Packing And Unpacking Raw Materials, Products And Supplies

Packaging is the process of packing that is part of the production cycle. This is applied to a bulk product to obtain the finished product.
Packaging includes any material including painted material, employed in the packaging of a product and any outer packaging used for
transportation of shipment. Packaging materials are referred to as primary, secondary and tertiary depending on to whether they are
in direct contact with the product or not.
A. Kinds of Packages Used for Raw Materials, Products, and Supplies
1. Burlap or Gunny Sack – Burlap is a coarse cloth made of jute (also termed hessian), flax or hemp. It could be coarse or fine meshed.
2. Mesh or net bag – a non- rigid container of fibrous material and characterized by an open weave. It is usually made of polypropylene
filaments. It is often called by the color of the bag as red or orange bags.
3. Polyethylene bags – these are commonly used as transport containers usually they are 5-10 kg capacity
4. Palm Leaf bags – commonly used for field collection or for shipping small volumes of commodities to nearby markets.
5. Baskets - These are flexible or rigid containers woven from bamboo or rattan strips and come in many shapes and sizes. They have
straight or sloping sides so they can or cannot be nested. A basket is nestable if it can be inserted inside another basket.
6. Sacks of woven plastic fabric – usually recycled. These are originally used for rice, fertilizer, or other materials.
7. Wooden Crates – A box is a solidly walled and usually rectangular-shaped container. A crate is a box with more open construction,
made of slats and has open spaces at the sides and bottom. Wooden crates are made of sawn lumber, plywood, veneer or bamboo and
come in various sizes and shapes.
8. Cartons – A carton is a box made of cardboard, paperboard or fiberboard. Cardboard, paperboard and fiberboard are made of paper
sheets of varying numbers so that they differ in thickness, with fiberboard as the thickest and cardboard, the thinnest. Cardboard is
made of intermediate thickness between paper and paperboard. Fiberboard is made of paper sheets laminated to a thickness which
provides a degree of stiffness. Cartons could be telescopic or open top (sometimes called regular). A carton is telescopic when the cover
is separate from the main carton. The cover is slightly bigger than the main part so it can fit snugly when closed. An open top carton is
one in which the cover consists of 4 flaps which, when folded, acts as cover.
9. Plastic Crates – could be returnable or one-trip packages. Those which are not durable are one-trip packages, some are designed as
nestable; they have a plastic cover or none at all in which case the crate above it acts as a cover.
B. Techniques in Packing
1. Volume Filling- food products are poured into the container
2. Plastic Boxes – Material used is plastic, either polystyrene or polyurethane, made light and spongy by introducing pockets of air or
gas. It is usually for iced commodities transported in non-refrigerated vehicles or for expensive commodities such as grapes transported
in refrigerated trucks.
3. Vibration Filling- packing is done by vibrating equipment
4. Jumble Filling – food products are packed disregarding the size but not weight
5. Tight Filling- food products are packed tightly in a container
Regardless of the method, observe the following when packing food products:
1. Immobilize the food products as much as possible, that is, it should be of uniform sizes to minimize spaces within the pack.
2. Fill only to capacity of container. Do not overfill.
3. Gently handle packed food products, even if the package is strong enough to protect the food products.
4. Pack in a cool place with have adequate ventilation.
5. Containers should be clean – when containers are reused they should be thoroughly washed.
6. Place packages in an upright position
7. Pack according to one common stage of maturity or degree of ripeness as in fruit.
F. Loading Raw Materials/Products/Supplies
The following guidelines should be observed in loading raw materials/products/supplies:
1. Handle food products gently. Containers should not be dropped or thrown to each other around.
2. Containers at the bottom should not be used as steps to allow stacking to a greater height, especially if flexible and semi-rigid
containers are used.
3. If manual loading is used, lightness and convenience are important considerations in choosing a package. It should be easily and
conveniently to be handled by a person of average build.
4. Where forklifts are employed in loading packs of food products, pallets and slip sheets are used.