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Application of humidity-regulating tray for

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 Postharvest Biology and Technology 108 (2015) 102110

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Postharvest Biology and Technology

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/postharvbio

Application of humidity-regulating tray for packaging of mushrooms

Guido Ruxa , Pramod V. Mahajana,* , Martin Geyera , Manfred Linkea , Astrid Pantb ,
Sven Saengerlaubb , Oluwafemi J. Caleba
a
Department of Horticultural Engineering, Leibniz Institute for Agricultural Engineering, Potsdam, Germany
b
Fraunhofer Institute of Process Engineering and Packaging, Freising, Germany

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Article history: Major postharvest challenge of mushroom includes high transpiration rate resulting in rapid weight loss
Received 26 February 2015 and the risk of water vapour condensation inside the package, which results in accelerated deterioration
Received in revised form 8 June 2015 in quality and decay. Thus, this study investigated the transpiration behaviour of mushroom under
Accepted 20 June 2015
various combinations of storage temperature (4, 12 and 20
C) and relative humidity (RH) (76, 86, 96 and
Available online xxx
100%) and assessed the impact of salt embedded humidity-regulating tray on humidity and condensation
behaviour in mushroom package at 7
C and 85% RH. The impact of humidity-regulating and
Keywords:
control-polypropylene (control-PP) trays on condensation and quality of mushroom was evaluated after
Mushroom
Condensation
6 days. Despite the saturated RH condition, across all temperatures studied, mushrooms stored at 100%
Transpiration RH lost moisture at the rate of 0.030.22 mg kg1 s1. Humidity-regulating tray maintained a stable RH
Respiration (93%) inside the package and it absorbed 4.1 g of water vapour within 6 days at 7
C and 85% RH storage
Packaging condition. Humidity-regulating tray better maintained the quality of mushrooms compared to control-PP
Humidity tray, but it absorbed only 4.1 g of water vapour in 6 days which was not enough to prevent water
condensation in the package headspace for mushrooms.
2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction in order to avoid condensation and/or mould and bacterial

Mushrooms are highly transpiring and respiring fresh com-
modities. They are sensitive to surrounding humidity levels; low
relative humidity (RH) results in excessive loss of weight and
rmness, while very high RH favours water vapour condensation
on mushroom surface, which accelerates microbial growth and
discolouration (Mahajan et al., 2008a). Thus, their postharvest life
is shortened as consequence of these processes. Appropriate
packaging is one of the essential methods for protecting and
maintaining the quality, and prolonging the shelf life of produce
from growers to consumers. It is well established that package
gas composition in modied atmosphere packaging (MAP) is
inuenced by respiration rate of the product and the gas
permeability of the packaging lm (Song et al., 2002; Caleb
et al., 2013a). Current MAP design considers the respiration rate of
product as the only important parameter for deciding target gas
barrier properties required to achieve an equilibrium modied
atmospheres. However, besides in-package gas composition it is
also important to control the in-package level of relative humidity,
* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: pmahajan@atb-potsdam.de (P.V. Mahajan).
development in MAP systems.
Most polymeric materials (polyethylene, polypropylene or
polyvinyl chloride) used in fresh produce packaging have lower
water vapour transmission rate relative to the transpiration rates
of fresh produce. Therefore, most water molecules evaporated
from the produce do not escape through the lm and remain
within the package, enhancing the water vapour pressure in the
package microenvironment. Under these near-saturation condi-
tions, even minor temperature uctuation may result in conden-
sation inside the package resulting in sliminess, decay,
enhancement of microbial growth, and browning of produce
surface (Ayala-Zavala et al., 2008; Linke and Geyer, 2013). Micro-
perforated packaging lms are commonly used in fresh produce
packaging to enhance O2 and CO2 gas permeability and achieve
equilibrium MAP. But generally such lms do not allow the
diffusion of sufcient amounts of water vapour into the environ-
ment leading to high humidity levels and condensation of water
vapour in the package. A possible solution to control humidity is to
use of moisture absorbers to remove excess moisture from the
packaging headspace (Mahajan et al., 2008b). These moisture
absorbers have benecial effect on the shelf life by lowering the
surface moisture content, reducing microbial growth and better
colour preservation (Shirazi and Cameron, 1992). However, the
moisture absorber should be used carefully for high water activity

