Sweet cherries packaged in PLA

25 June 2014

Researchers at Michigan State University in the USA packaged sweet cherries in a polylactic acid (PLA) cup with a PLA peelable microperforated lid. The packaging system was compared with the petroleum-based macroperforated bag currently used for retail.
After 27 days storage at 1 °C, the PLA package maintained the cherry firmness, compared to a 50% reduction of the controls. No fungal decay was detected while the controls were non-marketable after 21 days. The PLA package allowed minimal weight loss (0.8%), compared to a weight loss of approximately 16% in the controls. An article about the research is published in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture.
Click here for an abstract of the article.

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