Fresh Produce Container Operated with a Routine of Hypobaric Application, CO2 Injection and Diffusion Tube Opening for Keeping Beneficial Modified Atmosphere

Abstract

A concept of household container to create and keep the modified atmosphere (MA) beneficial for fresh produce mix was devised and tested under typical chilled storage conditions of 3°C. The container system containing mixed products is initialized by applying weak hypobaric condition (0.9 atm) and subsequently injecting CO2 gas at an appropriate low level (0.03 atm). The passive atmosphere modification by produce respiration is then induced to reach a target until gas diffusion tube of proper dimension starts to open. The design was made to attain quasi-steady state mass balance of O2, CO2 and N2 to maintain the desired MA through the storage. Interrupted opening for taking out or placing some products was to reinitialize the loop of control logic. The developed concept was tested by the container which held commodities of spinach, pak choi, oyster mushroom, peeled onion, strawberry and cut carrot. The target optimum MA of 11% O2 and 10% CO2 (0.11 and 0.10 atm, respectively) was set to avoid injurious range of O2 and CO2 concentrations for any commodities. The developed container system could work to reach and maintain beneficial MA of 0.10-0.12 atm O2 and 0.07-0.10 atm CO2 close to the target during the storage contributing to quality retention of products measured in weight loss, chlorophyll content of spinach, ascorbic acid content of pak choi, color of onion, texture of oyster mushroom, bacterial count of strawberry and carotenoids of carrot. The container system shows potential to improve current preservation practice of fresh produce mix on consumers’ level.