FOOD – & HOW TO STOP THE ROT
£100M’s wasted through incorrect packaging

Probably the biggest cause of spoiled food, which costs the UK in excess of £100M every year, is water vapour. Sometimes there is too much of it, sometimes not enough. It is even the root cause of freezer burn. Yet controlling it is not particularly difficult. Properly designed packaging, using materials with a suitable permeability can substantially extend product life, prevent products from drying-out or over-hydrating, and reduce waste.

Unfortunately, water vapour does not act like liquid water - and materials that are a barrier to one can allow the other to flow freely through – which is why so many people use the wrong packaging materials. And that’s where Versaperm comes in. Versaperm, a world leader in water vapour permeability measurement, has introduced a quick and simple way to test most types of packaging, films, coatings and containers. It’s available either by purchasing the meter or via the company’s lab service.

Their WVTR (Water Vapour Transmission) meter can cope with several samples at a time - often giving a reading in as little as 30 minutes – whereas the conventional gravimetric measurement technique takes several days and is significantly less accurate.

The meter is easy to use and gives a series of digital readouts that can be recorded or simply read off the LCD screen. It needs no re-calibration and requires, at most, minimal training - yet it can give results that are accurate to a few parts per million (with some samples a few parts per hundred million). Sensitivities are in the range 0.05 – 3200g/m2/day.

Water vapour is omnipresent, degrades products, causes sogginess, boosts biodegradation and reduces shelf-life. In other cases, its loss dries products out, causing viscosity, flavour and aesthetic problems. It can even move through a product, for example pastry gaining moisture from the baked contents. The Versaperm system can test the permeability of a huge range of products and packages – from plastic and paper to pastry and from sugar coatings to foil and pizzas.

ENDS

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Please send any sales enquiries to Christopher Roberts, Versaperm Limited ,
10 Rawcliffe House, Howarth Road, Maidenhead, Berkshire, SL6 1AP, UK, tel: +44 1628 777668
e.mail info@versaperm.co.uk Web: http://www.versaperm.co.uk

For further Press Information please contact Gerry Palmer @ the Palmer & Rose Partnership. Tel 01494 637499, fax 0871 9003898,
e.mail gerry@palmer-rose.co.uk