarms provide safety by alerting personnel when gas levels exceed safe limits. Controlled atmospheres are also used for ripening control, such as in chambers with ethylene.

Consumer Education

Educating consumers on safe handling and storage of MAP-ready foods is essential. Labels must provide critical information like ingredients, nutrition facts, expiry dates, and allergy warnings, empowering consumers to make informed decisions.

Nichrome MAP Solutions

If you’re seeking a thali packing machine, tray sealing machine, container sealing machine, nitrogen packing machine, or food tray sealing machine with MAP technology—also known as controlled atmosphere packaging—for fresh food, Nichrome is the ideal choice. As leaders in packaging machines, automatic filling machines, and sealing machine manufacturing, Nichrome India delivers comprehensive integrated packaging solutions.

Conclusion

In summary, quality control in MAP for ready-to-eat foods is not just about extending shelf life but ensuring safety, enhancing sensory experience, and upholding consumer trust. From stringent leak testing to system maintenance and consumer education, every aspect of the MAP process contributes to delivering safe, high-quality products, supported by Nichrome’s advanced packaging solutions.

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The post Igniting Innovations: Nichrome’s Remarkable Presence at Anutec International FoodTec India Exhibition 2023 appeared first on Nichrome India Ltd.

At Nichrome, innovation is a part of our DNA. Since our pioneering beginning in 1977, we have been endlessly innovating and upgrading offerings to solve packaging industry challenges and deliver greater business value to our customers with our next gen integrated packaging solutions.

Our innovation is founded on Expertise, Partnership, Forward-thinking and Technology. Supported and strengthened by these four pillars, we are perfectly poised to cross new frontiers in performance, accuracy, and solution development.

Nichrome India leads the pack in the packaging industry with innovative packing, sealing, filling and cartoning systems. Nichrome has a plethora of systems for product handling, primary & secondary packing, end-of-the-line packing, warehousing, and track & trace.

MAP Technology in Action

Nichrome’s modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) for mithai and namkeen and food tray sealing machines are commendable. Nichrome is miles ahead of the competition in producing filling and sealing machines in India.

Thermoforming machines from Nichrome can also produce packaging with vacuum skins. The product is placed in a tray or a preformed packaging mould and is then sealed with skin film. This allows the safety of packaged products in a variety of shapes (as they were given a ‘second skin’). The product is untouched by human hands, and the MAP sealing process ensures longer shelf life.

Whether you use MAP technology for mithai & namkeen packaging or dairy products – the contents are assured of hygiene and freshness. For SMEs in the Indian mithai & namkeen segment, MAP technology from Nichrome is a godsend.

MAP is a pathbreaking packaging solution for convenience and presentation of mithai, dry fruits, namkeen and confectionery. It is highly valued when packed in elegant trays and beautifully decorated outer cartons.

WMNC Expo 2022

World Mithai-Namkeen Convention & Expo 2022 (WMNC-2022) which is being held in Chandigarh from December 19-21, is expected to host over 300+ exhibitors and draw 25000+ visitors and delegates from across the country & overseas.

WMNC is the singular event where one can find all solutions related to the mithai & namkeen industry under one roof. From packaging automation machinery to packing materials, raw materials for ingredients, WMNC-2022 is the hottest place to go this year.

WMNC 2022 is a unique show for the entire traditional sweets and namkeen industry. It represents the Indian sweets & snacks Industry which is worth Rs 100,000 crore. WMNC 2022 will host seminars & workshops and conclude with an award ceremony for different categories.

Mithai & Namkeen Segment

Mithai & namkeen segment is at the nascent stage of branding and its true potential is yet to be explored. Mithai & namkeen manufacturers are slowly but surely realizing the need for better quality packaging that protects their products and offers protection during transportation (secondary packing).

Even smaller mithai-walas with local clientele are considering modern snack packaging machines to ensure the hygiene and shelf-life of their products. As the preference of consumers is shifting from the unorganized sector to the organized, brand and quality consciousness has shot up tremendously.

Accordingly, brands need to focus on ensuring that their primary, secondary, and tertiary packaging authentically reflects the quality of their mithai and namkeen products.

This is more applicable to the food sector, where buying decisions are often impulse based. Food processing giants like ITC and Parle are already giving foreign companies like Pepsi Foods intense competition.

Nichrome’s MAP for Mithai & Namkeen

Modified Atmosphere Packaging (MAP) is a widely used technique for food preservation. MAP in tray sealing machines is gaining popularity as a method of preserving freshness and lengthening shelf life of fresh foods, fruits, vegetables, meat, and dairy products.

It is the preferred manner of preventing spoilage and extending the shelf life of mithai and namkeen products. MAP also helps shops sell Indian mithai and namkeen in stores located on highways where travellers stop for refreshments, and a multitude of other places within cities.

Nichrome’s MAP and food tray packaging solutions are products to reckon with. They are deemed ideal for tray sealing and packaging mithai and namkeen products.

