Utilization of Eco-Friendly and Microfiber Wrapping Fabrics in Prolonging the Shelf Life of Ripe Banana Fruit

Food packaging plays a crucial role in our lives because it protects foods against contamination sources and preserves their properties throughout their entire shelf life. Banana is one of the rhizomatous plants and is currently being cultivated in many countries around the world. It is the fourth-most important global food crop. Therefore, this research aims to investigate the relationship between different weft materials and the functional properties of the produced packing fabrics. In this paper, the fabrics that are used as an alternative to petroleum packaging products are fabricated as a sustainable solution that aims to extend the shelf life of bananas during storage at room temperature. For this objective, five samples were produced using weave structure (twill 1/3) and five different weft materials (polyester microfiber 300/576, polyester microfiber 300/288, bamboo, raw cotton, and blended bamboo cotton yarn). Additionally, using bleached cotton 50/2 Ne as a warp with a mid-density of 36 warp/cm causes proper porosity. Mechanical, physical, and functional properties such as tensile strength, stiffness, air permeability, and moisture management (MMT) of all the fabric samples were determined; in addition, more performance evaluations were conducted on the produced wrapping fabrics. Fabrics have been wrapped around bananas as packaging bags, and then the experimental parameters on the bananas of the same bunch have been tested to show the packaging efficacy for the longest shelf life. Our finding showed that there is a direct relationship between the production of wrapping fabric (S1) and the decrease in banana weight by a percentage of 65%. The best sample performance for use as a banana wrapping fabric evaluated by radar chart is sample (S1) on its back, manufactured with (25% microfiber 300/576 den: 75% bleached cotton), which can prolong the banana fruit shelf life by 34.2% compared with control sample. Originality/value: This work was addressed to analyze the impact of using five different weft materials on its performance as the packing fabric to achieve the desired prolong the banana fruit shelf life.