Generalized toolbox for a priori equilibrium modified atmosphere packaging design. Part I: Model development

The trade-off between fruit and vegetable shelf life and the environmental impact of their loss and waste challenges the packaging use and design. Here, a versatile graphical toolbox for equilibrium modified atmosphere packaging of respiring produce is proposed, providing detailed information about dimensions and materials, unlike conventional approaches relying on indirect gas composition and respiration kinetics. The design degrees of freedom comprising packaging characteristics have been identified by modeling mass transfer processes, yielding a simple yet informative set of plots that accurately predict the equilibrium headspace gas composition and allowing for easy comparison between different solutions without the need for complex calculations or experimentation.