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.postharvbio.2015.06.010
0925-5214/ 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
 G. Rux et al. / Postharvest Biology and Technology 108 (2015) 102110
products like fresh fruit and vegetables since excessive weight loss
of food must be avoided.
Recently, Singh et al. (2010) and Saengerlaub et al. (2011)
developed humidity regulating package system by directly
incorporating the active substance (NaCl) in the packaging
material. It consists of 3-layer structure: barrier layer, active layer
with NaCl and sealing layer. The active layer consisted of
polypropylene with different percentage of NaCl (6, 12 and 18%)
and it was foamed and stretched in order to form cavities around
salt particles. The authors evaluated the impact of humidity
regulating trays on the quality of fresh mushrooms. Based on both
sensory and biochemical analysis, it was reported that the shelf life
of fresh mushrooms was signicantly increased by 6 days (d) in
trays with 18% NaCl on a weight basis in the active layer as
compared to conventional pack at 5
C. However, limited
information is available on the transpiration and condensation
behaviour of mushroom and the package, respectively. The
objectives of this study were (i) to investigate the transpiration
behaviour of mushroom under different storage conditions, and (ii)
to assess humidity regulation and condensation behaviour in
humidity-regulating tray containing mushrooms.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Plant material and packaging tray
White button mushrooms (Agaricus bisporus) were obtained at
commercial maturity from Frucht Express GmbH, Gro Kreutz,
Germany and transported in chilled conditions to the Department
of Horticultural Engineering Laboratory, Leibniz Institute for
Agricultural Engineering, Potsdam, Germany. On arrival, the
mushrooms were carefully sorted into uniform sizes and stored
at the study temperatures (4, 12 and 20
C) for thermal equilibrium.
Initial average weight, density and moisture content of mushroom
were found to be 14.4 g, 619 kg/m3, and 92.3%, respectively.
The humidity-regulating tray used in this study was incorporated
with NaCl (18% on a weight basis) between the outer barrier layer
(polypropylene) and the inner sealing layer (polypropylene/EVOH/
polyethylene). The sealing layer (inside) guarantees the tray in total is
sealed and prevents the migration of salt into the food whereas the
barrier layer (outside) protects the product against gas exchange
with the surrounding atmosphere. The annotated diagram of the
humidity-regulating tray is presented in Fig. 1. The multilayer
lm was extruded and the trays (178  225  50 mm3) were
thermo-formed as reported by Singh et al. (2010).
Fig. 1. Concept of humidity-regulating tray. Insert on right: a tray containing 18% NaCl on a weight basis in its active layer.
103
2.2. Transpiration behaviour
To evaluate the transpiration rate (TR) of mushrooms, a mass
loss technique as reported by Mahajan et al. (2008b) was followed.
Mushrooms of an average initial mass of 14.4 g were stored in
modied atmosphere storage chambers (200 L) maintained at
different temperatures (4, 12 and 20
C) and relative humidity (RH)
(76, 86, 96 and 100%). Air humidity sensor FHA 646R (Ahlborn,
Holzkirchen, Germany) was used to monitor air temperature and
RH with an accuracy of 0.1
C and 2%, respectively. The humidity
sensor was calibrated in the high humidity range. Inside each
chamber the RH was controlled by using saturated salts solutions
of sodium chloride, potassium chloride, potassium nitrate and
distilled water for maintaining 76, 86, 96 and 100% RH. At regular
intervals, the chamber was opened and mushrooms were weighed
using an electronic balance. Transpiration rate was expressed as
change in mass of mushroom per unit initial mass per unit time,
using Eq. (1):
Mi  M
TR (1)
t  Mi
where TR is the transpiration rate in mg kg1 s1, Mi is the initial
mass of mushroom in kg and M is the mass of mushroom in mg at
weighed time t in seconds.
A separate study was conducted to monitor the surface
temperature of a single mushroom at 100% RH and 13
C.
Mushroom and evaporation sphere, having volume-surface ratio
of 0.60 and 0.75, respectively, were hung separately to the bottom
of electronic weighing scales using a shing string. Surface
temperature of mushroom was measured using the infrared
temperature sensor (AMIR 7842, Ahlborn, Holzkirchen, Germany)
shown in Fig 2. The evaporation sphere consisted of a hollow
perforated plastic sphere (diameter 45 mm) lled with water
storing granulate material (polyacrylamide) (Linke et al., 2008).
Mass loss of both objects was monitored continuously using
electronic balance connected to the data logger (ALMEMO 2490,
Ahlborn, Holzkirchen, Germany). At the end of 100 h of storage, the
chamber was opened to allow the RH to decrease to the
surrounding level (65%). Measurements were further continued
for 20 h.
2.3. Packaging and performance evaluation
Mushrooms (250 g) were packed in the humidity-regulating
trays and in control-polypropylene trays (control-PP) without salt.
104 G. Rux et al. / Postharvest Biology and Technology 108 (2015) 102110

