Sustainability and Circularity Assignment Sample
Introduction
In addition to the fact that fruits and vegetables continue to be living beings even after being picked, they can only be kept fresh for as long as the body’s regular metabolism continues to work at its normal rate (SITTIDECH,2019).
For a product, metabolism refers to the process of taking in oxygen while simultaneously breaking down and releasing water and carbon dioxide from the carbohydrates contained within the product. When the supply of oxygen is decreased, it is feasible to make small quantities of alcohol, but the chemical process must be altered as a consequence. Among other things, the breakdown of plant cells contributes to the production of off-tastes and flavours. Depending on the environment, this series of events, known as anaerobic decomposition, has the ability to completely kill fruits and vegetables in as little as a few hours after they have been harvested (Williams,2018).
Background
The moisture content of fruits and vegetables may range from 75 to 95 percent depending on the variety, making them good for preserving. Depending on the circumstances, it is conceivable for their equilibrium relative humidities to reach up to 98 percent under favourable circumstances. Having been exposed for a lengthy period of time to ordinary atmospheric conditions, they will dry out in a relatively short period of time (Myana,2018). The plant wilts and shrivels as a consequence of the loss of rigidity and shrinking of the cells, which eventually results in the plant’s death (Etana,2019.) The appropriate wrapping of fresh fruits and vegetables helps to keep moisture loss and wilting to an absolute minimum. It is possible to store fruits and vegetables in the refrigerator for prolonged periods of time as a result of this method. Consequently, the rate at which moisture is lost varies depending on the product since various types of water vapours in the environment have varying permeabilities to packing film than air (Elik,2019).
Intervention
The use of small holes to allow for oxygen permeability has only a little influence on the amount of moisture that is lost throughout the production process, according to the manufacturer. Microorganisms such as yeasts, moulds, and bacteria are responsible for the rotting of fruits and vegetables, and it is a very widespread problem in the food business, especially in the produce industry. However, it is also possible for these microorganisms to cause harm to a product by growing on the item’s outside; however, it is also conceivable for them to enter the inside of the item via surface damage or cutting, which may result in internal rot and breakdown of the product’s components. As a result, careful handling and packaging are essential for ensuring that the product remains fresh and of high quality throughout the shipping process (Steinhorst,2021).
Measure your baseline. Monitor
Because of the natural process of ripening that happens on a regular basis, fruits and vegetables vary in colour, texture, aroma, and flavour as they ripen and mature. The harvesting of each fruit kind occurs at a certain point in time when the fruit has reached its complete maturity stage. As soon as the fruit reaches that point, it becomes overripe, and the quality of the product begins to decline rapidly. General rule: The primary objective of fresh fruit and vegetable marketing is to provide the product to the client at a stage of maturity that will ensure that it is completely ripe at the time of consumption. Fresh produce marketing is a multifaceted endeavour with several elements to it (Faqeerzada,2018). Without a doubt, this is a really difficult thing to do. The likelihood of the client choosing to wait until the ripening process was complete is greater if the product was delivered slightly underripe when ordered. Given that all of these processes are quite sensitive to temperature variations, putting the fruit in the refrigerator will enable them to continue at a more leisurely rate while the temperature stays consistent (Abejón,2020).
intervention plan
When it comes to fruits and vegetables, the best storage temperature is determined by the specific requirements and attributes of each fruit or vegetable. When it comes to fresh fruits and vegetables, packing will either be impossible to prevent or will only significantly slow down the pace at which they decay. Food that has been improperly wrapped may decompose more quickly than other types of food. It is possible that packing may assist in the avoidance of infection and damage, as well as excessive moisture loss during shipment, which is particularly important in the transportation sector. When moisture barriers are too thick, the relative humidity within the package may rise to dangerously high levels, which can speed up decomposition due to microorganisms or cause skin cracking on some fruits.
THE WORKING CONDITIONS AT THE PACKING HOUSE DIFFER FROM OTHER WORKING AREAS.
In order to properly package the things once they have been unloaded from the truck, they must first be organised before being placed in their respective boxes. Unlike in the United States, where bulk bins with capacities ranging from 200 to 500 kg are often utilised, in India disposable plastic crates are commonly employed instead, according to the Indian Packaging Association. It is necessary to pile up produce that has just recently been harvested in order to keep it fresh for a limited amount of time.
Temporary food storage food may be utilised for a number of purposes, depending on the kind of food that has been maintained in the storage facility. It will take a few hours for the most recent harm, which happened during harvesting, to present itself as visual anomalies, which may then be discovered and diagnosed. Following harvest, it is feasible to avoid spoiling and damage on the packing line if the food is produced in a field-warm environment and then processed in a cool environment, such as cold storage corridors, after being harvested (Aishwariya,2019).
