With the automatic slicing and packing equipment producing a 200 gram, modified atmosphere package every two seconds, it is essential that the nitrogen and carbon dioxide atmosphere in the packs is maintained within specification at less than 0.3% oxygen.
To ensure that all production is within specification, between three and eight modified atmosphere packs, depending on pack size, are tested at start up and then every hour using Systech Illinois gaspace headspace gas analyzers. If the oxygen content of the gas mix atmosphere is out of specification, the whole of the previous hour's production has to be repacked.