Fig. 2. Schematic representation of the experimental setup for measuring mass loss of mushroom and evaporation sphere at 100% RH. ((1) metal box, (2) mushroom, (3)
evaporation sphere, (4) surface temperature probe, (5) water, (6) temperature-humidity probe, (7) electronic weighing scale, (8) data logger, and (9) computer)

The trays were heat-sealed with 30 mm thick polypropylene
lidding lm (WVTR of 5.2  102 mg m2 s1 and O2-TR 1.62  1010
mg m2 s1 Pa1 at 23
C, surface area 0.04 m2). The ndings and
recommendations from previous work in literature (Iqbal et al.,
2009) and those obtained from preliminary study on the
respiratory behaviour of mushroom were taken into consideration
while designing this experiment. In order to avoid anoxia inside
the package micro-perforations were made (8 holes with
150 micron size). Furthermore, the gas composition inside each
package was measured at the end of day 6 of storage using gas
analyser (Checkmate 3, PBI Dansensor, Ringstead, Denmark) O2
and CO2 concentrations were found to be 11.9 kPa and CO2 11.2 kPa,
respectively. Gas samples composition was not monitored
overtime to avoid alternating environmental or storage tempera-
ture around the package trays. All the samples were stored at 7
C
and 85% RH for 6 days. These storage conditions were selected in
order to avoid too fast or too slow response on RH regulation, water
absorption and condensation in humidity-regulating trays. The
weight of mushrooms was recorded before covering the trays with
the lidding lm and also at the end of storage period. The
headspace relative humidity was monitored over time using data
logger (ALMEMO 2490, Ahlborn, Holzkirchen, Germany). The
water vapour absorption of the trays was gravimetrically deter-
mined by measuring increase in weight of the tray at the end of
storage period. The amount of water transmitted over the lidding
lm was gravimetrically measured by weighing the package at the
start and at the end of storage period. The amount of condensation
was measured by weighing the trays before and after wiping off the
water accumulated on the tray wall and the lidding lm.
Quality evaluation based on visual observation of mushroom for
each of the packaging trays was performed at the end of storage by
5 panellists. The change in colour (from white to completely
brown), gills exposure (from completely closed gills/intact veil to
completely exposed gills) and incidence of decay on mushrooms
were determined subjectively using a 15 visual rating scale by
adapting visual quality descriptors (Table 1) (Burton et al., 1987;
Bi et al., 2014). Average data was used for statistical analysis.
2.4. Statistical analysis
All experiments for each treatment were run in triplicate.
Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted on all data using
Statistica software (STATISTICA 10.0, StatSoft, USA) to determine
the effect of temperature and RH. Signicant differences between
fruit fractions and storage temperatures were established at
p-value 0.05.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Transpiration rate and moisture loss
Transpiration rate for fresh mushroom ranged from 0.03 to
1.42 mg kg1 s1 across all the combinations of temperature and
RH tested. Both storage temperature and RH had a signicant

Table 1
Quality scores and descriptors for mushroom (Agaricus bisporus).

Descriptors Scores and description

1 2 3 4 5
Colour Very poor appearance with Poor appearance, with Fair appearance, light Good appearance, Excellent appearance,
severe browning brown colour patches discolouration completely white predominately smooth white
Gills Extensively opened gills Partially exposed gills 50% Veil partially broken Completely closed gills Completely closed gills with veil
exposure 50% with stretched veil intact/not stretched
Decay 76100% decay: extreme decay/ 5174% decay: moderate to 2650% decay: spots 125% decay: probable 0%, no decay
completely rotten severe decay with decay decay

Burton et al. (1987) and Bi et al. (2014).

