Modified Atmosphere Packaging Glossary

Cheese packs
Did you know?
That Modified Atmosphere Packaging has been used for centuries?

When the merchant ships stored their biscuits in barrels in the 18th century it was common to put a lit candle into the barrel just before closing it. This way the candle would use up the oxygen in the barrel and thus protect the biscuits.

Ar - Argon

CAS - Controlled Atmosphere Storage

CO2 - Carbon dioxide

CO - Carbon monoxide

EMAP - Equilibrium Modified Atmosphere Packaging

Gas Flushing - The process on exchanging the atmospheric air with a certain gas mix, especially on flowpackaging machines

Gas packaging - Commonly used term for MAP

HACCP - Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points

HFFS - Horizontal Form Fill & Seal - packaging machine

Headspace analyser - Quality control instrument for determining the gas composition in the headspace

Headspace - The area in the sealed package that contains gas

MA - Modified Atmosphere

MAP - Modified Atmosphere Packaging

Modified Atmospheric Packaging - same as Modified Atmosphere Packaging

N2 - Nitrogen

O2 - Oxygen

Protective Atmosphere - Same as MAP, frequently seen on consumer packages

QC - Quality Control

QA - Quality Assurance

Random testing - Also know as headspace testing, manual process for quality assurance of MAP products

ROP - Reduced Oxygen Packaging

VFFS - Vertical Form Fill & Seal - packaging machine