*2.5. Condensation Assessment*

Studies on moisture condensation with the five different liners were carried out in two set ups. The first set up was to determine how much visible condensate could be quantified inside the liner bags. Fruit were conditioned at ambient conditions of 17 ± 2 ◦C and 65 ± 5% RH for 12 h, weighed individually, packed and sealed in dozens in plastic liners, and placed inside ventilated cartons. Fruit were then stored on pallets in a cold room at 5 ◦C and 90 ± 5% RH for 24 h. Relative humidity and temperature of the room and inside individual carton liners was monitored using Tinytang sensors (Tinytag TV-4500, Hastings Data Loggers, Port Macquarie, Australia) at intervals of 600 s. Dry clean paper pads of known mass were used to sponge off the condensate water from the inside of the bag and on the fruit. The weight of wet pads was then immediately recorded. The amount of condensate was expressed in grams per day and as a percentage of the fruit mass. The experiment was repeated three times. The amount of condensate was also scored on a scale of 0–10 (where 0 = none; 1–2 = trace; 3–4 = slight; 5–6 = moderate; 7–8 = severe; 9–10 = extremely severe).

The second set up of the experiment was to determine the rate of change in the condensate within the bags over a period. In this case, fruit were conditioned at ambient temperatures while as the packaging material was conditioned at 5 ◦C in cold room for 12 h. The packed fruit were then weighed before storage at 5 ◦C and 90 ± 5% RH for 7 d. The condensate within the bags was scored on a 0 to 5 scale and the change in weight of the packed fruit were monitored per day. At the end of 7 d, the amount of remaining condensate in the liners was quantified as described in phase one above and the weight of fruit were also recorded. The rate of change in condensate was calculated in grams per day.
