Applications  [ Return towards  Agri-Food & Beverage ]

In developed countries, each person consumes about 150 liters of soft drink a year, like a gaseous ocean of nearly half a billion cubic meters!To deliver the fizz, beverages require a high quantity of dissolved carbon dioxide. This carbonation is obtained naturally during the fermentation of sugar into alcohol (sparkling wine, beer, etc) or artificially by injecting carbon dioxide into a liquid.

As soon as it comes into contact with air, food can suffer from physical, enzymatic, microbiological, and biochemical deterioration. Modified Atmosphere Packaging (MAP) is a process for packaging foodstuff together with a gas or a gas mixture containing protective and reactive properties. MAP gases are used to replace the air inside the package and eliminate or reduce any product damaging deterioration. We have developed a special range of products for Modified Atmosphere Packaging, termed: ALIGAL™.

Cryogenic Quick-Freezing : a test of speedQuick-freezing food products can entail various difficulties whenever standard quick-freezing conditions are deviated from, for example :quick-freezing small amounts of different products in a given devicevarying the amount to be quick-frozenincreasing the capacity of a quick-freezing linelaunching a new product for which the future production volume is hard to foreseeindividual quick-freezing of fragile productsadapting to seasonal quick-freezing

Foodstuffs in contact with ambient air contain dissolved oxygen which can damage these foodstuffs, whether they are liquid or solid (powder, grains ...). Inerting combines 2 phases: deoxygenation to remove dissolved or trapped oxygen and then sheltering the product from air.

Attractive appearance and strength of food packaging are essential to ensure easy handling and good sales appeal. Packages may need to be stacked in a container or store room.

Wild fish or fishfarming ? Consumption of fish from fish farms is growing rapidly, thus fish farming is an expanding business. Fish farming includes hatching, rearing of fry or rearing of fish in specific basins.

Temperature control is necessary to ensure appropriate consistency for processing, and above all to preserve micro-biological quality which would be degraded by an increase in temperature. When temperature increases need to be limited during processes as mixing, cutting, forming,... a very efficient method is to inject liquid CO2 or liquid N2, or to use Dry Ice.

In a combined freezing operation, crust freezing is applied when food products need to be stabilized before being put into a mechanical freezer. Crusting can be used to preserve shape, to prevent moisture loss, or to prevent IQF products sticking to each other.This is achieved by placing a cryogenic freezer (Tunnel : ZIP FREEZE™, or cell : SILVERSAS™)in front of a mechanical freezer.

For the transportation of products under controlled temperature, Air Liquide has developed different processes (CARBOFRESH, PROMOCARBO, CO2 CYCLONE) using Dry Ice and CO₂ snow.

Desinfestation with CO2 is a technology which allows the elimination of insects present in dry food products, using only CO2 at a high concentration and without use of any toxic chemical pesticides. The technology is applied to dry products, with a water content less than 20%, which are those attacked by insects.The technique can be applied to food products: rice, dried fruit or mushrooms, herbal products, cocoa, hazelnuts ... ; or non food products such as tobacco, paintings, furniture ...Disinfestation can be necessary throughout the production process, from the raw materials stage prior to manufacturing, to finished products prior to packaging.

Animals are stunned using a mixture of gases (a high concentration of oxygen, a mixture of CO2, N2 or Argon) prior to slaughtering. This reduces stress, improving the animal's condition and ultimately, meat quality.This process competes with electrical stunning.