Meat packaging handles almost all procedures of the meat industry and not just packaging itself; it includes slaughtering, processing and distribution. Meat industry is one of the most essential parts of food industry because meat products are needed for human consumption. Health sectors of each country are very particular when it comes to maintaining the safety and freshness of meat products because it’s more prone to contamination compared to other food products. It’s one of the reasons why meat packaging machines and modified atmosphere packaging were developed.
When people went to grocery
stores to buy meat, they tend to check only the color and the smell of the meat
to ensure that it’s wholesome, fresh and in good quality. Well, it’s not all
about the color and the smell that people must consider. It is true that the
color and smell are factors in determining the freshness of meat but the point
is, there are other factors too that need attention. Therefore, each consumer
must be able to determine the packaging quality of meat products. Today, most
food manufacturers are utilizing automatic
food packaging machines with the application of modified atmosphere packaging or MAP technology that promotes a
real good quality to almost all kinds of food products especially meat.
In the previous times, meat packaging machines were enough to produce quality products but the use of chemical additives like nitrites, phosphates and antioxidants were not avoided. Those chemicals were capable of maintaining the color and shelf life of meat products which can already be days or weeks old. However, a lot of issues especially health concerns rise up due to the harmful effects of the chemicals being applied during packaging. Then, it came to a point that the use of meat packaging machines is not enough to ensure quality and safety of meat products anymore.
Good thing that science and technology were able to discover the MAP technology which can be integrated with meat and other automatic food packaging machines that has made the life of food manufacturers and consumers happy and satisfied. Even meat products are days and weeks old, the natural freshness can be preserved through the modification of the natural atmosphere gases like oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon dioxide inside the package. No need for chemical additives anymore.
Therefore, modified atmosphere packaging applied to most automatic food packaging machines promotes safety and high quality food products for human consumption which is the top most objective of food packaging.