4 ms·

What about "banana peels" once the "packing start to rot" it's a good indication the food is gone/off. Why have packaging that last x10 as long as the food ins

What about "banana peels" once the "packing start to rot" it's a good indication the food is gone/off. Why have packaging that last x10 as long as the food inside ?

withinboredom 5y ago
You can pretty much blame wars and the US military for that. (I’ll dig up sources when I get on my computer) The gist is that the military funded R&D in preservatives and packaging still used today. Stores took advantage of it because it meant they could carry more inventory without worrying about rotting.
- ericmay 5y ago
  I'm not sure I'd use blame here - that's like blaming the inventors of the Internet for teen suicide because of Facebook... If you're going to blame someone/something (in addition to the very consumers who demand this): > Stores took advantage of it because it meant they could carry more inventory without worrying about rotting.
Dma54rhs 5y ago
Because banana peel is not very good packaging, or compared to man made. Good enough for its own purpose. I've vacume sealed bananas with plastic and they stay fresh for maybe even a year, that's the difference.
- smorgusofborg 5y ago
  This line of reasoning is often used to defend individually wrapped cucumbers, etc. I watched a documentary recently that compared frozen food to internationally shipped food and found significant nutritional loss in the shipped "fresh" food. As such, I think plastic preserved apparently fresh food could be an explanation for part of the obesity rise. One potentially consumes more calories to get the other nutritional factors that have broken down compared to eating food that can only be delivered actually fresh. (Given that improved shipping life also turns the market for a vegetable global, I also think more people are priced out of buying produce that once had to be sold locally than are helped by less produce waste in the richest market the produce can now reach.)

What about "banana peels" once the "packing start to rot" it's a good indication the food is gone/off. Why have packaging that last x10 as long as the food inside ?

withinboredom 5y ago

You can pretty much blame wars and the US military for that. (I’ll dig up sources when I get on my computer) The gist is that the military funded R&D in preservatives and packaging still used today. Stores took advantage of it because it meant they could carry more inventory without worrying about rotting.

ericmay 5y ago
I'm not sure I'd use blame here - that's like blaming the inventors of the Internet for teen suicide because of Facebook... If you're going to blame someone/something (in addition to the very consumers who demand this): > Stores took advantage of it because it meant they could carry more inventory without worrying about rotting.

Dma54rhs 5y ago

Because banana peel is not very good packaging, or compared to man made. Good enough for its own purpose. I've vacume sealed bananas with plastic and they stay fresh for maybe even a year, that's the difference.

smorgusofborg 5y ago
This line of reasoning is often used to defend individually wrapped cucumbers, etc. I watched a documentary recently that compared frozen food to internationally shipped food and found significant nutritional loss in the shipped "fresh" food. As such, I think plastic preserved apparently fresh food could be an explanation for part of the obesity rise. One potentially consumes more calories to get the other nutritional factors that have broken down compared to eating food that can only be delivered actually fresh. (Given that improved shipping life also turns the market for a vegetable global, I also think more people are priced out of buying produce that once had to be sold locally than are helped by less produce waste in the richest market the produce can now reach.)