Food products generally start to degrade as soon as they are harvested or manufactured through a wide variety of spoilage mechanisms, mostly microbial or oxidative. Nitrogen is used to slow down the spoilage mechanisms that need oxygen to survive, (aerobic), by excluding ambient air.

Often nitrogen and carbon dioxide are combined to retard anaerobic spoilage mechanism, with nitrogen used as a filler gas to prevent pack collapse caused by the highly dissolvable nature of CO₂.

There are 3 main areas where nitrogen is used in the food production process:

Nitrogen is used to purge empty vessels to remove ambient air. It also provides a “top cover” or blanket of gas above the storage vessel contents, when full or part full, excluding ambient air and the oxygen it contains.

Nitrogen gas, at pressure, is used to push product through pipework and in doing so, keeps the process inert by excluding ambient air. It is also used to bubble through liquids in a process called “sparging” to removed dissolved oxygen.

Most food products start to deteriorate from the moment they are harvested or prepared for packaging, being under attack from a multitude of spoilage mechanisms. By flushing, storing and/or packing with nitrogen, oxygen that many of these micro-organisms need in order to survive and multiply, is removed and the spoilage process is significantly reduced.

Prepared salads and vegetables, fresh chilled ready meals, meat, poultry, fish, dairy produce (including cheese), breads, coffee as well as snack foods such as potato chips and nuts can all benefit from ‘modified atmosphere packaging’ (or MAP as it is often referred to). By using nitrogen gas from a Parker generator, the product shelf life is increased and the appearance and quite often taste, is also improved.