Master packaging system for sweet persimmon applicable to produce supply chains

Abstract

Modified-atmosphere-packaged sweet persimmons experience significant quality loss due to temperature fluctuations in the food supply chain, which cause an imbalance between respiration and package gas permeation. This imbalance results in the package atmosphere deviating from the tolerable range. In this study, a master packaging system was designed to maintain a suitable modified atmosphere around the fruit during pre-sale chilled storage and during retail display to preserve freshness. A 50-μm-thick low-density polyethylene (LDPE) outer liner bag containing 46 individual fruit packages (30-μm-thick oriented polypropylene (OPP) film bag with a micro-perforation of about 60μm) was placed within a corrugated paperboard box. Master packaging systems with and without the absorbent sachets were stored for 122d at 0°C and were periodically opened to remove and store the individual primary package units for 10d at 10°C to simulate retail display conditions. The master packaging systems were compared to 10-kg bulk packages containing individual fruit inside a 50-μm-thick LDPE film bag in terms of package atmosphere and fruit quality. Individual fruit packages consisting only of 30-μm-thick, micro-perforated OPP films without an outer liner bag were subjected to the pre-sale 0°C storage for comparison. The master packaging systems maintained an atmosphere with O2 concentrations of 0.8–3.9% and CO2 concentrations of 8.4–15.0% around the fruit during storage at 0°C and during display at 10°C. The high-temperature retail display, after chilled storage at 0°C, resulted in a drastic decline in quality, even with some alleviation offered by the master packaging system. The overall benefits were reduced weight loss, reduced physiological deterioration (e.g., flesh softening and surface blackening) and better retention of firmness and ascorbic acid during the chilled storage and/or the display conditions.