Packaging and storage of herbs and spices 97
safety and structural-nutritional integrity as well as complete biodegradability must
be adopted as these provide the means for sustained environmental management.
5.7.6 Active packaging technologies
The choice of type of active packaging is based on three broad considerations. Most
important is the requirement of the food, followed by the packaging format and the
requirement of the active agent. The main types of active packaging are oxygen
scavenging, carbon dioxide scavenging or release, packaging to remove odours and
antimicrobial packaging.
5.7.7 Modified atmosphere packaging
Controlled atmosphere and modified atmosphere are terms implying the addition or
removal of gases from storage rooms, transportation containers or packages in order
to manipulate the levels of gases such as oxygen, carbon dioxide, nitrogen and
ethylene, etc. Modified atmosphere is more commonly used and is used to extend the
shelf life of food products and to prevent any undesirable changes in the wholesomeness,
safety, sensory characteristics and nutritive value of foods. MAP achieves the above
objectives based on three principles:
∑ reduction of undesirable physiological, chemical/biochemical and physical changes
in foods
∑ control of microbial growth
∑ prevention of product contamination.
5.8 Printing............................................................................................
5.8.1 Bar codes and other markings
The Uniform Code Council (UCC) or EAN International provide companies with a
bar code number to enable consumer products to be scanned by lasers in checkouts.
The Uniform Code Council (UCC) and EAN International have changed their names.
GS1 is the new name for EAN International and the UCC has also changed its name
to GS1 US. The UPC or EAN code consists of a manufacturer number which is
combined with a product number and a digit assigned by bar code software systems.
The UCC Company prefix is provided by the Uniform Code Council (now GS1 US
or GS1) and the manufacturer creates the individual product number. When the
prefix number and product number are entered in the software it automatically generates
the check digit.
There are currently five versions of UPC and two versions of EAN. The Japanese
Article Numbering (JAN) code has a single version identical to one of the EAN
versions with the flag characters set to 49. UPC and EAN symbols are fixed in
length, can only encode numbers and are continuous using four element widths. The
most frequently used UPC version has ten digits plus two overhead digits while EAN
symbols have 12 digits and one overhead digit. The first overhead digit of a UPC
symbol is a number related to the type of product while the EAN symbol uses the first
two characters to designate the country of the EAN International organization issuing
the number. UPC is a subset of the more general EAN code. Scanners equipped to