Predicting relative humidity in modified atmosphere packaging system containing blueberry and moisture absorbent

A modified respiration-transpiration model wart developed to predict the re lative humidity in modified atmosphere packaging system containing fresh pr oduce and moisture absorbent The model is based on heat and mass balances a ccounting for the respiratory and transpiratory behavior of the fresh produ ce, the transport phenomena across the package, and the moisture sorption b ehavior of the absorbent. A set of experiments was conducted to obtain the parameter values that were necessary for generating model predictions. Anot her set of experiments was conducted using model packages containing bluebe rries and moisture absorbents Sanwet and xylitol to obtain experimental dat a under various conditions, including different weights of blueberries, typ es of absorbers, weights of absorbers, and temperatures. In general, the mo del predictions agree well with the experimental data, except the model som etimes exaggerates the effects of the absorbent in the initial period (< 10 h).