General Printers Ltd (GPL) Flexibles, a leader in Kenya’s flexible packaging sector, has teamed up with Afripack to apply the technical expertise of the South Africa-based group’s East African offshoot MAPflex in modified atmosphere packaging (MAP).
Ketul Tanna, managing director of Nairobi-based GPL, told Packaging MEA that the company has established a joint venture with Afripack-MAPflex to apply MAP technology in a new way to more than double the shelf lives of fruit and vegetables.
“It is a standard material but the difference is in what we do to the material, which allows for the breathability of the vegetables and fruits to be enhanced such that it increases their shelf life,” he said.
“If the normal shelf life of the fruits or vegetables available in the supermarket is three days, we can extend that to seven to eight days.”
MAP technology involves packing products using a mix of gases that delays their decay. The ideal blend of nitrogen, oxygen and carbon dioxide varies with each product. With fruit, for instance, the specific level of oxygen can determine ripening.
Afripack Chief Financial Officer James Hynd told Packaging MEA that the collaboration involves a new patented approach to MAP.
“We’ve had this product for almost three years now,” he said.
“The first two years were spent in doing research and development. We are now actually supplying packaging to certain packers.
“We have already got approvals from the major supermarkets in Europe from companies like Sainsbury’s, Marks & Spencer’s. They have already approved this technology.”
He added that Afripack has exclusive regional rights to the specialist technology, which it has already introduced in sub-Saharan Africa.
“How the process works is every fruit and vegetable breathes at different rates depending on different climatic conditions at that particular time,” he said.
“We have got a unit that we will place at the packer or at the farm where the rate of breathing of the fruit or vegetable is captured. This information is sent to us directly through a database over the internet. It is stored in our machines.
“We are then able to make a bag with that breathing characteristic of that fruit or vegetable and we design the packaging for that particular moment.”
Kenyan joint venture aims to extend fruit shelf life GPL and MAPfl ex team up to pioneer in advanced modified atmosphere packaging In this approach to MAP, the company will replace generic packaging for fruit and vegetables with packs tailored for the weather conditions prevailing on a specific day.
“For example, today it is cold and the temperatures are cold and the breathing changes for the fruit or the vegetable,” said Hynd.
“The minute the temperature changes to hot or humid the breathing completely changes. So you cannot use the same packaging today for a condition that is going to be tomorrow.
“All the packaging that is imported currently is for a generic weather condition, so it doesn’t really help.”
Tanna added that the joint venture would apply new technology both for transporting produce to packers and to supermarkets.
“We pack in specialised bags to extend the shelf life of the fruit or vegetable until it gets to the packer,” he said.
“The packer then takes the fruit or vegetable, cuts it and packs it. We also provide that specialised packaging. So we are increasing the shelf life throughout the chain.”