Is a nitrogen flush from natural gas acceptable for preserving health food?
Suzanne B asked:
If a nitrogen flush is not considered natural or acceptable for a health product, then what alternatives are there to keep bacterial from growing in a health product, like a nutrition bar?
If a nitrogen flush is not considered natural or acceptable for a health product, then what alternatives are there to keep bacterial from growing in a health product, like a nutrition bar?
Thank you.
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November 27th, 2008 at 12:16 am
Water content is one thing you could look at. If the water availability is low enough it will discourage bacterial growth. This is the same reason that a popular natural way of preserving food is drying.
Another thought would be looking at individual components of the bar. If it contains a fruit then there will be natural yeast. Raisins would be ok because they are dried but if you use for example a strawberry you would either have to dry it, or you could make a paste by smashing up the berries, heating the mash to pasteurize it, then add the paste back to the product as a fruit layer.
Nuts such as almonds, peanuts, etc. could be roasted before going into the bar. Honey is naturally bacteriostatic and can act as a binding agent for your ingredients as well as a natural preservative.
I hope this helps give some ideas.