New application of DuPont™ Tyvek® for preserving dates from adverse weather conditions. Thanks to its qualities, the date ripens earlier on the branch, resulting in increased sweetness and size.

DuPont™ and its partners have developed innovative ways to protect perishable goods and reduce food spoilage through various solutions for wrapping, bagging, covering, encapsulating, interleaving, and protecting. Tyvek® is also useful in food production and has been used for imaginative applications, including as a medium for applying coatings to different food products, such as spice coatings on sausages and ham. The breathability and protective qualities of Tyvek® make it a perfect partner in agriculture as well. It has been used as tree base wraps, soil protection, and frost control, to name a few ways Tyvek® helps bring quality food to the table. Due to its highly reflective white style, lightweight and reusable Tyvek® has been placed on the ground to reflect sunlight onto the bottom of oranges, helping to ripen the lower part of the fruit. It has also been used to protect dates on the tree and to cover blackberry bushes planted to feed silk worms, which are exposed to harmful rains.

Using Tyvek® to protect perishable products during air transport and transit (a typical example is asparagus shipped from Peru to the world) can extend their shelf life and dramatically reduce loss rates, thereby increasing profitability. It is estimated that between 20 and 30% of food profit losses result from deterioration between the time the food is prepared or harvested and the time it is made available to the consumer. This is a significant bite into profits that can be greatly reduced by using Tyvek® to help stabilize external variables such as temperature, light, and humidity. Tyvek® reflects up to 95% of UV rays and prevents condensation that could lead to mold and decay. It is also a bacterial barrier that prevents contamination by bacteria like salmonella within a closed system. The diverse and extremely practical uses that the food industry has already found for Tyvek® should serve to stimulate appetite for even more innovative applications in this large and growing sector.