Predicting changes in oxygen concentration in the headspace of nitrogen flushed packages by the ambient oxygen ingress rate method

The ambient oxygen ingress rate (AOIR) method is an alternative/supplementary method to Ox-Tran for measuring the oxygen transmission rates of packages. The AOIR method facilitates high-capacity testing of packages under realistic food storage conditions, on the one hand, and on the other hand provides the possibility to predict the oxygen concentration over time in packages flushed with nitrogen at the time of packaging. The predicted oxygen concentration values showed good agreement with experimental values for flexible packages stored over a period of 91 days at 23degreesC and 38degreesC. The prediction of the oxygen concentration in nitrogen-flushed packages may be a useful tool, e.g. in shelf life studies, in the selection of the optimal food package as regards to oxygen protection and within quality control purposes. Copyright (C) 2002 John Wiley Sons, Ltd.