Micro-Oxygen Packaging Retains Quality in Beer

摘要

During"Food Technology 101," we learned that oxygen reacts with foods and that exclusion of oxygen in canned foods, many minimally processed foods, and beer aids in product quality retention, the foundations for vacuum and inert-gas packaging. In graduate school, we were exposed to autooxidation and self-propagating reactions that were among the bases of oxidative rancidity and analogous reactions. Although apprised of biochemical reactions, we did not, however, learn of the subtleties of these deteriorations. The "indefinite" shelf life of canned and dry foods translated from microbiological shelf life. Total quality retention was—and is—a wholly different issue, often casually dismissed as inconsequential since foods and beverages never (well, hardly ever) exceed one year in commercial distribution channels.