Why so much air in my packet of snacks??

Ever bought/got a packet of chips and say made a joke about the amount of air it had? Someone might have said they are paying for the air in it as well . :D

But why?? Are the multi national snack companies are doing it for making the profit? Before anyone gets down to the lawyer's office, lets say there are some valid reasons to why there is some amount of air in the packet of snacks.

Well if one ask's what does the packet carry? The answer would be chips, snacks etc.. so basically food right?

And food with time is prone to get stale right? Can get damaged in the sense say chips may break into small pieces right?

So lets say having some amount of air will act as a layer so the chips for example can get some amount of protection if not all from any kind damages or breakages kind of giving a cushioning effect.

Ohkay, the part about preventing breakage one can understand , but someone might argue there could be other better ways to handle this issue. This brings us to the first point i.e. food with time can go stale, get spoiled due to possible oxidation process and so on thus affecting the taste, quality, health for that matter. 

Presence of oil in the chips can make it go rancid(causing an unpleasant smell) if not taken care properly.

So preservation of the food is a more important issue to tackle. And when we say oxidation, there is a point where one can say if presence of oxygen which being a very reactive elements can/will affects the food so why are we using air which would have presence of oxygen or moisture ?? 

So the answer is NO, we are not using oxygen or in general air! We are using NITROGEN.

Sure, that clears something but why nitrogen you ask? Because it is an inert gas which generally do not affect or react  or lets say reacts very poorly with the chemical composition of the elements it is with. They are tasteless, odourless so that is as well a huge plus so the taste/smell of the food product is not changed.

The air in the packet is completely vaccumed out before filling the packet with food grade Nitrogen.

This not only helps in preservation of the food but also in the safety of the packet. Consumers can/will choose the inflated packets rather than the deflated one when buying.

Now, not all the food items are preserved using Nitrogen gas, there are other gases like Argon(comparatively more expensive) gas which is used in canned product preservation.

Even carbon dioxide which is not an inert gas is said to be used in preservation of yoghurt packs as it slows down the oxidation process.

So, we have an answer to another question of the curious mind. Until next time, let the curiousity work its  way!

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