ABSTRACT
558Fruits and vegetables are perishable living commodities that continue to respire and transpire even after harvest, resulting in quantitative and qualitative losses. The loss of water from living produce through transpiration process is one of the most important determinants of postharvest life and quality. High humidity in storage environment helps to reduce moisture losses of many fruits and vegetables, but in many instances temperature is controlled but humidity is not maintained at the required level. Hence, packaging has become a fundamental tool in the postharvest management of fruits and vegetables that contain very high moisture content. Traditional packaging generally protects the produce from bruising, crushing, and other mechanical damage. The advanced packaging system, in addition to protecting the produce, must also provide the optimum gas and humidity conditions to maintain quality during transit and storage. Individual shrink wrapping is one such packaging technique for better postharvest handling of fresh fruits and vegetables. This packaging technique greatly reduces the moisture loss and maintains freshness of fresh produce for longer periods even without refrigeration or humidity control. Different aspects of this packaging technology such as the mode of action, methodology, film selection, various other advantages, and usefulness of this technology for various fruits and vegetables are discussed in this chapter. The effects of shrink wrapping technology on different parameters such as physiological loss in weight, firmness, ripening behavior, storage quality, alleviation of chilling injury, and decay control are also discussed in detail.
