How to Measure Food and Packaging Permeability to Extend Product Shelf Life

Keeping confectionery and snacks in good condition over an extended shelf life is now possible by measurement of gas permeability. 

Tuning the vapour permeability of your packaging to your specific products can improve the shelf life and quality of a snack or confectionery.  

Versaperm’s permeability meters can measure food, confectionery and packaging permeability for a huge range of gasses, including water vapour, oxygen and virtually any other common gas.

It is fast, reliable and accurate (usually in the Parts Per Million – PPM range) and can test both material samples and finished packaging under a wide range of conditions – it can even test metalized foil packages, sachets, sugar coatings and barrier materials. It can also determine the equilibrium relative humidity (ERH) of products that might decompose using other measuring techniques.

The producer needs to understand a little bit of the science of permeability. Staleness and reduced shelf life are mainly the result of the packaging’s porousness – which needs to keep the balance and flow of gasses such as water vapour and oxygen just right for each specific product.

With some materials these results can be produced in as little as 30 minutes, but even with hard to measure foils, results can normally be turned around in a day.

Permeability is also a major factor in print quality. Sadly the two don’t always go hand-in-hand and packaging innovation and branding is sometimes sacrificed. Materials, packaging construction and improvement all demand development and quality control, and this is where the new permeability measurement systems from Versaperm come to the fore.

The system is far faster and is usually more accurate than conventional gravimetric technique measurements, which takes days or even weeks to perform.  It can also, optionally, measure not just water vapour permeability, but the permeability for virtually all gasses including carbon dioxide, nitrogen and oxygen.

A fast turn-around laboratory testing service is also available.