Compostable Packaging May Allow Longer Shelf-Life Of Vegetables Than Conventional Plastic, Studies Find

London /PRNewswire/ - Compostable packaging is as effective as conventional plastic and may even outperform it for shelf-life of fresh produce, two peer reviewed studies have revealed.

The results cast new doubt on the claim that conventional plastic packaging is the only possible solution for preserving freshness on the market.

Scientists at the Agricultural Research Organization (ARO), The Volcani Institute (Israel), used cucumbers and bell peppers to test the differences between compostable packaging and conventional plastic packaging.

They found compostable packaging enables shelf-life of bell peppers up to 21 days and cucumbers up to 15 days, even better than conventional plastic. The compostable packages used were purchased from TIPA® Corp.

The study on cucumbers has been published in a special issue of the journal Foods on "Recent Advances in Reusable, Recyclable, or Compostable Food Packages," and the study on bell peppers has been published in the journal Food Science & Nutrition.

In the studies, part of the produce remained unpacked as control, while other produce was packaged in non-perforated, micro-perforated and macro-perforated compostable packaging or in commercial macro-perforated polypropylene packaging.

Afterwards, half the samples were continually stored at 22o C to simulate extended shelf conditions, while the other half were stored for two days at 15oc, a further two days at 22oc and then up to six weeks of home refrigerator storage at 4oc to simulate farm to fork supply chain conditions.

Both papers concluded that TIPA's micro-perforated compostable packaging provided a preferable alternative to traditional plastics for vegetable preservation.

Eli Lancry Ph.D, VP Technology of TIPA, said, "Here at TIPA, we have been confident for a long time that compostable packaging is not only functional, but is the future of how we package our food. Plastic has dominated our lives for decades, but that does not mean things cannot change. Compostable packaging is a ready-made solution to end the scourge of plastic waste where packaging is needed."