Software in packaging
packaging (MAP) for fresh produce was unveiled yesterday at the
International Conference for Engineering and Food (ICEF). The
technology tells packagers the size and type of film needed.
"The purpose of this software is to tell you what type of packaging is required," explained Mahajan Oliveira of University College Cork, Ireland. "It selects the best possible film type for a given commodity. A manufacturer can type in a specific food product, such as a golden delicious apple, and the software will tell him the ideal type of packaging according to the supplier or the retailer's needs."
The technology could make understanding MAP even simply. Indeed, according to Michelle Jackson from UK-based MAP specialist Air Products, the concept can be already understood quite easily. "MAP takes the earth's natural atmosphere and replaces it in packaging with a single gas or a cocktail of gases," she said. "The type of gas used depends on the type of food product."
The success of MAP therefore depends on the packer's ability to correctly prepare the product and to control the concentrations of gas within the desired limits. Therefore, manufacturers and packagers need to know what the optimum conditions are - which film should be used and what thickness is required.
This varies for each food product, and it is the predictive ability of the new software that is its greatest strength, according to Oliveira.
However, some of the delegates at the seminar expressed reservations about the data used. Some questioned the ability of the software to correctly predict the ideal film for a particular product as there is a great deal of divergent literature on the subject.
Oliveira said that the predictive data for, say, a mango was based on readily available data. It was not part of the project for the research team to collect and verify the data themselves, he said.
In addition, Oliviera told FoodProductionDaily.com that the software was at present limited to fruit and vegetable applications. The software was unable to provide packagers with information for the ideal packaging of low metabolic foods such as meat, where modified atmosphere is trapped at the packaging stage.
Oliveira was also keen to stress that the software was still not commercially available, and that the project was still in the research phase. The scheme is being developed as part of a programme by the Irish government under National Development Plan (NDP) 2000 - 2006.
