Purging bottles/cans with Nitrogen instead of CO2

[joecalderoni]

Has anyone tried to purge your bottles or cans using Nitrogen instead of CO2? Co2 is getting more expensive everyday on our location, we are looking at other alternatives if possible. Any comments on the subject?

[gitchegumee]

Been there...

I've done it with good results. But we have a very vigorous program to limit shelf life in stores. Nitrogen will help, but isn't quite as good. CO2 is much heavier than air. And air is mostly nitrogen. So nitrogen will mix more with the air in a can, while CO2 tends to stay put a bit better. And you should have an under-lid CO2 gas as well. That doesn't seem to work so well with nitrogen. Instead, we lid-on-foam to limit oxygen ingress. So yes, you can use nitrogen. It won't be as effective as CO2 to limit oxygen pickup. And nitrogen isn't free either. I'd go with CO2 if I had a choice.