PACKAGING AND MARKET DISTRIBUTION
Beans, if not packaged and stored properly, are subject to harmful microorganisms, insects, and extraneous contamination that can cause health hazards in food (Testin and Vergano 1990). Packaging is essential for preservation and serves the vital role of allowing food products to be safely distributed throughout all phases of value‐chain. Dry bean packaging is an important component of a complete system, providing the high level of food safety, quality, and nutrition currently available within the processed bean market (Uebersax et al. 1996).
Dry edible beans are packaged in food grade impervious materials to ensure that the integrity of the package allows for minimum subsequent contamination of the product. The historical method of handling dry beans was through the use of burlap bags (fiber jute). However, this practice has been largely reduced (due to supply and quality problems) and replaced with alternate materials including laminated paper and polypropylene. Sacks made from polypropylene strands are clean and do not impart any odor or taint to their contents. There is also an absence of contamination by loose hair‐like fibers, a problem often associated with burlap bags (Bolles et al. 1982; Paine 1991).
Packaging systems for domestic shipments
Retail polyethylene bags (1–5 pound)
Retail dry edible beans are packaged in polyethylene film using a form‐fill seal machine. This packaging system uses a reel of polyethylene film and either forms it into a tube and then seals and fills it at regular intervals or folds it lengthwise and seals it at right angles to the fold to form a series of pockets (sachets), which are filled and closed (Uebersax et al. 1996). This package has good transparency and printability and is compliant with regulatory requirements, therefore allowing consumers to examine the color and quality appearance of the product. Figure 4.7 shows a commercial small bag bean packaging machine.
Commercial polypropylene bags (100‐pound)
Dry edible beans may be filled into 100‐pound sacks, which are sewn at the point of filling to ensure integrity of the package. Bag dimensions are critical to ensure sufficient volume and shape and dictate the final dimension of the filled bean bag. Typically, bean bags are 21 × 37 inches to enable sufficient stackability and nesting of the bags, thus avoiding slippage and shifting during shipment. Some large, colored seeded beans (pintos, cranberries, and kidney beans) require larger bag dimensions than may be suitable for smaller seeded classes, e.g., navy and black beans (Roberston and Frazier 1978).
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
