At FFCE, we provide food packing solutions for utilizing state-of-the-art packaging methodologies like Modified Atmosphere Packaging (MAP) and Controlled Atmosphere Packaging (CAP) helping you increase the shelf life of your products, preserving the freshness. These packaging methods are important for preserving perishable products including fruits, vegetables, meats and dairy products.

Our Technological Support is aimed at enhancing the stream of components and packages for MAP and CAP, so your food products remain fresh and perfect in terms of taste, as well as texture and nutrient content. All these services are backed by Process Optimization to help optimize the packaging procedures in your company.

What are MAP and CAP?

MAP (Modified Atmosphere Packaging): MAP requires reducing the internal pressure inside the packaging by changing the level of oxygen and carbon dioxide as well as nitrogen in order to reduce the rate at which perishable commodities deteriorate. This technique commonly applied to perishable products, fruits and vegetables, meats, and even ready to eat foods.

CAP (Controlled Atmosphere Packaging): It is very identical to MAP but used in bulk storage and transport since it is able to control the internal environment of the packaging accurately. With regard to the importance of the variables for CAP, it reduces fluctuations in the internal gas levels and enhances the shelf life of such perishable items as fruits and vegetables, especially during transportation.

How does MAP work?

  • Gas Composition: However, the kind of gas used in MAP depends on the type of food being packaged. For instance:
  • Meat and Poultry: Some of them employ a high concentration of carbon dioxide to retard bacterial growth within the cheese-maker’s container.
  • Fruits and Vegetables: Usually employing a combination of oxygen and carbon dioxide gas in slowing down the rate of respiration, thereby holding back the post-harvest ripening process.
  • Packaging Material: MAP need packaging material so that the created modified atmosphere should remain intact. These are commonly known as modified atmosphere films that minimize interaction between the contents of the packaging and the environment.
  • Sealing Process: There are three main phases of packaging: The food product is put in an impermeable container, gas with the appropriate composition is introduced and the container is sealed to have the modified atmosphere.

 Benefits of MAP

  • Extended Shelf Life: MAP has many benefits that result from reducing metabolic rates and unfolding microbial activity, which contributes to increasing the shelf-thrift of the food product.
  • Maintained Quality: MAP also helps in retaining the sensory attributes of food products’ color, texture and taste thus enhancing the marketability of the products.
  • Reduced Waste: Improved shelf life assures low levels of wastage, a move that benefits the retailers and consumers in equal measure.
  • What does CAP stand for?
  • Controlled Atmosphere Packaging (CAP) means that the type, quantity, and quality of gaseous content in the pack has to remain constant throughout the lifecycle of the product. However, in MAP, the atmosphere is changed once during the packaging while for CAP, the atmosphere around the product is constantly monitored.

How CAP Works

  • Continuous Monitoring: CAP systems mean the constant analysis and control of the gaseous environment within the package. This is usually through use of special packaging media and techniques that can control gases as desired.
  • Gas Composition: The gaseous atmosphere of CAP is selected depending on the need in the treatment of specific food product. This kind of control ensures that the required conditions for proper storage and preservation of the produce are well achieved.
  • Packaging Material: The packaging material advanced employed by CAP can regulate and even alter the gas content. Such materials can be permeable films and sensors for controlling the internal environment of the building.

Benefits of CAP

  • Extended Shelf Life: CAP has similar benefits to MAP in increasing the shelf life and is better than MAP for continuous checking or modification which may preferred for some food products.
  • Enhanced Freshness: By keeping the atmosphere of the store optimum at all times, CAP is able to retain the freshness and quality of the product up to its shelf life.
  • Flexibility: CAP can be made flexible depending on the type of product being covered hence versatility of this method applicable to most foods.