 G. Rux et al. / Postharvest Biology and Technology 108 (2015) 102110 105

Fig 3. Effect of storage temperature and relative humidity on transpiration rate of mushroom.

inuence (p  0.05) on TR of mushroom (Fig. 3). However, RH was
the variable with greatest inuence on TR. Increasing RH of the
storage environment from 76 to 100% decreased TR by 93% at 4
C,
while decreasing the temperature from 20
C to 4
C decreased TR
by 71%. The TR increased with an increase in temperature and a
decrease in RH, with the highest TR observed at 20
C and 76% RH,
such conditions should be avoided in order to prevent excessive
weight loss of mushrooms. On the other hand, lowest TR was
recorded at 4
C and 100% RH, the conditions normally observed in
headspace of packed fresh produce. Biophysical properties of the
skin, air lm resistance, respiration heat generation, evaporative
cooling, convective and radiative heat ows, vapour pressure
lowering due to dissolved substances, and temperature distribu-
tion inside the produce affect the transpiration rate. Veraverbeke
et al. (2003) described the moisture transfer through the skin using
biophysical and thermophysical properties such as surface cellular
structure, skin thickness, pore fraction in the skin, geometry and
thermal diffusivity of produce, however, such properties are not
easily measured. The experimental TR values obtained in this study
were in agreement with those reported by Mahajan et al. (2008a)

Fig. 4. Impact of relative humidity on surface temperature of a single mushroom and associated mass loss.
106 G. Rux et al. / Postharvest Biology and Technology 108 (2015) 102110
for mushroom stored under similar conditions. The high value of
TR for mushroom is associated to its lack of a protective skin and
also opening of the mushroom cap increased the surface area for
mass transfer. A loss in produce weight is crucial to marketability.
As little as a 310% loss in weight could have an adverse effect on
the appearance, saleable weight, texture quality of fresh and fresh-
cut produce (Ben-Yehoshua, 1987).
Despite the saturated RH condition, across all temperatures
studied, mushrooms stored at 100% RH lost moisture at the rate of
0.030.22 mg kg1 s1. The moisture loss observed at saturated
conditions might be due to the complex interplay of internal heat
generated due to respiration and the evaporative cooling on the
produce surface due to transpiration (Chau and Gaffney, 1990;
Kang and Lee, 1998). Thus, the heat generated from mushroom
respiration process increased the produce surface temperature and
the rest of the heat is used for water evaporation from the
mushroom surface. This hypothesis was validated by continuously
monitoring weight loss and surface temperature of a single
mushroom at 100% RH (Fig 4). The test revealed that the
mushroom continuously lose weight as against the evaporation
sphere which showed no decrease in weight over time. Mushroom
showed higher surface temperature (13.8
C) than the surrounding
air temperature (13
C) due to respiratory heat generation. This
result was consistent with the report for other fresh commodities,
in which the produce surface temperature rises slightly above
surrounding temperature (Sastry and Bufngton, 1982). The
driving force of water loss in harvested fruit and vegetables is
based on the proportional difference between the water vapour
pressure/concentration gradient in the intercellular air spaces of
the produce and the ambient atmosphere surrounding the product
(Ben-Yehoshua and Rodov, 2003). Additionally, the rate of mass
transport of water vapour (TR) is inuenced by the resistance of
produce surface to water vapour loss (Ben-Yehoshua et al., 1985).
According to Ficks law of diffusion, water vapour will move from
the higher concentration to the lower concentration. The
transpiration process under saturated atmospheric conditions is
a complex process which involves different heat components such
as the internal heat generated by produce; the evaporative cooling
effect on the surface of produce; and the convective heat transfer
between the product and the surrounding environment. Thus, at a
Fig 5. Amount of water produced in mg s1 by 250 g of mushrooms at different combinations of temperature and relative humidity.
constant ambient temperature and saturated atmospheric level
there is no potential for transpiration nor for evaporative cooling to
occur. However, due to respiratory heat generation the produce
surface heats up, leading to an increase in water vapour gradient
for the mass transfer between the product and the surrounding
conditions. Under such scenario, the produce would still loose
moisture as shown in Fig. 4. The fact that the surface temperature
is higher than the surrounding air only implies that the heat of
respiration is heating the product. This is in agreement with Song
et al. (2002) who proposed a mathematical model based on heat
and mass transfer balances accounting for the respiratory and
transpiratory behaviour of fresh produce, and the transport
phenomenon across the package. When the ambient air is below
saturation level, the difference in water vapour pressure between
the product surface and the ambient air will cause moisture
evaporation from the product surface resulting evaporative
cooling. In this case, the produce surface temperature is lower
than the air temperature. This was evident from the measured
surface temperature of mushroom (10.8
C) which was below the
surrounding air temperature and the mushroom showed a rapid
decrease in mass due to transpiration (Fig 4).
3.2. Humidity regulation
Experimental data based on TR was used to calculate the
amount of water produced per day in a typical package containing
250 g of mushrooms stored at different combinations of temper-
atures and RH (Fig. 5). Thus, with the calculated value, it was
possible to compare the moisture sorption by humidity-regulating
trays. The amount of water produced per day at 96% RH and 4
C
was approximately 1.6  102 mg s1 this increased by at least
26 times for the temperature in the range of 1220
C. However,
the amount of water produced at 100% RH was reduced to half
(0.8  102 mg s1 at 4
C) compared to 96% RH, but this rate of
water produced was still enough to form condensation inside the
package. Therefore, in order to avoid condensation and maintain an
optimal RH of 9096% (Villaescusa and Gil, 2003), the humidity-
regulating tray should have a capacity to absorb at least 8.4 g water
for storing 250 g of mushrooms for 6 days at 4
C. In the control-PP
trays, the RH rapidly increased and the headspace was saturated
 G. Rux et al. / Postharvest Biology and Technology 108 (2015) 102110 107

