Are coatings a plastic packaging replacement?
If one looks at the Internet, all too often there are articles & images about plastic and the effect it is having on our planet & its wildlife. Such examples are:
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| Pollution: Birds injesting hundreds of bits of plastics a day | Horror stories – the shocking tale of a man made monster | Bue Planet 2 – How plastic is slowly killing our sea creatures, fish and birds |
Its stories like the above that have rekindled interest in work done in the 1980’s, looking at the use of coatings & in particular, Semperfresh, to alleviate plastic pollution. Nature created skins & shells on fruit & vegetables, so, why cannot man use natural products to further enhance the barriers nature has made on these fruit & veg?
What is it?
Sucrose esters were developed in the 1980’s by Tate & Lyle. Initially they were used as a cleaning product, but it was soon realised they had benefits as a coating to slow down natural ripening. Here is the clever bit: The water part of the sugar molecule sticks out into the air, attracting moisture while the fatty acid combines with the skin, to slow down Oxygen uptake & release of CO2. This results in a slowing of the fruit or vegetable’s respiration rate. The nice diagram below explains this better:
Issues such as shrivel are delayed on certain produce.
It is used to:
- Delay maturation of plums & apricots
- Maintain the fresh appearance of some fruit e.g. pears & cherries
- Reduce shrivel & softening in some fruit, e.g. plums
- Reduce bruising / skin marking in pears such as Packhams, Green Williams & Bartlets
- Reduce chilling injury in sea freighted soft citrus & pineapples
- Maintain flavour by delaying the ripening process
The product is widely used in Chile, the US & Washington state, Italy & Spain with smaller volumes used in the Far East.
It has approval for use on a range of produce in the EU, UK & US & Japan, and has approval from World Health Organisation.
Its used pre storage or prior to packing & is compatible with post-harvest fungicide treatments with some exceptions.
First trials were done in 1987 by Adel Kader at UC Davis California & then in Chile in 1988.
With the advent of plastic packaging in the UK / EU, the produce declined in use here until programmes such as Blue Planet & press articles focused on the impact of plastic in our environment. Since then, companies have looked at this coating to eliminate the benefits of plastic.
Paul Ward Horticulture has been with Agricoat / Mantrose to re-establish its use in the UK & EU markets. Trials are ongoing & some interesting results have been seen on peach, apricot, avocado, pears, soft citrus, to mention a few products.
We are interested in working with packers & growers to identify potential uses for the product & would like to hear from pineapple exporters from the Ivory Coast, for example.
Additionally, we are looking at some of the Natureseal Products to control bacterial & fungal issues on produce, as well as methods to enhance flavours in fruit & vegetables!
If you would like to learn more, please contact Paul Ward on +447470452007, or e-mail paul@pwhort.com.