Mahajan P.V. and *Sousa-Gallagher M. J.

7th International Conference on Predictive Modelling of Food Quality and Safety

Integrative Mathematical Modelling for Packaging Design of Fresh Produce

2011

September

Published

1

()

E. Cummins, J. M. Frias, V. P. Valdramidis

138

141

Dublin, Ireland

13-SEP-11

15-SEP-11

Modified Atmosphere Packaging (MAP) of fresh produce is a dynamic system and relies on the modification of the atmosphere inside the package, achieved by the natural interplay between two processes, the respiration of the product and the transfer of gases through the packaging film, which leads to an atmosphere richer in CO₂ and poorer in O₂. A real challenge is how to integrate the mathematical modelling depicting product respiration rate and package permeability on a packaging system. The ¿pack-and-pray¿ approach and in-house trial-and-error experiments are normally used to find a suitable packaging material, film area for gas/water vapour exchange, package size and the quantity of product to be packaged. This is both time and labour intensive and a potential risk to health. Pack-in-MAP^Ò web-based software was developed combining various mathematical models on product respiration rate and package permeability in order to determine the needs for packaging of fresh produce and predict the in-package gas composition during storage period, the effect of temperature of supply chain, and the effect of product/package variability on the package gas composition providing a system which allows selection of suitable packaging materials for fresh produce  Software could be used to test several solutions on a value-for-money basis in order to achieve results while minimising costs and avoiding costly trial-and-error approaches.