Fig. 6. Change in relative humidity inside the humidity-regulating and control-PP trays containing mushrooms (250 g) at 7
C.

Fig. 7. Distribution of water loss in humidity-regulating and control polypropylene (control-PP) trays after 6 days of storage at 7
C.

with water vapour (100% RH), while in the humidity-regulating
trays excess moisture from mushroom transpiration was absorbed
by the tray, thereby maintaining 93% RH throughout 6 days of
storage (Fig. 6). Furthermore, Bi et al. (2014) investigated the effect
of moisture absorbers inside MA-packaged mushrooms (Pleurotus
ostreastus). The authors reported that packages with the use of
moisture absorbers RH rapidly increased and was stable at 95%
after 36 h, while in packages without moisture absorbers the air
was saturated (100% RH) after 48 h. This was consistent with the
observation in this study.
3.3. Package performance
The package performance was evaluated by comparing the
amount of water loss by mushrooms, water absorbed by the tray,
water transmitted out of the tray and water vapour condensed
inside the tray (Fig. 7). The total water loss of mushrooms in
humidity-regulating tray was almost double compared to mush-
rooms packed in the control tray. The lower water loss from
mushrooms the control tray could be attributed to the high RH
(100%) inside the package. Water loss increases with the increase in
108 G. Rux et al. / Postharvest Biology and Technology 108 (2015) 102110
water vapour pressure decit (WVPD) and WVPD is higher at lower
RH (Mahajan et al., 2008b; Lichter et al., 2011). As expected, the
control-PP tray did not absorb signicant amount of water vapour
(0.3 g), whereas the humidity-regulating tray absorbed 4.1 g of
water vapour in 6 days (Fig 7). This means about 35% of the water
produced by mushrooms was directly absorbed by the salt in the
humidity-regulating tray. This was due to the low moisture
absorption capacity of humidity-regulating tray in comparison
with the amount of moisture produced by mushrooms (48 g
water under similar storage conditions). For instance, Bi et al.
(2014) used of sodium bicarbonate:polymer of super moisture
absorber mixture (60:40, w/w) sachets inside packages of mush-
rooms. The moisture absorbers absorbed 34.2 and 41.4 g of
moisture for 750 g of mushrooms (11.4 g for 250 g of mushrooms)
at constant temperature (4
C) and under temperature uctuating
regimes, respectively. Thus, the absorption capacity of the
humidity-regulating tray should be increased by incorporating
humidity regulating substances with a higher absorption capacity
such as sucrose or by improving the lm structure.
The humidity-regulating tray showed higher condensation on
the inner wall than control-PP tray at the end of the storage period.
This higher condensation could be due to: (a) the lower RH inside
the package which creates a higher water vapour pressure decit,
thereby increasing transpiration rate/moisture loss of produce
(Caleb et al., 2013b; Ngcobo et al., 2013); and/or (b) the effect of
condensed water vapour with salt particles on the surface of tray
thereby increasing the salinity of condensed water and reducing
moisture absorption rate of the tray. Condensation occurs when
temperature of the surface falls below the dew-point temperature
of the air within the package headspace. Anti-condensation lms
commonly used by the industry help to decrease the surface
tension of the water droplets that form on the lms surface. This
reduces the contact angle of the water molecules, and the water is
able to spread out more creating a more uniform layer of water,
thus only transforming visible water droplets into invisible water
layer. This helps to improve the transparency of the lm surface but
not completely eliminating condensation. Moreover, mushrooms
continue to produce moisture even at 100% RH, thus there are
equal number of molecules evaporating from the mushroom
surface as there are condensing back into the package headspace.
Thus, the amount of condensed water inside the package
headspace increases over the storage period. The morphology of
the outer tissue structure and also phenomena of super-saturation
needs to be further explored in order to explain the condensation
