A crop pretreatment with silicon was combined with passive modified atmosphere packaging (PMAP) in a thermoformed recycled PET packaging format as a novel approach to minimize the quality degradation in mushrooms. This study was aimed to evaluate the effects of (a) two preharvest treatments, namely preharvest control (PHTC) and preharvest silicon treatment (PHTS) and (b) four packaging lid formats, namely PMAP1: a single hole of 1.1 mm size, PMAP2: two holes of 0.53 mm size, PMAP3: three holes of 0.53 mm size, and PMAPC: OMNI-PW micro perforated cling film as a control on the quality and shelf life of mushrooms during five days of storage at 4 °C and 99.9% RH. The results of the analysis of variance showed that packaging type, storage days, and the double interaction effects of storage days × packaging type had significant effects (p < 0.0001) on the changes in O₂, CO₂, colour L* and a* values, ΔE, total soluble solids (TSS), and the density of mushrooms. Density, electrolyte leakage (EL), and TSS were significantly affected by the double interaction effects of preharvest treatment × packaging type. Overall, PMAP1, PMAP2, and PMAP3 resulted in lower O₂ + higher CO₂ within packages compared with the conventional control. A preharvest silicon treatment had little overall effect. PMAP 1, 2 and 3 had a significantly lower ΔE (=better quality) after 5 days storage compared to PMAPC which had the highest ΔE (lowest quality) overall. PMAP1 and PMAP2 had the lowest EL values compared to PMAP3 and PMAPC. PMAP1, PMAP2, and PMAP3 all gave better TSS levels and density compared to PMAPC. Notably, this study proved that a perforation-mediated MAP design for mushrooms packaged in a thermoformed recycled PET packaging format maintained improved CO₂, lowered O₂, and reduced EL while maintaining TSS and the density of the mushrooms during the storage period.

This research builds a mathematical modelling to assess food waste production when designing sustainable packaging solutions integrated with an agricultural intervention in kale production. The model utilizes experimental data obtained from simulated retail and distribution storage conditions to assess the probability of the product to be found out of technical specification and becoming waste. The packaging design was made using a system of differential equations describing the gas exchanges inside the packaging. The waste was estimated fitting linear mixed effect models to the postharvest experimental data, accounting for the variability between and within groups. A field experiment with kale treated with silicon during growth as a bio stimulant was used with the aim to make the product more resilient to packaging conditions. The Kale was then packaged in polylactic acid and oriented polypropylene for postharvest testing. Technological thresholds that indicate out-of- specification product were used to estimate the percentage of product that would likely end up as food waste. In total 7.2% of the product was found to be out of specification with the PLA film after 7 days. Silicon treatment was able to reduce this value to negligible, demonstrating the ability of agricultural interventions to facilitate sustainable packaging and reducing food waste in horticultural products.