Process Explained: How Are Agricultural Products Packaged?
Advances in technology have benefited the agricultural industry in a myriad of different ways. They’ve made farming more efficient and reduced its ecological footprint.
They’ve also allowed farmers to share their crops more widely. This is great news for both the consumers purchasing the food and the farmers supplying it.
Along with all of the benefits these changes have brought, they’ve presented challenges, too. Greater output and further distribution distances have necessitated changes in the way agricultural products are packaged. Today, this process looks much different than it did only a few decades ago.
If you’re curious about how agricultural products are packaged, you’ve come to the right place. Read on to find out everything you’ve ever wanted to know.
Agricultural Packaging Processes
The main challenge involved in packaging agricultural products is the need for them to stay fresh while being transported long distances. Long ago, fruit and veg may have traveled from a farm to a nearby market to be sold. Today, some food products take planes, trains, and automobiles to travel thousands of miles across countries and continents.
Some vegetables—like onions and potatoes—have naturally long shelf lives. Others, however—like berries, bananas, and avocados—spoil quite quickly. For produce with shorter shelf lives that need to travel long distances, it’s clear that new packaging was called for.
The challenge for farmers is to find packaging that will help to extend the shelf life of their products, control their temperature, and remain affordable. This way, they can offer competitive prices to the consumer. This is not always easy to do.
Special Packaging for Agricultural Products
Scientists are working all the time to come up with solutions to problems such as these. This benefits not only farmers and consumers in the US but also in the developing world. For this reason, coming up with solutions for this problem remains a priority for many in the world of science.
This is why today, there are so many innovative and advanced options for agricultural product packaging. For example, companies like Atifit offer a number of agricultural packaging solutions. Their packaging aims to preserve the freshness of produce such as herbs and greens.
Features in such products such as humidity control, ethylene absorbers, and shelf life extension all combine to make modern-day agricultural practices possible. As science continues to advance, even longer shelf lives will be possible to maintain.
Thank Science Next Time You Eat a Pineapple
Even a few decades ago, it wasn’t possible to import certain types of agricultural products to certain countries. The length of the journeys was too great. The food would surely spoil.
With the advances in technology we have today, we have a cornucopia of fruit and veg at our fingertips. We can thank science for that. If you’ve found this guide interesting, check out the rest of our content.