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Gas exchange in modified atmosphere packaging. 2: Experimental results with strawberries
Author(s) -
RENAULT PIERRE,
HOUAL LYDIE,
JACQUEMIN GUY,
CHAMBROY YVES
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
international journal of food science and technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.831
H-Index - 96
eISSN - 1365-2621
pISSN - 0950-5423
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2621.1994.tb02080.x
Subject(s) - modified atmosphere , atmosphere (unit) , polypropylene , homogeneity (statistics) , environmental science , materials science , composite material , chemistry , food science , mathematics , meteorology , shelf life , physics , statistics
Strawberries were used to test a new model describing gas transport through micro‐perforated polypropylene films and fruit respiration involved in modified atmosphere packaging. Some experiments were conducted with empty packs initially filled with either 100% N 2 or 100% O 2 . Simulations agreed very well with experiments only if we replaced the cross‐sectional area of the micro‐perforations by areas of approximately half the actual areas in order to account for the resistance of air around the perforations. It is also possible to fit the model to gas concentration changes in packs filled with strawberries, although deviations have been due to the contamination of strawberries by fungi. the model was used to quantify the consequences of the variability of pack properties (number of micro‐perforations per pack and cross‐sectional area of these perforations) on equilibrium gas concentrations and to define minimum homogeneity requirements for modified atmosphere packaging.