Shipping fruit can be brought in any city from a variety of different retailers, but that ubiquity downplays just how many factors go into ensuring the fruit arrives in good condition, fresh enough to be safely sold and eaten by customers. Unlike other goods, such as electronics, fruit has a definite lifespan, must arrive within a certain amount of time, and be stored under specific conditions to still be in good, edible condition by the time a customer arrives to buy it.
Different fruits have different needs, so they can’t all be shipped the same way, with the same considerations. Here are some of the best and worst fruits to ship, especially with the protection of passive pallet covers.
Apples & Pears
These fruits—and other similar fruits—are easier to ship for one important reason. They have harder skins that are less prone to bruising and showing visible damage. This hardiness also translates to requiring less care in the actual handling of the fruits, at least from a physical sense. Durable fruits can be more easily packed together without so many issues of visible damage ruining the shipment.
It’s always important to remember that with these dense, harder fruits, more allowances are made for shipping, and less protection is required. The opposite, however, is true for fruits on the other end of the spectrum.
Peaches & Plums
As expected, while the inner contents of such fruit are often similar in durability to apples and pears, the biggest difference comes in the delicacy of the fruit’s skin. Not only are they more easily torn, but they are more easily bruised, with bumps and impacts having a far more visible—and negative—effect on the appearance of these fruits, making them less appealing for sale once it’s time to put them on shelves.
The result is that some investment is required to physically protect the fruit, especially from shock and impact. The viability of fruit as a product is consumer confidence, and visibly defective fruit put on a shelf will not only remain unpurchased; it may call into question the health and safety standards of the retailer, damaging reputation and, ultimately, sales.
And then there is a final factor that affects both types of fruit: temperature, which precautions like passive pallet covers can address.
Environment Matters
Physical protection is not sufficient for the safe preservation of fruit during shipping. It’s critical to protect the condition of the fruit, but fluctuations in temperature, especially sustained high temperatures, can hasten the ripening process, causing fruit to rot prematurely before it even arrives at its destination.
While this issue can be alleviated by active environmental control, such as refrigeration, passive pallet covers protect fruit under all circumstances, especially those where a climate-controlled environment isn’t possible. For example, a delay in transferring fruit from a ship to a truck can mean the fruit may sit exposed to the elements for hours. Passive pallet control keeps the shipment’s internal temperature at ideal, even without refrigeration. This is why it’s crucial always to consider some passive temperature control systems in addition to active ones.
