- coffee;
- fats;
- nuts;
- confectionery;
- vegetables;
- fruits, and others.
Streamlined management system in any production involves taking advantages of all possibilities offered by technological state of the art. Each food manufacturer is tasked not only with high product quality assurance, but also with arranging conditions for its long-term and safe-for-consumers storage. Nitrogen and carbon dioxide are mixed in certain ratios to create packaging environment. Most commonly, they make 70% and 30% (or 80% and 20%). Though, practice has shown that this ratio may slightly vary.
For product manufacturers the efficient equipment is considered to be a unit that fully complies with the engineering process requirements. Nitrogen production units are functional and practical solutions used for quality food packaging.
Should you be interested in improving competitiveness of your products, feel free to employ innovation technologies in the production process. We are engaged in designing, manufacturing and servicing the supplied nitrogen equipment, so while having it in operation you will be spared any trouble.
General Application
Foodstuff Storage, Handling and Packaging
The use of modified atmosphere - inert gas ambient - in food production enables to extend severalfold product shelf life while safekeeping tremendously its appearance and taste properties. Nitrogen is used as an inert gas as it is a weakly reactive and poorly soluble atmosphere component in the product and packaging. Grasys membrane nitrogen units enable effective removal from the air of the most active atmosphere component that contributes to food spoilage, i.e. oxygen. The use of Grasys units allows protecting foodstuff against oxidation, mold attack, microorganism growth, and harmful insects.
When in service, Grasys units that have been specifically designed for food storage applications, finished products packaging in inert ambient, as well as for creating controlled environment in vegetable storehouses, will spare you a lot of troubles such as:
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Oxidation
Oxidizing agents, including oxygen, have a particular effect on unsaturated fatty acids. Meanwhile, there appear offensive odors and tastes, more specifically in such foodstuff as butter, margarine, nuts, potato chips. For the majority of perishable products this process can be slowed down by lowering oxygen content of the package to below 2%. Grasys units are capable of producing up to 99.9% pure nitrogen.
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Mold Attacks
Mold is one of the basic organisms that make food unusable. Filling packages with high purity nitrogen (98-99.9% pure) ensures effective prevention against mold growth.
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Reproduction of Microorganisms
The reproduction of microorganisms, especially bacteria, makes food poisonous. This process can be stopped or slowed down by filling the package with mixture of nitrogen and carbon dioxide.
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Harmful Insects
The inert atmosphere ensures protection against insects. Such environment appears to be deadly for the majority of insects. Grasys is the only Russian commercial manufacturer of membrane gas separation units.
Thus, product storage and packaging in modified atmosphere are capable of extending product shelf life while preserving its taste and essentially improving product competitiveness. In Western countries in food production modified atmosphere is widely used to store and package such foods as butter, cheeses, juices, carbonated drinks, yogurts, coffee, nuts, potato chips, and many others.
The units are developed and manufactured by using the most advanced fifth-generation hollow fiber technology, which provides the equipment with a number of unique advantages as follows:
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Cost Effectiveness
Nitrogen produced by the units is up to ten times at a more favorable price than that produced by cryogenic or adsorption technology, or purchased in cylinders.
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Reliability and Simplicity
These features are the basis of the entire system. It has no moving parts. By passing compressed air through membrane system, nitrogen is separated from other gases and comes directly into controlled atmosphere.
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Adjustability
The desired purity (up to 99.99%) and nitrogen capacity (up to 5000 m³/h) can be preset. There is no need to dilute nitrogen with oxygen as the nitrogen purity is very high.
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Convenience
Membrane nitrogen units are fully automated, so the operation is unmanned with no maintenance staff required to service the unit, while start-up and stop take just a few minutes.
Creating Controlled Atmosphere in Vegetable Storehouses
Grasys is engaged in manufacturing units to maintain microclimate by concentrating nitrogen in the indoor atmosphere. Shelf life extension for agricultural products with the lowest possible spoilage is achieved due to gas environment control system in the storehouse. Nitrogen enjoys wide application in the food industry for storage and preservation. When produced using our plants, nitrogen is two-to-ten times cheaper than the one produced by cryogenic or adsorption technology or stored in cylinders.
Our low-cost nitrogen plants are based on hollow fiber membranes that feature as follows:
- The required purity and nitrogen capacity can be preset. There is no need to add oxygen to bottled nitrogen due to its very high purity.
- Simplicity is the basis of the entire system. It has no moving parts. By passing compressed air through a membrane system, nitrogen is separated from other gases and comes directly into controlled atmosphere.
- No need for CO2 scrubber. Once switched on, the controlled room air (containing nitrogen, oxygen, CO2) can be recirculated through our unit where CO2 will be isolated and removed. Thus, there disappears any need for a scrubber.
- No combustion. Lots of atmosphere control systems rely on propane combustion to reduce oxygen content in the controlled room air. This dangerous method results in accumulating residual CO2 hydrocarbons. Our units require no combustion. No additional products come into the controlled room. Gases separated from the nitrogen-oxygen mixture (air) are released into the atmosphere or recover in other processes.
Tests performed with apples stored using atmosphere control system have shown amazing results.
The poor fruit and vegetable preservation in the ordinary ambient air has been demonstrated as a result of two experiments using apples.
The first experiment was performed with fruits, including red best-quality apples. Two apple batches were stored in a room of about 2000 m³, controlled by medium monitoring system. The third batch, the control one, was stored in a room with microclimate supported by combustion products generator and CO2 absorber.
The air in the room equipped with medium monitoring system the oxygen and CO2 content was supported at the level of 1.5 and 2.0%, respectively. Apparently, the system substantially reduced oxygen content in the air. This air composition kept maintained over a period of 6 months.
As a result, 83% of fruit were preserved in the room equipped with such system while in the room equipped with a combustion product generator this number made just 73%.
The second experiment was performed at the gardening experimental station. In this case, apples of various kinds were used with each stored in small 90 m³ rooms.
Three batches of McIntosh apples were stored at 3°C using microclimate unit with oxygen and CO2 concentrations supported at the levels of 1.5% and 1.8% over a period of 173 days. In doing so, 92% of apples were preserved. Empire apples kept quite as much over a period of 216 days.
The other apple batch was stored under the same conditions (1.5% O2 and 1.8% CO2) though at 0°C for 219 days. The result was the same - 92% of fruit retained stability of a freshly picked fruit, and one of the varieties - Red Chief - was preserved completely.
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