Information for fruit and vegetables business in CIS
Trends in world packing industry development
About 30% of all plastic materials produced in the world accounts for packing materials. The trend to use renewable materials for packing, such as paper and cardboard, limits usage of plastics. According to environmental protection principles the decomposable materials, including biocomposable and photocomposable ones, are becoming popular; first of all they are plastic masses with starch addition, exposed to natural decomposition after use that make waste utilization problem easier.
Among new materials used for packing in modified atmosphere, first of all, "smart films" should be mentioned; they regulate oxygen and carbon dioxide migration between packing and surrounding air. For "breathing" commodities such as fruits and vegetables (cut fruits as well as broccoli, cauliflower and carrot are breathing most extremely), for breathing and ripening control over the packed commodities it is necessary to let small amount of oxygen penetrate through the film. Otherwise products will be spoiled, or, even more dangerous, the anaerobic bacteria of botulism may start to grow up, as the Industrial Markets Environment Academy informs.