Food > Fish and Seafood > Product Inspection > Flexible Retort Pouch Defects Manual 

CHAPTER 7
DEFECT CATEGORIES

SECTION 7.1
DEFECT: ABRASION

CLASSIFICATION:

Abrasion is considered a serious defect if:

1) the abrasion penetrates deeper than the outer layer; or

2) testing shows that there has been a loss of hermetic integrity. Deep scratches that can be felt as indentations must be tested for hermetic integrity.

Abrasions are considered to be minor defects if only the outer layer is abraded.

DESCRIPTION:

An abrasion is a scratch through any of the layers of the package. A serious abrasion penetrates the foil or the inner polypropylene layers.

A minor abrasion is also called a scuff. It will only affect the outer layer(s) of the pouch. The foil layer is not affected.

COMMON SOURCES:

1) The pouches were manually scraped on the retort racks, other equipment or other pouches.

2) Pouches rotated or shifted over top of one another (for example, if unrestrained in retorts or in bulk packaging).

3) Plastic was left on the sealing bar from previous sealing.

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