Conduction Cooling of Table Grapes

Abstract

The effect of some commercial and experimental packaging materials and methods of precooling on the weight loss of table grapes during precooling and storage was determined. When cooled and stored under similar conditions, grapes packed in a L.A. lug with paper liner and single faced corrugated pad lost weight at approximately the same rate as did grapes packed in a L.A. lug with a paper curtain and single faced corrugated pad. Grapes packed in a L.A. lug with the clusters individually wrapped in tissue paper and grapes packed in an experimental vented polyethylene-paraffin-coated corrugated container lost weight at a consistently lower rate than did grapes in the L.A. lug with paper liner or the L.A. lug with paper curtain. Grapes protected from decay by dibromotetrachloroethane (DBTCE) and packed in an unvented polyethylene-paraffin-coated corrugated container lost only one-tenth the weight that grapes packed in a L.A. lug with paper liner lost during a 36 day storage period.