FEATURE STORY PACKAGING THEN AND NOW A Century of Innovation in Fresh Produce By Isa Glassen, Sustainable Produce Packaging Assistant, and Jeffrey Brandenburg, Founder, QFresh Lab
Western Growers has reached an exciting milestone: 100 years of advocating for, supporting and providing services to family farmers growing fresh produce and tree nuts throughout the Western U.S. Over that century, the association has helped growers navigate changes in markets, technology, consumer demand and sustainability, forging a pathway toward a healthier and more resilient agricultural industry. As we celebrate this centennial, it’s worth pausing to reflect on one critical but often underappreciated aspect of that journey: packaging. Packaging is how we protect, transport and present produce from farm to table, and it has had a huge transformation over the past 100 years. In 1926, long before refrigerated trucks or widespread consumer supermarkets, produce packaging was simple: wooden crates, ice- packed railcars and limited branding. Getting lettuce from Salinas to New York in 1919 was an extraordinary feat of ingenuity and an early signal that fresh produce supply chains were beginning to stretch across the continent. Over the decades, packaging has moved from basic containment to highly engineered systems that extend shelf life, reduce waste and respond to both logistical and environmental demands. Mid-century innovations, such as vacuum cooling and shrink- wrapping lettuce, significantly reduced spoilage and improved quality, shifting packaging from a protective wrapper to a quality- preserving technology. In addition, produce like lettuce and oranges were being switched from wooden crates to cardboard boxes which, were lighter, easier to break down and recyclable. “By 1954, 75 percent of all lettuce harvested in the Salinas- Watsonville district was vacuum cooled,” reported The Packer’s 100 Years of Produce: Remembering the 1950s. World War II accelerated a shift toward synthetic materials, especially plastics, as the U.S. worked to conserve metals, glass and other natural resources in manufacturing and shipping. By 1952, Sambrailo Packaging partnered with Driscoll's and others to introduce pulp baskets wrapped in cling film for strawberries. By the 1970s, synthetic bins and pallets were increasingly used for fresh produce with lighter weighted designs (up to 40 percent lighter than wood) that incorporated ventilation to reduce spoilage. In the early 1980s, plastic packaging, particularly clamshell containers, began to rise and reshape produce distribution. These innovations enabled delicate crops like berries to travel greater distances without damage, unlocking year-round availability and expanding access to national markets in ways previously unimaginable. Today, packaging innovation continues to push forward. We see modified-atmosphere packaging (MAP) fine-tuning internal gas levels to slow aging and reduce decay. Bio-based and edible coatings are extending the shelf life of certain fruits like avocados,
40 Western Grower & Shipper | www.wga.com April – June 2026
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