Fresh food packaging design: A requirement driven approach applied to strawberries and agro-based materials

Abstract To overcome the limitations of current trial and error approaches used to design food packaging, a requirement driven approach was adapted from the software and service industries to the field of fresh fruits and vegetable packaging. Based on 5 steps, it relies on the knowledge of produce needs and the use of modeling tools to turn produce requirements into packaging properties before designing the packaging. It was then successfully applied to dimension and design an active packaging, tailor made for optimal preservation of strawberries at 20 °C. The solution consisted in a PET punnet providing protection against physical damage and a lid ensuring both gas transfer for optimal atmosphere and release of an active agent acting against mold growth. This active lid was made of wheat gluten proteins containing 2-nonanone that was quickly released only in high RH conditions in an amount equal to the minimal inhibition dose for Botrytis cinerea . Industrial Relevance Design of packaging for fresh produce such as fruits and vegetables is still mainly based on a trial and error approach (often referred as “pack and pray”) that does not ensure conception of an optimal packaging for produce preservation. The non-optimal character of existing packaging is one of the main causes of fresh fruit and vegetable losses along the supply chain. This study proposes an alternative approach to design optimal packaging for fresh and respiring produce: the requirement driven approach. This approach was adapted from the field of software and service industries to the specificity of fresh produce packaging one. It takes into account the needs of the produce (e.g. physical protection, microbial protection or optimal atmosphere for preservation) from the very beginning of the conception process to reduce the risks of inadequacy between the packaging and the produce. In addition to knowledge of the produce physiology and needs, this approach relies on the use of modeling tools to turn produce requirements into packaging properties before designing the packaging. The efficiency of such method was demonstrated through a case study on strawberry packaging. Given the increasing quantity of data available on produce physiology and needs, and the online, free to use and user friendly character of recent MAP modeling tools such as Tailorpack ( www.tailorpack.com ), generalization of the requirement driven approach proposed in this study could be of major interest for the fresh fruits and vegetable packaging industry. It should help to design optimal packaging for specific produce and thus reduce risk of losses along the supply chain by improving preservation.