Packaging Design to Protect Hongmeiren Orange Fruit from Mechanical Damage during Simulated and Road Transportation
Dandan Zheng,
Jiahui Chen,
Menghua Lin,
Da Wang,
Qiong Lin,
Jingping Cao,
Xiangzheng Yang,
Yuquan Duan,
Xianming Ye,
Chongde Sun,
Di Wu,
Jun Wang,
Kunsong Chen
Affiliations
Dandan Zheng
College of Agriculture & Biotechnology, Zijingang Campus, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
Jiahui Chen
College of Agriculture & Biotechnology, Zijingang Campus, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
Menghua Lin
College of Agriculture & Biotechnology, Zijingang Campus, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
Da Wang
Jinan Fruit Research Institute, All China Federation of Supply and Marketing Cooperatives, Jinan 250200, China
Qiong Lin
Key Laboratory of Agro-Products Quality and Safety Control in Storage and Transport Process, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Beijing 100193, China
Jingping Cao
College of Agriculture & Biotechnology, Zijingang Campus, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
Xiangzheng Yang
Jinan Fruit Research Institute, All China Federation of Supply and Marketing Cooperatives, Jinan 250200, China
Yuquan Duan
Key Laboratory of Agro-Products Quality and Safety Control in Storage and Transport Process, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Beijing 100193, China
Xianming Ye
Zhejiang Jianong Fruit &Vegetable Co., Ltd., Quzhou 324000, China
Chongde Sun
College of Agriculture & Biotechnology, Zijingang Campus, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
Di Wu
College of Agriculture & Biotechnology, Zijingang Campus, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
Jun Wang
Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Advanced Food Manufacturing Equipment and Technology, Department of Packaging Engineering, Jiangnan University, Wuxi 214122, China
Kunsong Chen
College of Agriculture & Biotechnology, Zijingang Campus, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
Hongmeiren is a high-quality orange fruit but susceptible to mechanical damage. This work proposes a new packaging format (Packaging C), which used the plastic partition boards to separate the folding plastic basket to avoid the fruits from crushing each other, and used a PU foam layer and placed it along the inside of the EPE foam layer to meet the different sizes of fruits. The results show that under both 3 and 10 h of simulated transportation, Packaging C achieved a much lower damage and decay rates than Packaging A (plastic bulk containers), and this was further verified by the road transportation. Besides, Packaging C could avoid dents in the peel of some large fruits compared to the gift packaging (Packaging B). Although the use of inner packaging could increase the use of packaging, it can reduce the waste of cultivation and transportation resources caused by not being able to deliver the fruit to the consumer, as well as environmental pollution caused by fruit decay. Moreover, low temperature (10 °C) and high humidity (90% RH) during transportation could further reduce the damage and packages at the rear position obtained a higher damage rate than at the front position, but no obvious difference was found between stack heights.