Applications of MAP and CAP

Fresh Produce

Fruits and Vegetables: MAP and CAP are used in the packaging of fresh horticulture produce such as apples, bananas, strawberries, blueberries, avocados, grapes and soft fruits, spinach, lettuce, tomatoes, cabbages, carrots, and green bell papers. These technologies assist in decreasing the rate of breathing in fresh produce, as well as prolong the process of ripening and thereby the process of spoiling to ensure that the produce is fresh stays fresh for a long. For instance, packaging strawberries in a Controlled atmosphere (CA) is a very effective way of reducing mould development, while enhancing the language attractiveness of the produce through the enhancement of its bright red color and firmness.

Meat and Poultry

Meat Products: In meat and poultry products such as chicken breast, thighs, whole chicken, steaks, minced mutton, chops, pork chops, bacon, and sausages, MAP and CAP prevent microbial activity, retain the color, and firmness. This is especially important for an extension of shelf life and product safety of such products. For instance, applying MAP on chicken breast can also assist in maintaining their pink color and reduce the other spoilage bacteria hence making the product safe for human consumption.

Dairy Products

Cheese and Dairy: MAP is employed for the purpose of wrapping cheese along with other dairy products like paneer, butter, yogurt, milk, cottage cheese, cream cheese and sour cream. The controlled atmosphere is crucial to slow down the effect of mold and bacteria growth, hence increasing the quality of processed dairy products. For instance, wrapping cheddar cheese in modified atmosphere helps to control mold formation which otherwise would have spoilt the food’s taste and made it have a soft consistency.

Baked Goods

Bread and Pastries: MAP and CAP techniques can also be useful for the further preservation of bread and other bakery products like white bread, whole wheat bread, bagette, buns, croissants, muffins, cup cakes, donuts, Cookies and other bakery products by retarding molds and action of staling which causes the bread and Cakes to harden and adverse to consumption. For example, in placing croissants in modified environment packaging more of them will remain crunchy and buttery than if they are left to rot in a basket.

Traditional Indian Sweets

  • Sweets: MAP and CAP are suitable for various traditional Indian sweets and provide longest shelf life without deterioration and microbial growth. Some popular Indian sweets that benefit from these technologies include:
  • Kaju Katli: An example of popular cashew fudge made from grounded cashews and sugar, kaju katli due to its dense nutritious properties retains its smooth texture and cashew nutty taste under proper MAP that minimizes moisture and mold formation.
  • Rasgulla: MAP is also used in these spongy cheese balls soaked in sugar syrup because it enhances soft texture and hampers the growth of spoilage organisms and hence increases the shelf life.
  • Gulab Jamun: Sugar coated, dough balls fried, and dipped in sugar syrup are protected against spoilage by MAP that retains their moisture content and taste without becoming hard.
  • Peda: This is a milk-based sweet flavored with cardamom or saffron.Eaten as a sweet, this product maintains its creaminess and taste with moisture vapor removed in modified atmosphere packaging.
  • Barfi: Barfi which is a dense sweet made of milk, or even with khoya, which is evaporated milk, does not deteriorate well when packed with MAP and it livens up when taken for selling by increasing its shelf life while at the same time retaining its taste.
  • Laddu: These round shaped sweets made of various flours like besan or semolina retains its soft crumble characteristics when using MAP decreasing staling and enhancing the shelf life with no microbial activity.
  • Jalebi: Fine illustrated and helical shaped sweets which are immersed in syrup successfully retain their crispiness and sweetening when palced under given PS conditions to avoid the receival of moisture.
  • Soan Papdi: With MAP this Fleming, a flaky sweet made from gram flour, retains the softness of texture and taste and does not become hard or spoiled.
  • Mysore Pak: The sweet that is prepared with ghee, sugar and gram flour in a very rich and dense structure can be packed with MAP to produce the texture and lose no taste and freshness for the consumer.
  • Cham Cham: MAP preserves prevents contamination of milk-based sweets soaked in syrup with a soft and spongy texture which does not spoil easily.
  • Kothimbir Wadi: These savoury sweet form of coriander mixed with besan is protected from the CAP which maintains its fresh form during transportation and selling.