Banana Packaging
Flexible bag-in-box and pouch packaging provide eco-conscious solutions that keep your bananas safe and fresh from fill through end-use. With aseptic technology, products are shelf-stable and preservative-free—no refrigeration needed.
Scholle IPN Banana Packaging
Bag-in-Box for Banana
With aseptic packaging technology, you can deliver a fresh, preservative-free product, no refrigeration required. Our barrier films reduce browning and extend shelf life for banana products. Use our innovative bag-in-box systems, with a wide range of fitments and filling equipment, for a total flexible packaging solution engineered to protect your bananas from fill through end-use. We provide:
Aseptic technology to eliminate costly cold chain logistics.
Versatility to deliver your bananas anywhere you need.
Solutions that minimize your environmental impact and leave less packaging waste behind.
Reduced food waste with longer secondary shelf life and maximum product evacuation.
BIB Filler SureFill 40Banana Bag in BoxScholle IPN Bulk Packaging IBCScholle IPN Bag Render 2600ScholleIPN Bulk Packaging DrumBIB Filler SureFill 40Banana Bag in Box
Institutional Bag-in-Box for Banana
Safely dispense banana products with our aseptic-capable, closed-loop systems that minimize opportunities for contamination while in-use and extend freshness upon opening. Our bag-in-box products are designed with fast-paced, foodservice operations in mind with:
Easy storage and smaller packaging footprint.
Improved evacuation to maximize profits and minimize waste.
Sustainable Advantages of Institutional Bag-in-Box
Learn More About Our Institutional Bag-in-Box Solutions
Industrial Bag-in-Box for Banana
Use our industrial-sized flexible IBCs, tote liners, and drum liners to safely transport your bananas in packaging that offers cost savings throughout the supply chain. Our industrial packaging facilitates:
Clean and safe delivery of base material to and from your production facility.
Streamlining, demanding less resources to clean and service bulk containers.
Eliminated reliance on cold chain due to ability to fill, store, and unload aseptically.
Sustainable Advantages of Industrial Bag-in-Box
Learn More About Our Industrial Bag-in-Box Solutions
Pouch Packaging for Banana
With aseptic technology, you can offer mashed banana and banana products in perfectly portioned, portable packaging that requires no preservatives or refrigeration. Count on this highly-convenient packaging format to offer consumers the ability to take your products wherever they go with: single-serve pouches for on-the go; multi-serve pouches for cooking and baking; and trial-size pouches that encourage sampling.
Ship smarter with ecommerce-ready flexible pouches.
Aseptic pouches are shelf-stable, no refrigeration required.
Typically lower carbon footprint than heavy rigid alternatives.
Optimized product-to-package ratio, leaving less waste volume.
Pouch Filler SureFill 100PFourMountains Banana Baby Food PouchFourMountains Banana Mash PouchFruit and Vegetable Puree PouchBanana PouchScholleIPN DuraShield FilmPouch Filler SureFill 100PFourMountains Banana Baby Food Pouch
Pre-Made Pouches for Banana
Our CleanPouch® system helps you streamline your operation by focusing on your product while relying on us to deliver quality pouch packaging. These pre-made spouted pouches are delivered on rail systems, so it’s easy to get your filling operation up and running.
Benefits of CleanPouch® System:
Optimal nutrient retention, flavors, and textures with CleanPouch® Aseptic.
Customizable fitment options for spouts and caps that fit your needs.
Dynamic filling equipment for startup through full-scale, automated operations.
Sustainable Advantages of CleanPouch
Learn More About Our Pre-Made Pouch Solutions
Pouch Solutions for Banana
If you’re interested in getting started or are already producing pouches using horizontal form-fill-seal (HFFS), count on us for high-quality materials needed for making your pouches:
Films: Choose from our wide range of options from traditional foil to consumer-preferred transparent. Plus, our RecShield™ pouch film can be recycled with other polyethylene films.
Fitments: Select from our wide variety of unique and innovative pouch spouts and caps engineered for the rigors of HFFS production.
