Sweet corn is exported from Israel to Europe
within retail cardboard trays overwrapped with
stretch polyvinylchloride (PVC) film. The PVC
wrap reduces moisture loss from kernels. The MA
is formed inside the packages as a result of inter-
* Corresponding author. Tel.: 972-3-9683609; fax: 972-
3-9683622.
E-mail address: vrodov@agri.gov.il (V. Rodov)
0925-5214:00:$ - see front matter © 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
PII: S0925-5214(99)00079-4
260 V. Rodo6 et al. : Posthar6est Biology and Technology 18 (2000) 259–266
action between produce respiration and barrier
properties of packaging material. However, the
relatively high permeability of PVC film for CO2
does not allow a fungistatic CO2 concentration to
accumulate, sufficient for disease control during
shipment. Substituting the PVC wrap with less
permeable polyolefin stretch films improved the
keeping quality of sweet corn due to elevated CO2
accumulation (Aharoni et al., 1996). On the other
hand, the use of relatively high-barrier films for
retail packaging may increase the risk of O2 depletion
and off-flavor development after transferring
packages from cold storage to non-refrigerated
stores (shelf-life), since elevated temperature enhances
produce respiration to a greater extent
than it increases the permeability of regular packaging
films (Exama et al., 1993).
An alternative to using high-barrier