Modified humidity clamshells to reduce moisture loss and extend storage life of small fruits⋆

Publication date: December 2019Source: Food Packaging and Shelf Life, Volume 22Author(s): Jinhe Bai, Elizabeth Baldwin, Eleni Tsantili, Anne Plotto, Xiuxiu Sun, Libin Wang, Mina Kafkaletou, Zhe Wang, Jan Narciso, Wei Zhao, Sai Xu, Clark Seavert, Weiqiang YangAbstractWater loss is one of the major causes for the food loss and waste of small fruits, both in the retail market and at the consumer level. A modified humidity (MH) one-pound (˜454 g) clamshell was designed for small fruit packaging and was compared to a typical commercial (COM) clamshell for several small fruits held in cold (0–6 °C), refrigerated shelf (10 °C) and room (19–25 °C) temperatures, typical in the industry for shipment, storage and marketing. Water loss of litchis, sweet cherries, strawberries, blueberries, Chinese bayberries, apricots, loquats and cherry tomatoes packaged in the COM clamshells was 1.2–4.5-fold more than for MH clamshells. Quality attributes of the packaged fruits were generally better maintained in the MH clamshells, especially for those attributes susceptible to water deficit, such as shriveling, desiccation-induced browning and/or drying of pedicels in cherries, calyx of strawberries, pericarp of litchis, peel shriveling of cherry tomatoes and softening of blueberries and strawberries. The modification of the internal clamshell atmosphere was minor to moderate (mostly less than 1 kPa change, with a maximum change of 3.6 kPa which is still minor for O2, but is prob...
Source: Food Packaging and Shelf Life - Category: Food Science Source Type: research