behaviour in fresh produce packaging.
Fig. 8. A cluster graph of quality attributes (colour, gill exposure and incidence of decay) for mushrooms packed in humidity-regulating and control polypropylene (control-
PP) trays after 6 days of storage.
Under the saturated humidity conditions, the water vapour ux
from the package headspace to storage environment is dominated
by the limiting step of the lm resistance to transport. The water
vapour permeability of the polypropylene lm used for control and
humidity-regulating tray was the same but still the experimental
data showed the difference in the amount of water transmitted
over the lm. Control-PP tray transmitted 1.3 g of water vapour into
the storage environment (85% RH); whereas the humidity-
regulating tray transmitted signicantly lower amount of water
vapour (0.8 g). This was due to the lower RH observed inside the
humidity-regulating tray (93% RH), therefore, lower driving force
for water vapour than the control tray (100% RH).
3.4. Mushroom quality evaluation
Fresh mushrooms (day 0) had excellent overall whiteness, gills
completely closed without stretched veil and no appearance of
decay. Scores less than 3 were considered to be below limit of
marketability for colour appearance and gills exposure, while
scores greater than 2 was unacceptable for incidence of decay. The
scores at the end of day 6 of storage showed that the mushrooms
packed in the humidity-regulating trays were well above the
marketable limits compared to samples in the control-PP trays
(Fig. 8). This result is in agreement with other reports in literature
(Singh et al., 2010; Saengerlaub et al., 2011). The storage of
mushrooms under MAP with a controlled RH between 90  96%
level provides a successful extension in the shelf life of mushrooms
(Villaescusa and Gil, 2003; Kim et al., 2006; Cliffe-Byrnes and
OBeirne, 2010). Mushrooms from the control-PP trays had higher
incidence of discolouration of cap with extensively exposed gills at
end of storage (Fig. 9). Hence, water vapour saturated headspace
with 100% RH has detrimental impact on visual quality of
mushrooms. Villaescusa and Gil (2003) used sorbitol and silica
gel as moisture absorbers to maintain the RH range inside modied
atmosphere packaged P. ostreatus. The authors reported that the
mushrooms packaged with moisture absorbers maintained the
best visual appearance, due to the stable in-package RH (90  96%).
Thus, maintaining optimum RH is critical in achieving desired
product shelf life. However, this depends on the produce
transpiration, rate of water uptake and water holding capacity
of the absorber and the water vapour transmission via the
packaging lm (Villaescusa and Gil, 2003; Mahajan et al., 2008b; Bi
et al., 2014). Further research is needed to explore the possibilities
for humidity-regulating trays with different percent of salts and its
application for other fresh produce of low TR such as tomatoes,
strawberry and pomegranate arils.
 G. Rux et al. / Postharvest Biology and Technology 108 (2015) 102110
Fig. 9. Appearance of mushroom after 6 days storage at 7
C (a) control-PP tray and (b) in humidity-regulating tray
4. Conclusions
At the saturation conditions of 100% RH normally found inside
normal package headspace, it was observed that mushrooms
produced 0.6 g of water d1. This water, if not controlled, leads to
accelerated deterioration in freshness quality. From the present
study it was found that the humidity-regulating trays was able to
maintain in-package RH of 93% and it absorbed 4.1 g of water
vapour within 6 d at 7
C and 85% RH storage condition. Mush-
rooms quality was better in humidity-regulating trays compared to
control-PP trays. However, the water vapour absorption capacity of
the humidity-regulating tray was not sufcient to completely
absorb the amount of water vapour released by mushrooms
resulting in condensation. Nevertheless, this current humidity-
regulating tray might be suitable for other low transpiring
products which should be experimentally tested.
Acknowledgements
This work is partly based upon research supported by the
project ReguPack (Project No. IGF-N04261/12) funded by the
German Ministry of Economy and Technology.
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