Fifty per cent less bruising in fruit thanks to box with pocket base

Specially designed for the transport of food products, such as fruit and vegetables, a unique pocket base for big boxes was developed by Schoeller Allibert. Thanks to its unique base design with pockets, or notches, food such as apples or pears don’t start rolling around during transport. The result is significant. When transported in a box with a pocket base, the fruit is bruised 50 per cent less than when transported in a box with a traditional, flat base, according to an official shake test conducted by the Flemish Centre for Horticultural Products in Heverlee. 

The shake test compared the bruising damage to fruit in big boxes with a flat base and big boxes with a pocket base. For the test both boxes, filled with apples, were shaken as during tractor or lorry transport. After the simulation, the fruit was evaluated for bruising. The difference between the impact of the flat base and the pocket base was remarkable. While the apples in boxes with a flat base showed an average bruising surface of 7.63 cm2, the apples in boxes with a pocket base only had a bruising surface of 4 cm2. “Thanks to the unique base design with pockets, bruising damage decreases by half,” confirms Ludo Gielen, who is head of the innovation team of Schoeller Allibert. “Thanks to the notches, the fruit is fixed in place, as it were, during transport, so that they shift as little as possible. Moreover, these boxes consist of a larger volume because of these notches. And thanks to the ventilation, it is also ideal to store products qualitatively. The cross-shaped base has been designed in such a way that it is extremely stiff, which also benefits the stockpiled fruit.” Boxes with a pocket base, such as for example the Max Agri 1210 and Maximus 1210, are used throughout Europe by large agricultural companies, and Schoeller Allibert now has more than 500,000 of them in circulation. Now, the 1200x1200 mm footprint will also receive this improved design. The boxes can be designed in the customer’s preferred size. For example, many pear growers use boxes with perforated base and closed sides.

The Maximus will be in production at Schoeller Allibert's in May 2017. The Benelux market will then be served. There’s much demand and the first orders will be filled mid-May.

Schoeller Allibert Belgium will move into a brand-new location in Beringen in the summer, and will then start producing and supplying from there. One of the first products produced in Beringen will be big box Maximus 1212. This ingenious big box with pocket base will have at least 34 litres more volume than the largest box on the market. The Maximus 1212 will have a loading capacity of 500 kilograms, and can be stacked nine high. “It’s not just practical,” says Ludo Gielen. “But it also allows our customers in, for example, the agricultural sector to minimise storage space for their harvest, and optimise the loading capacity of their lorries. That means fewer lorries on the roads and lower logistical costs.” Furthermore, the Maximus is completely recyclable at the end of its long life. The big box can also be easily personalised with the customer’s logo.