Abstract:
The aim of this study was to design and construct an appropriate tomato packaging container to solve mechanical damages. A transport study was done to assess the performances of the appropriate container designed which is currently not yet in use in the system and the current ordinary wood packaging container which is the sole packaging container for tomato fruit handling. The results showed that 40%, 37.50% and 45% of the samples of tomato fruits from the top, middle and bottom of the ordinary package respectively were severely bruised after four hours of excitation (transportation). In the case of the appropriate container, the corresponding values were 44.18%, 30.23% and 18.60% for the samples taken from the top, middle and bottom of the container, respectively. The average bruise width of the damage samples packaged in the traditional basket was 24.36 mm while the average length was 36.67 mm. In the case of the appropriate container, the average bruise width was 15.18 mm and that of the length was 26.97 mm. The ANOVA shows that these mean values of bruise areas differed significantly (p < 0.05) between the two packaging containers. The appropriate container which is currently not used by the handlers of tomato fresh produce performed better in reducing mechanical damage resulting from impact (shock), cuts or punctures, compression (squeezing or squashing) and vibration (shaking) than the ordinary wooden container solely used in the transportation of fresh tomato fruits in Uganda.
