General Dos’ and Don'ts for Packaging High Quality Produce
• The packages should be sturdy and capable of standing up to handling, cooling and storage conditions.
• Rough packages such as baskets and wooden crates should be lined with cardboard inserts.
• Packages used for heavy produce should be reinforced with corner supports or folded dividers.
• Avoid using very large packages since the produce suffers more damage during handling of large packages.
• For delicate produce such as berries, grapes, summer squash and ripe stone fruits use shallow packages having single layer or double layers.
• Avoid overfilling or under filling packages.
• For adequate ventilation of packages about 5% of the surface area per side should be vented.
• For immobilizing the produce in a package, use packaging materials such as trays, cups, wraps, liners and pads.
• To decrease the rate of water loss from produce like cherries perforated plastic film liners should be used.
• Take care while using fillers and liners in packages so that the ventilation holes are not blocked.
• Labeling containers with your logo or farm name help in creating a brand name for quality produce.
• Consumer packages that can be used to display produce during marketing should be considered.
• Use large packages to pack 'consumer packages' such as gift packs or display trays for providing better protection to the containers during stacking, transport and marketing.
• For reducing produce damage, packages with handles to carry should be considered.