Measure and evaluate impacts over time.
The most major activity in fresh produce is respiration, which is defined as the metabolic oxidation of all living cells that takes place in their surrounding environment. If we are talking about fresh food, the most significant action is that of respiration. Changes in the rate of respiration are directly proportional to temperature increases in the surrounding environment, with the rate of respiration almost doubling for every 10 degrees Celsius rise in temperature. Increased heat accumulation will occur as a result of the high rate of respiration, which will in turn cause the temperature of the product to rise as well as the rate of respiration. As a result, the product’s shelf life is severely shortened significantly. A product must be cleaned and disinfected before it can be marketed to the general public. Cleaning tank: Before anything else, there is a cleaning tank where dirt clods and pesticide residues are softened and dilute by a warm or cold solution of water detergents and disinfectants before they are made available for purchase by the general public. When preparing fruit for packing, it is important to wipe it thoroughly with a piece of cloth or soft brushes, followed by a thorough spritzing with water. If a fungicide treatment is required, the crop is treated with the proper fungicide to prevent further damage.
The product is dried with the help of air streams from ceiling fans, and it is then ready for further processing.
When the undersized output is selected, it is sent on to the presizer stage for conversion, which is the last step in the production process.
Following that, the product is evaluated in order to be divided into quality categories, which include ripe fruits that must be sold immediately, grade A, B, and C fruits, as well as export grade fruit and culls (fruit that is discarded). Waxes are used in the preparation of high-quality fresh fruit, either before or after grading, to ensure that the produce product retains its freshness for an extended period of time after it has been harvested and processed. Generally speaking, a wax coating on the surface of the rind or peel of most fruits and vegetables is designed to protect them from excessive moisture loss while yet allowing for open metabolic gas exchange to take place.
Evaluation of result
It is successful in that it completely removes the large majority of the wax residue by using a cleaning strategy to do so. By applying fake wax to fruit, the product’s keeping quality is restored, if not increased, due to the use of chemical compounds that prevent fruit from rotting or give shine to the colour in order to raise the product’s saleability. It has been shown that when fruit is treated with faux wax, the product’s keeping quality is restored, if not better.
Adding sizing to a collection is an additional sorting step in which the order of the items in the collection is dictated by the sizes of the objects in the collection as a whole.
Following an equal distribution of grades and proportions, the completed product is now ready to be packaged for distribution to the general public. Packaging materials for produce may be packed in a variety of shipping containers, depending on the product and grade, the distance between markets, the cost of packing materials, and the availability of packaging materials.
Preparing the container before to measuring the product, filling the container with the product, and closing the container are the phases that are often included in packaging procedures, according to the American Society for Packaging (Abejón,2019). When quantifying data, either numbers or weights may be utilised, or a combination of the two methodologies can be used to quantify the data. Due to the proportional link between the count and the weight created by accurate sizing, it is only necessary to do a ‘check-weighing’ operation after the count is complete to guarantee that the count and the weight are in agreement with one another after the count is complete It is up to the scenario whether the contents of the container are organised at random or in accordance with a predetermined arrangement. The product is better protected when pattern packing is employed since the contact pressure is reduced and the number of contact points is increased up to a maximum of 12. Pattern packing also results in a greater amount of material being utilised in the pattern itself.
Consumer packs are generally a variety of various sorts of plastic bags or overwrapped trays of differing sizes, depending on the manufacturer, and are produced at a packaging plant before the fruit is sold to the public. Container closing is the last step in the packing process, and it may be achieved with the aid of a variety of materials, including glue, staples, and straps, among others. In order to comply with container standards and market requirements, unitization and palletization may be carried out in line with the container standards and market requirements, respectively. When it comes to active packaging applications, the employment of polymers in the building of active packaging applications is required for optimal functioning in the vast majority of instances. As a typical packaging material, the polymer may be used in a variety of applications, such as the fabrication of sachets that are commercially used to scavenge airborne oxygen or carbon dioxide or to release ethanol or carbon dioxide. Toyo Seikan Kaisha (Japan) offers OXYGUARDTM thermoformed trays, which contain an active agent distributed in a packing film or sheet. A semipermeable carrier may be used in certain cases with OXYGUARDTM thermoformed trays, although this is not always essential. Semipermeable carriers, such as OXYGUARDTM thermoformed trays (Toyo Seikan Kaisha, Japan), are a kind of semipermeable carrier. The polymer may also be able to have an even greater impact on the performance of a package when it interacts with the components of the package’s headspace in a physical or chemical manner under other circumstances. Interactions such as absorption, which happens in the case of moisture buffering liners for produce cartons, and reactions, which occur in the case of oxygen scavenging polymers, are examples of what is often seen.
