Flexible and folding carton packaging supplier Performance Packaging of Nevada has announced a process which it claims will extend the shelf life of packaged foods.
Called Airshield, the process is designed to chemically remove oxygen from rigid and flexible packages such as pouches and packages containing fitments or solid closures.
It has been in development for two years and only uses GRAS (generally recognised as safe) compounds.
It is expected that Airshield, which has a patent pending, will be available to food processors and packagers by early 2017.
“ Airshield provides oxygen ‘scavenging’ (the removal of oxygen) and an oxygen barrier in one product,” company director Rob Reinders said.
“It includes a polymer-incorporated, powder-based additive which removes the oxygen that is trapped during the filling process and then acts as an enhanced-oxygen barrier to keep the oxygen out of the container to extend the product’s shelf life.”
The first applications will be to flexible pouches of foods which are found through two of Performance Packaging’s patented offerings: PouchPops and Sipp pouches.
