Our primary scientific focus has included:

• Quantifying the impact of the primary parameters that determine BIB wine shelf-life, including the type of wine, amounts of SO2, microbiological stability, headspace and dissolved oxygen, gas barrier of the initial package, filling and logistics inflicted damage to the package and storage temperatures.
• Establishing good practices for BIB filling, transport and storage
• Standardizing test methods for BIB packaging
• Understanding package/product interactions including the passage of both desirable and undesirable aromas and other molecules from the package into the beverage and from the beverage into the package.
• Estimating the environmental impact of BIB and other package systems and determining areas of improvement, including the recyclability of the plastic BIB bag and tap.

To download the above documents and other references please go to the documents section.

Common quality issues include insufficient BIB shelf-life, off-odours or tastes and leakers.

We offer our services to brand owners, BIB filling centres and retail chains but not typically to BIB package or filling machine manufacturers.

If the purpose of the request is simply to try to get someone else pay for a quality issue with little respect for truth or if there is not a willingness to share samples and information openly, we are not the right people to contact.

If on the other hand there is a sincere eagerness to seek out root cause and practical solutions we can contribute as long as there is still enough evidence to work with. This usually implies getting involved very soon after the problem is first identified.

In order to determine if we think that we might be able to help, please send us a clear definition of the problem that we will treat with utmost confidentiality.

If we have the time available we will send an indication of what needs to be done and a rough estimate of costs.

Although other qualified individuals may be called on to help solve BIB related quality problems, the primary contact for these services is Patrick Shea who was raised in Minnesota (USA) and lives in a small village near Montpellier, France.

Patrick’s university background was Food and Agricultural Sciences (BSc, MSc) & Economics (PhD). He has worked as an academic researcher (London University) and teacher (University of Montpellier), a manager of a winery and as Chief Scientist for Vitop, part of the Smurfit Kappa Group.

Since 2020 Patrick has been working as an independent in close association with others having many years of practical experience solving problems related to insufficient BIB beverage shelf-life, off-odours or tastes, leakers and other issues.

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