food, pharmaceutical and medical device companies will now be able to improve the accuracy of their package headspace oxygen readings via firstofitskind instrumentation technology from mocon, inc. the objective is to help brand owners optimize material attributes and improve economics, while meeting shelf life and other performance objectives.the company&39s new optech®o2 model p test system uses a patentpending pressure needle&trade and a sensor to automatically measure internal package pressure and calculate the correct oxygen reading. internal package pressure directly impacts the accuracy of the oxygen reading.the ability of the instrument to automatically compensate for the internal pressurewhen measuring headspace gas is particularly important for small packages, such as blister packs. this is because a variety of actions, such as the force required to insert the needle, can impact the internal pressure. the capability also benefits any package size with unknown internal conditions.an additional benefit of the pressure needle is that the sensor is located at the tip and is inserted directly into the headspace, eliminating the need to extract headspace in order to conduct a test. the sensors are nonconsuming, enabling longterm shelflife studies by measuring the changes within the same package headspace.mocon&39s optecho2 technology relies on an optical sensor that "fluoresces" or givesoff light directly related to the amount of oxygen present in the package headspace. in addition to headspace measurement the optecho2 model p is a useful tool for measuring oxygen permeation rates down to 1ccm2day
