Fruit and vegetable packaging solution

Abstract

This thesis started with the question of ‘’What is the necessity of all packaging in food products?’’. The problem of packaging waste is undeniable, an example of the cause of packing to the environment is the ‘’plastic soup’’. Plastic packaging degrades over time, which produces microplastics. Microplastics accumulate in the environment and nowadays traces of it can be found everywhere. To counter the accumulation of microplastics, less leakage of plastic waste should be achieved. This could be done by selling less single-use packaging and sorting waste better. A contribution to a solution for the packaging waste problem is performed in this project, by making a reusable packaging solution for the fresh fruits and vegetable sector. The designed packaging should be convenient for the consumer, which is why was set that the packaging solution should maintain or improve the consumer packaging experiences with reusable packaging.

The current fruit and vegetable packaging were benchmarked on functions and features, but analyzing all fruits and vegetables and their packaging was too big of scope for this project. This is why a decision process was performed on the shelf life of fruits and vegetables. The mushroom had the shortest shelf life and was therefore analysed. The mushroom is a vulnerable vegetable and is sensitive to humidity levels, pressures and carbon dioxide levels. The found mushroom packaging had features like strengthening structures for the protection of the mushrooms, and airholes for humidity levels and carbon dioxide concentrations. In interviews about the conventional blue mushroom packaging, it was discovered that consumers have a preference for transparent packaging. Also, it was discovered that with reusable packaging information that is normally printed or stuck on the packaging needs to be communicated in another way. From consumer research was retrieved that consumers lack knowledge about packaging features and production processes of fruits and vegetables. Also, consumers find the opening, closing and resealing of packaging the most important conveniences. The thresholds values of the consumer with using reusable packaging, retrieved from consumer research were the skill in filling of the packaging and no room for storage of reusable packaging.

To support the consumer in reusable fresh fruit and vegetable grocery shopping, ‘’the grocery tree’’ was designed. The grocery tree is a combined grocery bag and packaging that can hold eight packaging, which can differ in size and can be taken from the grocery tree at every time. The packaging is designed to support the consumer in the filling process of fruits and vegetables, by making packaging with instructions in the shape of use-cues and two predesigned ways of holding it. The consumer is supported in the supermarket with an app on the smartphone, which is interactive with the designed scales at the supermarkets. At home, the packaging can be used to store the fruits and vegetables, and the remaining of the grocery tree can easily be disassembled for convenience in storing.

The grocery tree is designed to eliminate single-use fruit and vegetable packaging. The grocery tree is reusable but needs the dedication of the consumer to use the product. The grocery tree has gone through optimization steps, but can be further optimized in shape, convenience and amount of material. This to save cost and to support the consumer more in fruit and vegetable shopping with a reusable packaging solution.