Nichrome’s MAP food tray sealing packaging machine uses technology from Tecnovac, Italy and is the ideal choice for food tray and mithai and namkeen packaging.

This machine can seal, pack in a protective atmosphere (vacuum and gas) orwith “skin effect”. Due to its strong stainless-steel structure and easy maintenance, it is ideal packaging for SME use.

For marketers of cut fruits & vegetables, meat & fish, namkeen & sweets and even ready-to-eat meals like biryani, Nichrome’s MAP tech ensures that products are hygienic till they reach the consumer’s table.

Conclusion

If you are looking for a thali packing machine, tray sealing machine, container sealing machine, nitrogen packing machine, or a food tray sealing machine with MAP technology – a.k.a controlled atmosphere packaging – for your fresh food and mithai and namkeen business, Nichrome is the ideal choice.

Nichrome India is the final word in packaging machines, automatic filling machine manufacturers, filling and sealing machine manufacturers and providers of integrated packaging solutions.

The post Nichrome Represents India at the World Mithai-Namkeen Convention & Expo 2022 appeared first on Nichrome India Ltd.

So what is MAP technology?

Atmospheric air is a combination of 3 elements – N2 (79%), O2 (20.96%), CO2 (0.04%) and traces of inert gases and vapour.

MAP packaging, sometimes known as controlled atmosphere packaging, is the method of modifying the makeup of the internal atmosphere of a package using a modified atmosphere packaging machine – usually food packages and medicines – in order to improve the shelf life of the packed products.

This technology was developed to deal with the short shelf life of certain food products such as meat, fish, poultry and dairy in the presence of oxygen. The presence of oxygen in the packaging leads to the lipid oxidation of the food product. Oxygen contributes to the shortened shelf life of fresh produce because it leads to high respiration rates. Even microbiologically, Oxygen catalyses the growth of aerobic spoilage microorganisms.

It is plainly obvious that a reduction in oxygen and its replacement with more suitable gases can deter or reduce oxidation reactions and microbiological spoilage.

MAP food packaging using a MAP tray sealer generally involves the lowering of the amount of oxygen in the headspace within the package. Nitrogen – a comparatively inert gas – or carbon dioxide can be used to replace oxygen.

The use of active techniques such as gas flushing and compensated vacuum, or passive ones like designing ‘breathable films’ can be used to achieve a stable atmosphere of gases inside the packaging.

The different components of MAP Technology

• Machine
• Gas mixer
• Gas analyser
• Trays
• Barrier film

Why MAP Technology?

• Convenience
• Quality
• Safety
• Availability
• Brand image
• Extended shelf life
• Sensory aspects

Advantages of MAP Technology

• Maintaining the quality throughout the manufacturing process (GMP) (GHP)
• Maintaining protocols for food safety and HACCP
• Consistent productivity with limited manpower
• Can handle a variety of products and is capable of handling different SKU sizes

Benefits of MAP Technology

• Shelf-life extension
• Waste minimisation (profit maximisation)
• Quality
• Reduced need for artificial preservatives, maintaining the
• Increased distribution possibilities

Why maintain gas mixtures?

How does MAP control micro-organisms?

MAP can control 4 types of micro-organisms:

• Aerobic Microbes – require oxygen or air for respiration and growth   
• Anaerobic Microbes – do not require oxygen or air to grow    
• Microaerophilic Microbes – require a low level of oxygen for optimum growth
• Facultative Anaerobic microbes – can respire and grow with/without the presence of oxygen

MAP for shelf-life and food spoilage

• Remain safe
• Be certain to retain desired sensory, chemical, physical and microbiological characteristics
• Comply with any label declaration of nutritional data when stored and handled under the recommended data

Factors that influence shelf-life

• Raw materials
• Product formulation
• Processing
• Packaging atmosphere
• Hygiene
• Distribution
• Storage
• Consumer handling

Nichrome’s MAP Tray Sealing Machines

• Nichrome – Tecnovac Semiautomatic Tray sealing machine
• Nichrome – Tecnovac Linear Machine model Athena
• Nichrome – Tecnovac Dual Drive Machine model Athena

Conclusion

If you are looking for a thali packing machine , tray sealing machine, container sealing machine, nitrogen packing machine, or a food tray sealing machine with MAP food packaging technology – aka controlled atmosphere packaging – for your fresh food business, connect with Nichrome.

Nichrome is among the leading packaging machine manufacturers, Automatic filling machine manufacturers, filling and sealing machine manufacturers and providers of integrated packaging solutions. Nichrome has an illustrious history and significant expertise in food packaging and offers the full range of VFFS (Vertical Form Fill Seal Machines), HFFS (Horizontal form fill seal machines) and automated packaging machines – including powder packaging machines, snack packaging machines, liquid packaging machines, pharmaceutical packaging machines and ready-to-eat packaging machines.

Nichrome proactively works in conjunction with its clients, helping them plan and implement the most cost-effective and dependable MAP solution for their needs. Visit www.nichrome.com to learn more!

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