Excerpt from Lettuce Prepackaged at Shipping Point: A Preliminary Market Survey

Test shipments were made from Salinas, Calif., during the summer of 1960, and again in 1961. Most of these tests indicated that polystyrene film was a 'safer' film to use than the other films, which were generally more moisture proof. It is safer' in that it allows some dehydration, helping to prevent sliming and decay-particularly if the lettuce is not properly refrigerated. Some Salinas shippers made a few commercial shipments during the late summer of 1961, and one shipper began shipping in sizable quantities out of Salinas in the late fall of 1961. These shipments and the attendant publicity stimu lated great activity on the part of the lettuce industry.

About 10 lettuce shippers made commercial shipments of shrink-film-wrapped lettuce out of the Imperial Valley, California, and Yuma, Ariz., areas during the winter season of 1962.

The outstanding advantage of shrink-film packaging is the reduction of freight costs. According to L. M. Cox, Western Growers Association traffic manager, savings in freight amount to $231 a car for a 700-carton load from California to New York. The freight per carton of prepackaged lettuce weighing 31 pounds is 98 cents, compared to for an equivalent 47-pound carton of regular pack. One receiver estimated that it will eventually cost him more to buy untrimmed lettuce in cartons than shrink-film-wrapped lettuce, because of this difference in freight costs. This difference will be accentuated when piggyback shipments begin with -pound trailer loads (shipped two to a railroad flatcar) on which refrigeration charges will be equivalent to those now paid for a single refrigerator car.

Another advantage is that the consumer may get a better head of lettuce, with less bruising and more green leaves remaining intact and edible (even though she has to discard one discolored leaf because of dehydration), than she would be getting, on the average, if the lettuce were shipped untrimmed and perhaps badly bruised from bulge packing, thus requiring extensive trimming at the retail store. Other advantages to prepackaging lettuce at shipping point, also are claimed. Some growers report higher yields of marketable lettuce whenit is prepackaged at the shipping point, because, even though a head of lettuce may be unmarketable if untrimmed, it frequently can be prepackaged if the outer damaged leaves are trimmed off. It may be possible to use lighter test weight and cheaper cartons by dropping from a 47-pound pack to a 3l-pound pack. Also, considerable savings in retail labor and packaging costs should be realized by the retailer even if he does need to retrim some shrink-film-wrapped lettuce because of poor appearance.

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