Equipment: Use our combined pouch fitments and barrier films in tandem with the top-of-the-line Bossar BMS 4.2 for a complete HFFS pouch packaging solution.
Discover how It’s Fresh! Ethylene Control banana packaging can be used to keep your produce tasting great for longer
It’s Fresh! Ethylene Control is the perfect solution for keeping your produce fresh for longer. Learn how our technology can be used throughout the supply chain. Below are some of the fruits and vegetables that benefit from It's Fresh! Ethylene Control. Simply click on the area of interest to discover more.
Banana packaging & harvesting
Harvesting, packing and storing bananas in the ORIA
For bananas on the Ord River Irrigation Area, length of time to emergence and harvesting depend on air temperature, planting time and sucker management.
Ratoon crops are much slower to reach maturity than new crops.
The time to ratoon harvest and bunch emergence is highly variable due to staggered selection of suckers.
Planting between August and October gives the shortest times to harvest. While May planting gives the longest time to harvest.
Typically, growers achieve 40t/ha of bananas from the traditional-based systems and about 60t/ha with annual tissue culture or in a well-managed plantation. This can be highly variable and depends on numerous factors especially climate, (temperatures and sunshine) and storm damage.
Most growers would expect to pack up to 1.5 cartons per bunch of bananas, after losses and quality control. The bunch is harvested when the angles on the fruit have almost disappeared and the fruit is evenly filled.
During very hot weather the fruit may need to be cut thinner with more prominent angles. During changeable weather ‘mixed ripe’ fruit may occur where some fingers in the bunch ripen prematurely. Earlier harvest of thinner fruit will avoid most of this problem.
The parent or plant crop harvest can usually be spread over two months in a plantation due to non-uniform bunch maturity. Each successive ratoon crop’s harvesting time will become longer.
Bananas should be carefully handled at all stages of the harvesting and packing process. Rough handling can result in damage that does not become evident until the carton is opened at the markets after the ripening process. In very hot weather, bananas should be harvested during the coolest part of the day.
Maturity
For information on assessing maturity see the Tropical Banana Information kit.
Harvesting
Bananas are always harvested by hand using a two-person team. One person cuts and the other carries the bunch away. When cutting the bunch, a shallow cross cut is made with a cane knife in the stem facing the bunch. A saw is commonly used to cut the bunch from the stem. The weight of the bunch causes the stem to bend. At this point the bunch is then lowered onto the shoulder padding of the second person and the bunch stem is cut.
To allow the parent stem to remain intact for assisting growth of suckers, the carrier can use a ladder and the person cutting can use a long handled cutting knife to cut the bunch stem.
Each bunch of bananas is individually placed upright onto a trailer that is padded. Padding is also placed on each side to prevent any rubbing between bunches. At the packing shed the bananas are hung, have their bunch covers removed, dehanded, washed, and then packed.
Packing
A small thin straight-bladed knife is used to cut banana hands from the bunch stalk. Once removed, any undersized and damaged fingers are removed. The hand then can be placed on a packing wheel or into a water trough/conveyor system where it is sorted and graded for size and quality.
Bananas are packed as whole hands, part hands or clusters in cardboard cartons with plastic liners. Plastic slip-sheets are used between full hands and absorbent paper is placed in the bottom of the carton. Cartons are staked onto pallets for ease of pickup and delivery for transport.
To ensure a net weight of 13kg when a carton of bananas reaches the markets, they are usually packed to a weight of 13.5 to 13.7kg in order to allow for any weight loss.
The grower’s name and address must appear on the carton.
For more information on packing process see Tropical Banana Information kit.
Grading
The Cavendish variety has three fruit grades, dependent on finger size. The length is measured from the tip of the fruit to the end of the stalk on the outside curve. Circumference is measured at right angles to the curve of the fruit, at the point where the diameter is the greatest.
The grades are:
Extra large: at least 200mm long and 115mm in circumference
Large: 177 to 200mm long and at least 108mm in circumference
Medium: 140 to 177mm long and at least 101mm in circumference.
