It’s no secret: strawberries are kept in cold rooms by producers and large retailers. This equipment was generally perceived as the only means of preserving the quality of the plants until the moment of purchase. But that was before we discovered the importance of the plastic tray.
Research to find the perfect tray
For the professional magazine Succeed, INRAE researcher Ahmad Nasser Eddine, explains that it “protects against shocks and contamination by micro-organisms. And it affects the pre-cooling processes of the strawberries and therefore the final quality of the product”. As a result, a thesis is currently being conducted at the National Institute for Agronomic Research to perfect this packaging.
The aim is to find trays that are better suited to faster and more homogeneous cooling. Whether for the trays or the packages in which the containers transport the strawberries. The analyzes made it possible to realize that by modulating the right height and the right shape, we could optimize the conservation of the strawberries. It is also necessary to gauge the adequate size of the orifices which ensure the circulation of the air.
A more economical means of preservation
This research may seem trivial for the consumer, but it should be remembered how much the use of cold rooms costs more given the surge in energy prices, which obviously has an impact on the price paid at the end of the chain. In the newspaper Humanity, Laurent Grandin, the president of the Interprofession of fruits and vegetables (Interfel), indicated last September that “certain fruits and vegetables are indeed kept in cold rooms (in the short term or medium term) in order to be able, for example, to have apples and carrots at the end of winter or in spring while waiting for the summer harvest. We are not always aware of it, but the apples we eat in spring and summer were harvested the previous autumn to be kept in cold rooms for months on end”.