ABSTRACT
276In modern era of globalization, cushioning material has become an indispensable part of packaging especially for storage and transport, as it helps to captivate a proportion of kinetic energy which is generated whenever a package suffers impact or is dropped from a certain height . It serves to protect the produce from different types of damages, that is, vibration, impact, bruising, and abrasion. Cushioning materials are required at the three important steps of fresh produce management: keeping harvested produce into any rigid storage container, transportation from field to pack houses, and transportation of packed produce from pack house to destination markets. The classification of cushioning material is based on usage as space fillers, resilient and non-resilient cushioning materials, and origin, that is, natural materials or manufactured. Naturally derived cushioning materials in common use are paddy straw, leaves of various plants, coconut fiber, rice hulls, and agricultural waste while manufactured cushioning materials are molded into trays, crate liner and partitions, bubble film, foam net, etc. The research is needed to develop innovative cushioning materials with combined properties of both the natural and synthetic materials like improved biodegradability, recyclability, high resilience, low compression, low moisture absorption, and less susceptibility to microbes. Innovations in cushioning materials will help in exploiting new markets as the produce can be transported to long distances with minimal damage.
