Design of Modified Atmosphere Packaging Systems: Modeling Oxygen Concentrations Within Sealed Packages of Tomato Fruits

A method was developed for determination of O 2 consumption as a function of O 2 concentration by mathematical characterization of O 2 depletion by a tomato fruit in a closed system with time. Mathematical equations were developed describing O 2 consumption as a function of O 2 concentration for breaker, pink and red tomato fruit and were used to model film permeability characteristics (O 2 permeability coefficient, surface area, thickness) as a function of fruit weight to achieve desired sealed package concentrations of O 2 in modified atmosphere packages. Equations were also developed to describe the time for initial O 2 establishment as affected by void volume. Calculations are presented for optimizing package parameters for tomato fruit.