It is possible to modify the permeability of a product by using thermally sensitive packaging materials and processes, which are becoming more popular.
When it comes to the development of side-chain-crystalllizable (SCC) polymers, which have the ability to effectively and reversibly melt as the temperature increases, this is a significant step forward since it allows for more gas flow through the polymers.
The term “SCC polymer” refers to an acrylic polymer that has side chains that are not attached to the main chain of the polymer. SCC polymers are also referred to as branching acrylics in certain circles. Changing the length of the side-chains present in a chemical may cause its melting point to rise or fall. … Because copolymers can be manufactured with any melting point between 0 and 68°C, it is also possible to prepare meals with melting points ranging from 0 to 68°C, which is within the temperature range of minimally processed foods with an extreme distribution temperature range. This is possible because copolymers can be manufactured with any melting point between 0 and 68°C. A result of the high permeability of the material to gas molecules, SCC polymers undergo transformation into molten fluids when exposed to a high enough temperature, and these molten fluids have an intrinsically high gas permeability.
Summary
A system’s permeation properties may be changed by introducing various polymers into the system. As a consequence, it is possible that the carbon dioxide to oxygen permeability ratios in the system may be affected. It is likely that this technique will produce materials that will allow the packing technologist to achieve the lowest feasible oxygen concentration within the box without the package becoming anaerobic as a consequence of the materials produced. This means that if greater distribution temperatures are required, it is possible to employ the optimum gas concentration while still being concerned with higher distribution temperatures as much as possible. Additionally, these materials exhibit temperature sensitivity in both directions, as well as having 100 times the oxygen permeability of normal polyethylene films while preserving the carbon dioxide to oxygen permeability ratio, which is a breakthrough in the field. In this technique, a porous substrate coated with a proprietary SCC polymer is employed, and the membrane is applied as a package label over an opening in a container that is otherwise tightly sealed.
References
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Bumbudsanpharoke, N. and Ko, S., 2022. Packaging technology for home meal replacement: Innovations and future prospective. Food Control, 132, p.108470.
Elik, A., Yanik, D.K., Istanbullu, Y., Guzelsoy, N.A., Yavuz, A. and Gogus, F., 2019. Strategies to reduce post-harvest losses for fruits and vegetables. Strategies, 5(3), pp.29-39.
Etana, M.B., Fufa, B.O. and Aga, M.C., 2019. A detailed review on common causes of postharvest loss and quality deterioration of fruits and vegetables in Ethiopia. Journal of Biology, Agriculture and Healthcare, 9(7), pp.48-52.
Faqeerzada, M.A., Rahman, A., Joshi, R., Park, E. and Cho, B.K., 2018. Postharvest technologies for fruits and vegetables in South Asian countries: a review. Korean Journal of Agricultural Science, 45(3), pp.325-353.
Fernández-Serrano, P., Tarancón, P. and Besada, C., 2020. Consumer information needs and sensory label design for fresh fruit packaging. An exploratory study in Spain. Foods, 10(1), p.72.
Heidbreder, L.M., Bablok, I., Drews, S. and Menzel, C., 2019. Tackling the plastic problem: A review on perceptions, behaviors, and interventions. Science of the total environment, 668, pp.1077-1093.
Letcher, T.M., 2020. Introduction to plastic waste and recycling. In Plastic Waste and Recycling (pp. 3-12). Academic Press.
Myana, N., 2018. An Innovation design for reusable shopping bags to optimize bag space. International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology, 5(5), pp.4200-4203.
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SITTIDECH, M.A., 2019. A STUDY OF CONSUMER ATTITUDES & BEHAVIOR TOWARDS FOOD PLASTIC PACKAGING IN THAILAND (Doctoral dissertation, THAMMASAT UNIVERSITY).
Steinhorst, J. and Beyerl, K., 2021. First reduce and reuse, then recycle! Enabling consumers to tackle the plastic crisis–Qualitative expert interviews in Germany. Journal of cleaner production, 313, p.127782.
Wiefek, J., Steinhorst, J. and Beyerl, K., 2021. Personal and structural factors that influence individual plastic packaging consumption—Results from focus group discussions with German consumers. Cleaner and responsible consumption, 3, p.100022.
Williams, H., Lindström, A., Trischler, J., Wikström, F. and Rowe, Z., 2020. Avoiding food becoming waste in households–The role of packaging in consumers’ practices across different food categories. Journal of Cleaner Production, 265, p.121775.
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