Carbonation problem
Oxygen is affecting shelf life or flavour
Dull, stale or papery flavour after packaging usually traces back to oxygen picked up between the tank and the closed package.
What you are seeing
Product tastes right from the tank but dulls in the package, shelf life is shorter than it should be, and customers mention stale flavour.
Likely causes
- Air drawn in during transfer or filling.
- Receiving tanks or packages not purged well.
- Leaky seals, gaskets or fittings.
- Delays between filling and closing.
Checks to run first
- Measure dissolved oxygen with a suitable meter in the tank and in finished packages.
- Review purge routines for receiving tanks and packages.
- Inspect seals, gaskets and fittings along the transfer path.
- Time the gap between fill and close.
Pre-Scrub mode runs repeated cycles intended to reduce remaining oxygen, and steady, pressurized packaging supports a lower-oxygen process.
Pre-Scrub is not a measurement. A cycle count does not prove a dissolved-oxygen result; use a DO meter for release decisions, and fix ingress points at the source.
When to get help
If DO readings are high at the package but fine in the tank, look at transfer and filling first. Send us your process and we will help you work through it.