Versaperm spectrometer targets extension of confectionery shelf life

UK specialist equipment manufacturer Versaperm has developed a new mass spectrometer line that accurately measure rates of vapour permeation in confectionery items to assist in extending range shelf life.

As the company explained, its latest system has been designed to aid the extended freshness of a broad series of items, providing data that examines levels of vapours affecting items through any coatings, barriers or packaging helping users to optimise them for their individual products.

According to the company, shelf lives for some products have reportedly been increased by a factor of five times – and is  also said to help control the quality of print on the packaging as well.

The system, the Versaperm MS (Mass Spectrometer), can measure permeability for these and any combination of other gasses with just a single measurement. It  works for all confectionery, packaging materials and products, including coatings and edible films. It even offers a new multi-chamber system which allows you to measure this permeability for several different products at the same time.

The equipment can be used on both flat material samples, or on complete finished products and packaging. This is critically important as manufacturing processes alone may change vapour permeability by a factor of four. The sealing process can affect it by an even greater amount.

The Versaperm MS has been developed as fast and easy to use, reportedly producing results that are accurate in the parts per million or parts per billion ranges. It offers the ability to control temperature, pressure and other environmental factors and it can test metalized foil packages, sachets, sugar, starch and molecular coatings barrier films. Additionally it allows the user to determine the equilibrium relative humidity (ERH) of products that might decompose using other measuring techniques.

As well as manufacturing the instruments, Versaperm offers a technical consultancy and a permeability testing service for companies that only need to test packaging or materials on an irregular basis.

 

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