I'm making a research on how packaging can influence consumers' choice of agricultural products.
I am finding it difficult on how to relate packaging to durability of agricultural products, with other findings to support my findings.
I will also need other findings to support my finding on the effective storage as a function of packaging.
Make your input with any theory as it relate to the question.
I will appreciate that.
The firmness, colour and size are important quality characters which affect the market price of fruits and vegetables. Additional quality indices are freedom from handling defects and decay. Such vegetables are susceptible to chilling injury at 10 °C or low temperature and yellowing at 15 °C or higher, therefore must be stored at temperatures between 10 °C and 15 °C. Yellowing during the postharvest period in also observed if the fruits were harvested at an advanced stage of development or exposure to ethylene during storage. Further, they are very susceptible to shriveling and hence the humidity during storage, transport and marketing should be kept at 90–95%. Waxing is generally used to reduce moisture loss from cucumber but it increases the incidence of decay. Researchers have studied the effect of shrink wrapping on storage life and quality of many fruits and vegetables . Individual shrink wrapping (ISW), a form of modified atmosphere packaging is used to enhance the storage life and to maintain the harvest freshness of fruits and vegetables. The principal advantage of shrink wrapping are: reduced weight loss, minimized fruit deformation, reduced chilling injury and reduced decay by preventing secondary infection.
Studying the existing handling chain would give you a good idea on how your specific product is being brought to market. This will give you information on what mechanical stresses are present before the product is packaged; quality of a product that is already damaged will not improve even if the package is properly designed. There are many published loss assessment studies (Acta Hort, Postharv Biol Technol) that can guide you in doing this.
Once you know what the conditions are during handling, and the types of damage that are occurring, then you could start selecting package types, designs, technologies to use. Improving awareness of of the need for proper postharvest handling would also help significantly.
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