Knitted Vegetable Pockets

Knitted Vegetable Pockets Are Used For Fresh Produce

Knitted vegetable pockets are commonly used in the fresh produce sector. They offer the peculiar properties required of a good vegetable bag. A normal soft plastic bag would not suffice, because it does not allow unhindered ventilation and the resultant damp and condensation would cause mildew to form and the produce to become spoiled.

Therefore, knitted vegetable bags are used. They are mesh-like bags made from knitted high-density polyethylene (HDPE). Polyethylene is extremely tough and it needs to be: these bags can be rated to carry anything up to 25kg. The mesh allows the contents to be aerated and easily identifiable from the outside. They are available in many different colours, including white, red, green, purple, orange, mandarin, yellow and tangerine. These colours are usually crop-specific to simply identification.

During construction, the courses per centimetre can be varied according to the customer’s requirements; construction can be by pillar stitch (HDPE monofilament) or filler stitch (HDPE flat tap). Besides the knitted pockets, woven vegetable pockets are offered too, but of course the construction method is different, because this type of bag features a simple weave. They are made of virgin polypropylene and are also available in various colours and sizes. Another type of woven bag is the woven circular bag, which has a dense weave and can be coloured and printed to specification. It also features anti-UV treatment to extend their minimum life expectancy to three months.

Woven and knitted vegetable pockets are widely used to get fresh produce to consumer. The International Group of Companies can offer you all these variants, as well as soft plastic bags, paper bags, cardboard packaging and fomo products. For more information on our extensive product list, please contact us today.

The International

Group of Companies

A Market Leader in Plastic Textiles

Vegetable Bag Suppliers

Vegetable Bag Suppliers Serving South Africa’s Fresh Produce Market

Without the services of vegetable bag manufacturers and suppliers, much of the produce grown across South Africa may never arrive on the tables of its millions of families. Food crops are transported to the wholesalers and fresh produce markets in bulk in order to reduce costs and are often packed into hessian sacks or storage bins for the purpose.

When the time comes for the retailer to market the various fruits and veggies other considerations become apparent. Firstly, unless sold loose, the various items need to be suitably packaged, a task frequently undertaken by the wholesaler except in the case of chains that may procure produce directly from the grower. Either way, it would be entirely unsuitable to package such goods in the same type of plastic carriers offered at the supermarket checkout or the corner café.

The reason is simple enough. Denied the free circulation of air, the contents begin to release moisture that condenses on the inside of the packets and, in time, can lead to softening and, quite often, to the formation of moulds both of which render these perishable items unsuitable for sale. To prevent this type of spoilage, any packaging used must be designed to provide adequate ventilation so that the circulating air from outside can inhibit any tendency to form the condensation that is prone to occur under sealed conditions.

For this purpose, the ideal solution lies in pockets made from a suitable thermoplastic polymer, and the ideal choice for the role to date, proves to be polypropylene. Its uses are both many and varied and extend well beyond the products of the packaging industry. Typical everyday items that are manufactured from this material include rope, carpets, clothing and it is even included in some of the newer banknotes to strengthen them.

Vegetable bag suppliers use these tough filaments of High-density polypropylene (HDPP) to create both knitted and woven fabrics from which to create their products which because of their thermoplastic nature may be created seamlessly and thus to eliminate the weakness often encountered in the seams of the common plastic carriers, for instance.

Unlike polystyrene which can be made transparent, this polymer lacks that ability but has the advantage of being easily coloured. Accordingly, most manufacturers offer these products in a range of shades, using them as a means of identifying the contents without the need for close inspection by means of a colour coding system that might, for instance, see gem squashes packaged in green while, appropriately, the orange variety might be reserved for oranges.

Regardless of whether they are produced by weaving or by knitting the component polymer fibres, the fabrics that result from either of these processes are exceptionally strong, as any one that may have attempted to tear one will be quick to confirm. In addition, when they are made using this fabric in its knitted form, the pockets also offer a fair degree of elasticity as well as the ability to hold loads of up to 25 kilograms with complete reliability. The knitted variety is also generally available in a wider range of sizes and will typically cater for loads from as little as 2 kilos while woven sizes tend to be limited to just the standard 10Kg and 25Kg options.

There is also a circular woven product that is made from the same basic material and that is specially treated to make them resistant to the ultra-violet rays in sunlight, another very effective means of helping to reduce the risk of spoilage to contents that may be perishable. These are normally available in both plain and printed versions as required.

As a leading manufacturer and supplier of knitted and woven vegetable bags, The International Group of Companies has had some 30 years in which to develop its comprehensive range of products that are both dependable, and highly affordable.