Title: Packaging materials for fresh produce; A case study to preserve the quality of longan fruits

Abstract

Packaging materials play a significant role in food quality preservation, shelf-life extension and food safety. These packaging materials when combined with other materials play a synergetic role. Any change in these packaging materials will have a different effect on the quality of a targeted product. Therefore, in this study, fresh longan fruits which are highly perishable in nature were selected. Oriented polypropylene (OPP) and polyethylene (PE) of different thicknesses (20, 40, and 60 µm) were selected as different packaging materials. As only packaging materials alone could not extend the storage life, therefore, the fruits were first packaged in these bags and fumigated with propyl disulfide (PD) by attaching sterile gauze inside the wall of the packages. All the packages were heat sealed and stored at 12° for 18 days. Fruits packaged in open net packages served as control. Packaging materials played a significant role in the shelf life of longan fruits. The results showed fruit packaged in OPP and PE significantly prevented losses of water, microbial decay (DI), and maintained color compared to the control treatment. Among these packaging materials, OPP-20 and OPP 40 best maintained the overall quality of fruits and extended the shelf life to 18 days, followed by 15 days in OPP-60, PE-20, and PE-40 and 12 days in PE-60 packaging films. Although fruits in control packaging materials were able to store until day 9, however, quality of the fruits was very poor and was acceptable up to day 6 only. Therefore, OPP-20 and OPP-40 packaging materials could be applied commercially for a wide range of food products to preserve their quality.