As the basis for all life, oxygen provides necessary functions. But it also causes degradation, especially in food preservation. The goal of packaging over the past several decades has been to ameliorate these effects, neutralizing rancidity, discoloration, loss of Vitamin C in beverages, the growth of mold in some products, and so on.

Usually used in tandem with other additives, scavengers have been used primarily with other strategies to minimize oxygen in the packaging headspace. However, this method has proven to be inefficient, time intensive and expensive. These products are for the most part available as sachets, labels and the like.

Most recently, though, Multisorb has been in the forefront of developing oxygen solutions that are insinuated directly into the package resin.

Multisorb FreshPlus® Resin is a film additive that removes the need to include oxygen scavenging sachets or alternate formats such as labels or cards into a package. Already broadly available and employed at some of the biggest food companies globally, FreshPlus resin is reliable and highly efficient.

Masterbatch resin types include LLDPE, PP, EMA and PET.

Designed for extrusion, FreshPlus can also be formulated for injection molding.

It can be extruded as a monolayer or multilayer, also known as coextrusion. In master batches of these Fresh Plus resins, significant advantages were achieved in both the extrusion and injection molding processes.

Some benefits that were derived are:

Enhanced Customer Satisfaction

Film infused with FreshPlus resin eliminates the requirement to resort to oxygen scavenging sachets, cards, or labels in the packaging, enhancing customer satisfaction and reducing deficiencies. FreshPlus resin promotes packaging design flexibility.

Accelerated Production Timelines

Using FreshPlus means that clients can dispense with manual or automated insertion, saving both time and money on the production line. 

Assured Quality Control

By eliminating the step of inserting scavengers, the likelihood of failures on the production line and deficiencies in the final product is removed. Since the additive incorporated into a resin or film layer, exposure times during production are optimized when compared to a conventional sachet.

Consistent Sustainability

Because FreshPlus eliminates the need for a sachet and builds scavenging capability directly into the pouch, 400 lbs of plastic or more for each million pouches can be saved.

To summarize, FreshPlus eliminates free-floating scavengers, extends shelf-life, reduces the need for artificial preservatives in food, and enables new packaging formats and sizes. It also offers significant efficiencies in the supply chain, by reducing both operating and capital expenses. Applications that are supported by the FreshPlus process include Pouches, Lidstock, Bag-in-Box, Flow Wrap, Retort, and High-Pressure Processing.