Gassing and cold chain management
Once packed, bananas should be cool stored at 13°C. They are normally ripened at metropolitan markets, though some can be ripened on the farm for local consumption.
All ORIA bananas are marketed through Perth. WA growers cannot currently supply the full WA banana demands, supplying about 40 to 50% of demand.
BANANA PACKAGING, MUSA SP. / MUSACEAE
Bananas are bought by weight or packaged either in trays covered with plastic or in perforated bags. Bananas are displayed in great cardboard boxes, and the "hands’ can be loose or packaged. In some shops, they are already weighed, in a perforated plastic bag and libelled or in flow pack, that is to say, in trays wrapped in plastic. Some companies have exhibitors with hangers to display the "hands’.
One-A-Day Bananas: Genius at Work or Waste of Packaging? (Survey)
Mark at BoingBoing says "This is the way to sell bananas - a pack with a spectrum of ripeness levels." Everybody is talking about it; Elizabeth at Kitchn describes it as "the only way bananas should be sold".
The first banana in the pack is perfectly ripe and ready to eat right away, the next is a little less ripe, but will probably be ready to slice over your cereal the following morning. All the way on the right, the last banana is bright green and nowhere near ripe enough to eat. But by the time you get through the other bananas, that one will be perfect.
My first thought on seeing it was that bananas already come in a perfect package- a peel, totally biodegradable and compostable. It's the last product that needs a disposable plastic container. Almost a decade ago, we called wrapping bananas packaging design at its worst.
Del Monte wrapped bananas
Del Monte Bananas/Promo image
In another post on Del Monte packaged bananas, I couldn't decide whether it should be tagged wretched excess or greenwash watch.
But in a very fresh post about wasted fruits and vegetables Katherine notes:
Bananas, for example, took the prize for waste in terms of total volume and for climate impact. Being a tropical fruit that's flown to markets all around the world, its carbon footprint is large and turnover is high. People buy a lot of bananas because they're cheap and easy to eat, but they have a short window for optimal ripeness, which leads to shoppers to reject those that are overly brown.
These are hard choices. Del Monte actually defended their banana wrapping as a way of reducing waste; the packages used CRT [“Controlled Ripening Technology”]. Their VP of marketing told Forbes:
The primary purpose of the CRT banana technology is to extend the shelf life of the product without using any artificial preservatives or other chemicals or gasses but rather by regulating the product’s natural respiration rate. By achieving this, bananas can now be sold in venues, such as convenience stores, cafeterias and school vending machines, offering consumers a fresh and healthy alternative to the typical snacks linked to the growing obesity epidemic in many western societies. In the past, this alternative was not possible due to the highly perishable nature of bananas and the unwillingness of the retailer or vending operator to absorb high losses due to overripe product.
This new packaging from Korea theoretically reduces waste because you get one ripening banana per day, which should reduce waste, particularly when more and more people are living alone and would like their bunch of bananas to last all week.
On the other hand, bananas do not need to be perfect to eat, a bit of brown never hurt anyone. As Katherine noted in her post Stop the war on imperfect bananas!
It’s an argument I sometimes have with my kids when they come home from school, a blackened banana still in their lunch bags: “That black spot does not mean it’s bad!” I peel it open to show that the inside is just fine, and then they’re happy to munch away.
You can always turn them into banana bread or many other things, they do not have to go into the composting bin. As Katherine notes:
There are so many ways to use old bananas. Think of them as your best friend in the kitchen, a magic bullet solution to make everything from curry to pancakes taste like a million bucks.
Bad Bananas
AlanH20/CC BY 2.0
Then Melissa tells us that they are good for a whole lot more than just eating.
Instead, everyone is excited about putting them in plastic boxes, a solid fossil fuel, often ending up in the ocean or the landfill. The whole idea is silly; there are somewhere between 7 and a million ways to use bananas. If you shop carefully and buy what you need, they can all get eaten or used in a reasonable time.
But judging by all the raving headlines saying things like Bananas have been solved, I wonder if I am alone.