From:Packaging News

A ‘prominent European retail chain’ recently conducted a litmus trial with Uflex’s Flexfresh liner bags.

The company used the solution from the India packaging major to ship blueberries from South America to Europe.

This journey usually takes more than 5 weeks by sea and Uflex reported that the results have been “more than astounding.”

While the loose blueberries resulted in an average weight loss of 19.96%, those packed in Flexfresh reportedly shed merely 0.76% weight after a period of 7 weeks, thus registering a phenomenal 96% reduction in weight loss upon arrival.
Notably Flexfresh works on the principle of Active Modified Atmospheric Packaging (AMAP) – a solution that Uflex has launched globally in collaboration with the Perfotec B.V of The Netherlands.

While Flexfresh is a special patent protected polymeric packaging film manufactured by Uflex for packing fresh fruits, vegetables and flowers; Perfotec supplies the Fast Respiration meter for ascertaining the respiration rate of the fresh produce and the associated software for calculating the required film permeability.

The Perfotec laser system subsequently uses this information to adapt the permeability of the film offered by Uflex through micro perforations. This solution maintains the ideal Oxygen and Carbon Dioxide inside the liner bags to maintain freshness and extend shelf life of the product.

In the recently held trials, the objective of the retail chain was to ascertain if it was possible to ship and store the soft fruit (blueberry) for 7 weeks in a Flexfres liner bag. The blueberries were packed in punnets with and without Flexfresh liner bags. In a separate lot, loose blueberries were packed with and without Flexfresh liner bags.

After 7 weeks the blueberries in the liner bags were found to be good, firm, crunchy and tasty. However, those packed in a controlled ambience are said to have mainly been collapsed and mouldy.

The results also established that pre-packing itself is not enough as it can address the issue of weight loss but not quality. Punnets with and without liner bags resulted in 0.76% and 2.56% weight loss respectively. Both these figures are significantly lower than the 19.96% weight loss registered in case of loose blueberries.

The punnets that were not using liner bag still showed the same quality problems like mouldy blueberries.

Upon successfully testing Flexfresh liner bags for sea freight of blueberries N. Siva Shankaran vice president, Flexfresh at Uflex said, “This test indeed is quite a feat and has instilled a lot of faith in our Flexfresh packaging solution. More business queries are flowing in. The recent trials have successfully established a shelf life of 7 weeks for the soft fruit without using sulphur pads that cause irritation while consuming.

“The European retailer is confident that Flexfresh Liner bags for blueberries from the Southern Hemisphere would be used for all shipments in a short span of time. Supplying blueberries by sea will significantly bring down the logistical costs for the importer.

It is a clear win-win both for the exporters in South America and the importers in Europe thereby boosting the trade prospects on the whole.”