Packaging of Fresh Fruit and Vegetables:the complex task of transferring theory into practice

摘要

Fresh fruit and vegetables possess the unique ability to create an optimal modified atmosphere bythemselves without adding any gas to the packaging process. This ability is often referred to as equilibriumMAP (eMAP) or product generated MAP and has been the subject of intensive research since the 1980'ies.Despite this fact, a large proportion of packed fresh fruit and vegetables is still suffering from improper packaging,which often results in the development of harmful anaerobic atmosphere conditions. Huge variations inproduct parameters and storage conditions (especially temperature) make the packaging system very hard topredict and control in practice. A large Danish innovation consortium (worth 3.6m EUR) has accepted thechallenge to make the scientific knowledge work in practice at individual producer levels. This is donethrough extensive training of the primary producers of fruit and vegetables in simple respiration measurementsand headspace gas analyses combined with the systematic registration of respiration and packaging dataover the season providing the basis for qualified choices of packaging material depending on the productand season variations. A simple and relatively inexpensive respiration measurement system has been developedfor this purpose.