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Flender/Flender Gear Units/Bevel-helical speed reduction gearboxes B3

rapped pouch, bag, box, cup, tray, can, tube, bottle or other container to performthe following functions: containment; protection; and/or preservation; communication; 5 Smith et al. and utility or performance. Since the 1s there has been tremendous growth in new food processing/packaging technologies. The growth of these new packaging/processingtechnologies, for both short- and long-term preservation of food, is due to interrelatedfactors: () developments in new polymeric barrier packaging materials, () increasedurbanization, () market needs and consumer demands for convenience, and () increasing energy costs. As result of these interrelated factors, food packaging technology has gone through tremendous transformation. Packaging now provides increased consumerinformation, is used very effectively as marketing tool, and has clearly evolved fromits primary and previously single role of protection to be more multifaceted tool. Thereare multitude of packaging materials in todays marketplace, each designed with specicproperties. The correct choice of packaging is dependent not only on knowledge of the physical, chemical, and microbiological characteristics of fruits and vegetables, but also on the functional properties of the packaging materials available for particular productor preservation technology. This chapter gives brief overview of the properties of the materials most commonly used for packaging of fresh and processed fruits and vegetables and the packaging technol-ogies that can be applied for shelf life extension of products. 2 PACKAGE REQUIREMENTS/FUNCTIONS The two main functions of packaging are () to assemble the produce into convenient units for handling and () to protect the produce during distribution, storage, and market-ing. Modern packages for fresh fruits are expected to meet wide range of requirements,which may be summarized as follows: () The packages must have sufcient mechanical strength to protect the contents during handling and tran