Delhi, March 14, 2016 – PRNewswire – In 2014, India's largest global flexible packaging company Uflex decided to offer shelf life extension solutions to the Indian fresh produce industry. With the help of the foreign technology partner, Uflex came out with a solution. “The solution Equilibrium Modified Atmospheric Packaging (EMAP) entails maintaining consistent oxygen and carbon dioxide inside the bag during the shelf life of the produce,” said Ashok Chaturvedi, Chairman and Managing Director, Uflex Limited.

“During the initial phase of trials, the technical team came up with the nuances of tropical produce and felt that the traditional polymers being used for shelf life extension of fresh produce may not work. Their sound logic was that most polymers available were either good barriers to oxygen or water and it is critical to have a unique polymer which could offer the precise requirements of both oxygen and water barriers. In fact, all existing fresh produce packaging solutions in the world grappled with the problem of water condensation inside the bag – a fact that was established during our market study. Also for products that perspired heavily, it was found that the MAP did not work due to higher CO2 inside the bag changing the organoleptic of the produce,” added Chaturvedi.

This is critical for fresh produce packaging because the oxygen needs to be maintained to keep the product in aerobic conditions. During transpiration, humidity gets released and condenses inside the bag causing fungal and bacterial infections on the produce.

“Thus was conceived FlexfreshTM with the holy grail of oxygen and water barrier for packaging fresh produce. Flexfresh while maintaining the humidity inside the bag at 98% keeps the product absolutely dry without allowing condensation of the humidity. This results in very low weight loss of the produce as it continues to breathe in hydrated oxygen available inside the bag. In several experiments on various products, it was observed that the ratio of oxygen and carbon dioxide has always been maintained at equilibrium. The film provides good release characteristics of CO2 emitted by the produce. This ensured that the produce in a few cases could be protected naturally from diseases such as Botrytis, Gray Mold, etc., using high CO2 content. The icing on the cake is that while offering all the benefits, Flexfresh Film is biodegradable by composting. Thus Flexfresh complies with all international regulations for overall migration (EC 1935/2004), reach compliance (EC 1907/2006) and qualifies for biodegradation under DIN EN 13432 (2000-12),” said Ashok Chaturvedi.

“The Noida Packaging plant of Uflex has installed and commissioned two respiration meters at its Fresh Produce Research and Innovation Laboratory. A team of food technologists and packaging professionals are in the process of developing Flexfresh across packaging formats. Flexfresh is currently available as Liner Bags in 5 kg and 10 kg standard international sizes, Flow Wraps, FFS Film and Lidding film," added Siva Shankaran, Vice President – Flexfresh. Uflex is currently working on a retail pack film to offer it for FFS for both cut and whole products.