Even the smallest amounts of oxygen can cause undesired oxidative damage to meat, speeding up spoilage and reducing shelf-life. The PA 7.0 could minimise this by reliably analysing oxygen content within modified atmosphere or gas-flushed meat packaging down to the parts per million range, the company, which is based in Witten, Germany, has claimed.
This was made possible by a highly sensitive zirconium cell, now available as an option, it said.
A spokesman for Witt said the new model would not measure oxygen content via the usual method of inserting a needle into a pack. Rather, it could be combined with, for example, nitrogen generators used to inject packaging with nitrogen.
Quality control
“These generators are not 100% reliable and to avoid oxygen in the nitrogen they can be combined with a PA ppm gas analyser for permanent monitoring of the gas,” he explained. “So the user can do quality control at a very early stage of the process.”
The accuracy of the measurements is +/- 5% relative to the measured value. The enhanced performance improves on previous PA models, which sport chemical sensor measures in increments of 0.1%.
All measured values are stored and can be downloaded via a standard interface for further processing. Weighing just under six kilos, the PA is only 186 x 285 x 270 mm (HxWxD) in size. It is protected by its sturdy stainless steel housing.
The PA 7.0 forms part of an extensive product portfolio comprising mobile and stationary systems for countless gas applications, such as in food packaging and medical applications.