Modified atmosphere packaging and storage on sensory characteristics of ready‐to‐bake pizza

Consumer's demand for fresh, naturally preserved, food products has grown dramatically in recent years. Modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) has proved to be most innovative growth area in food packaging. Studies have been conducted to increase the shelf life of ready‐to‐bake pizza by using MAP technique. The purpose of this paper is to study the influence of different modified atmospheres and refrigerated storage on the sensory characteristics of the ready‐to‐bake (unbaked) pizza.

The most up‐to‐date and pertinent studies within the literature have been included and summated in this paper.

To determine the shelf life of MAP ready‐to‐bake pizza, the samples were subjected to four types of atmospheres (air, 100 per cent CO₂, 100 per cent N₂ and 50 per cent CO₂/50 per cent N₂) and stored for various time intervals at 7 ± 1 ^○C. The shelf life of ready‐to‐bake pizza significantly increased up to 15 days (a 300 per cent increase) for the samples packaged under 100 per cent CO₂ (atm 2), 50 per cent CO₂/50 per cent N₂ (atm 4) and 100 per cent N₂ (atm 3), compared to conventional air pack (five days).

This paper gives a concise, up‐to‐date overview on how different gases affect the various sensory parameters of ready‐to‐bake‐pizza.