Fruits need a shrink!

Horticulturists have long identified loss of moisture as the chief culprit for post-harvest losses in fruit and vegetables. Pomegranates, for example, become dull, desiccated, tough, discoloured beyond a week’s storage in ambient conditions. Capsicums, too, start to get shrivelled after three days.

Now, scientists at the Bangalore-based Indian Horticultural Research Institute (IHRI) have developed a shrink-wrapping technique that will extend the shelf life of pomegranates and capsicums. Normally, individual shrink-wrapping uses imported polyolefin film, which makes the practice very expensive. The IHRI method, though, uses locally available polythene film, which extends shelf-life, allows for brand and variety identification and protects the produce from chilling injuries in low temperatures, facilitating export.

This technology will be ideal for commercial growers, wholesalers, exporters and retailers. The only equipment required are a sealer and a hot air shrink tunnel. The individual fruit or vegetable is loosely sealed in a plastic film, and passed through the heat-shrunk tunnel, where the hot air causes the plastic to cling closely to the produce, thereby sealing the produce.

The institute demonstrated that individual shrink-wrapping could extend the shelf-life of pomegranates to 25 days and capsicums to 12-14 days at normal temperatures.