Packaging design of the mangosteen for local transportation (IAEC Ref. 180)

Abstract

Mangosteen is one of the tropical fruit that is quite popular in Indonesia. Economically, the fruit has grew to be a potential export comodity. However, the most significant obstacle faced up by the fruit is it’s damaged during transportation. The damage that accurs in the transportation process reaches to 20%. The level of damage can be significantly reduced with the use of a proper and comprehensive packaging. This research was aimed to introduce by an appropriate packaging technology especially applied for local transportation of mangosteen. This research was conducted in three stages: measurement of physical and mechanical properties of mangosteen (stage I); planning and designing packaging (stage II); testing packaging for transportation by using the simulator equals 477 km of transportation using trucks (stage III). Packaging used is designed for capacity of 8 kg and 15 kg with the two patterns arrangement of mangosteen inside package, that is FCC (face center cubic) and jumble (bulky). Mangosteen used in this research was the quality I, with the caracteristics are: 61mm-63 mm diameter, 120 grams individual weight, and 6.53 kgf bioyield with 5.2 mm deformation. From those data of mangosteen physical and mechanical, the packaging was designed : 388 mm x 204 mm x 204 mm for the 8-kg; 388 mm x 294 mm x 244mm for the 15-kg capacity, using FCC pattern. Whereas when using jumble patterns, each of above dimension only enough for the capacity of 5.4 kg and 10.2 kg. Packaging materials used were corugated board (BC flute). The magnitude physical damage of Mangosteen after transportation was between 1.1% - 7.9%. Type of damage on the fcc pattern was dented, and on jumble pattern was broken petals of fruit. Although the physical damage of the mangosteen on FCC pattern was higher than jumble pattern, but the damage was not on the skin tissue, which means that the damage only on the surface of the fruit. This can be seen from the decreasing rate of respiration and low weight decrease compared to the pattern of Jumble in 10 days after transportation. The rate of respiration and low weight decreasing of Mangosteen indicated that storage period is expected long.