Dry Beans and Pulses Production, Processing, and Nutrition. Группа авторов

Чтение книги онлайн.

Fig. 4.7. Packaging machine used to form, fill, and seal retail bean packages.

The 100‐pound bags may be shipped as palletized lots or may be directly loaded into the cargo container or truck van by stacking them in a linear manner or aligning the bags in a nested configuration. It is frequently a common practice to load these containers using a pusher pallet loading system with a forklift truck. With this mechanical handling, system bags are stacked on a frame pallet and then slid forward off of the pallet during loading. Additionally, bags may be wrapped using thermal shrink‐wrap film material (polypropylene) to secure them in pallet size lots to minimize load shifting. Markets have also been developed in warehouse outlets and hypermarkets (superstores) using sacks of less than 100 pounds for direct retail use. These packages may be similarly designed using woven polypropylene in 10‐ to 25‐pound bags (Roberston and Frazier 1978; Uebersax and Siddiq 2012).

Bulk polyethylene totes (2000‐pound)

      The development of large‐capacity containers has enabled significant innovation in the handling of dry beans. The tote or box concepts enable the handling of bean weights in excess of 1‐ton (2,000 lbs) packages within the transport vehicle. These containers provide significant opportunity for cost savings through material reduction and labor and handling costs. Each large tote may be individually identified using a placard system to provide point of origin, identity, lot inspection data, and net weight contents. These totes may be affixed with a universal product code (UPC bar code) to enable scanning inventory control of the tote bag, its contents, its history of use, and ownership. The large tote containers must be serviceable through recycling and reuse to ensure amortizing the initial capital costs of the container over multiple distribution cycles (Roberston and Frazier 1978). Several configurations of flexible woven polyethylene totes are available commercially.

Domestic rail and truck transit

      Significant quantities of dry beans are shipped using bulk rail hopper cars enabling 200,000‐pound net weight cargo to be efficiently transported with minimal handling from the point of origin at the elevator site to the end‐use processor. Beans are typically filled and discharged using conveyors and/or pneumatic air handling systems. Hopper cars must be thoroughly inspected prior to filling and are effectively sampled using standard probe procedures, subsequently assuring that hatch covers are secured and sealed prior to dispatching the load. The use of commercial 50‐foot box cars is suitable for direct loading of bagged beans for domestic and North American continental shipments. Large quantities of packaged beans are shipped within the domestic market using trucks of various capacities, e.g., vans, semitrailers (Roberston and Frazier 1978). It is a common practice to adjust the positioning of bags, totes, or tote boxes within the load to enable a uniform and stable cargo of appropriate weight distribution.

Packaging for overseas shipments

Significant quantities of dry beans are shipped under defined conditions to Western European markets. Traditionally, beans were shipped in 100‐pound jute sacks stacked directly within cargo ship holds (Thompson et al. 1962). Currently, these shipments are secured in unit cargo containers (8 × 8 × 20 feet) and sealed throughout transit. Typically, dry edible beans have been shipped via 100‐pound sacks stacked uniformly within the cargo container. Sanitation of containers must be controlled and carefully inspected to assure uncontaminated transit. Research has demonstrated security of moisture gradients and temperature profiles throughout these containers (Anthony et al. 1982; Uebersax et al. 1983).

      Transatlantic tote shipments are commercially successful in routine container shipments. These procedures enable the shipping of large polypropylene totes (dimensions 42 × 42 × 84 inches), each with a net weight of approximately 4,000 pounds (2 tons). These bulk bags are shipped with support pallets and constitute a significant labor reduction in the handling in both loading and unloading of the cargo.

      Bernhofen et al. (2016) reported that standard shipping containers are largely used in international trade and are considered one of the main drivers of economic globalization, as containers on ships carry about 90% of global trade. Due to increased global trade, proliferation of insect pests is also on the increase during grain shipments (Meurisse, et al. 2019). Appropriate phytosanitary measures must be taken to minimize not only the losses due to insect pests but also to control introduction of alien species to worldwide destinations. Marchioro et al. (2020) suggested placing light traps (up to 8) within the shipping containers so that upon arrival at the destination insects trapped are readily detected and documented. Such innovative techniques can facilitate efficient inspections of containers at port of entries and can also help in devising appropriate control strategies for the detected insects.

MARKETING СКАЧАТЬ