“Dry foods, both in raw and processed forms, face contamination and infestation by insects during storage and/or long transportation cycles. ProvisionGard® (PVG) has a unique, organic, and safe, approach to interrupt the growth cycle of insects in packaged foods thereby decreasing the loss of food, the need for harmful pesticides and the overall costs. This paper documents tests conducted to determine the efficacy of the PVG solution with respect to common insect pests associated with the loss of dry foods in India.
The egg hatchability and growth from egg to adult emergence of red flour beetle, Tribolium castaneum and cigarette beetle Lasioderma. serricorne, were evaluated in untreated and PVG treated packaging materials at an average ambient temperature of 32ºC and an average of 60 percent relative humidity (R.H). To test these entire hypotheses, 9 cm diameter packaging samples were placed in petri dish and 2 grams of a food source were added to the arenas. One group of arenas had 50 Tribolium eggs added. The second group of arenas had 30 Lasioderma larvae added. The hatchability of Tribolium was consistently lower in PVG treated packaging as compared to the untreated packaging. There was no development of larvae to pupa in any of the PVG treated arenas. Similar results were observed with the larva of Lasioderma.
None of the eggs emerged into adults in PVG treated packaging materials. Thus PVG solutions appear to fulfill the promise of effectively inhibiting the growth of T. castaneum and serricorne.
Stored product insects are a recurring and persistent problem in retail shops and storage godowns where they cause damage to food products. In India, the damage of stored grains by insect pests was estimated as 6.5 percent of the total storage amount (Raju, 1984). Infested food products result in infection and health issues, thus makes the consumers to loss their confidence. Both red flour beetle, T. castaneum, and the cigarette beetle, L. serricorne are pests of stored food products worldwide. They attack stored grain and processed foods including flour, cereals, pasta, biscuits, beans, and nuts, etc. Innovations in food packaging are being adopted by Indian packaging companies to make the packaging more resistant to infestation problems so as to increase the shelf life of food products and to reduce losses, while being safe for humans. These options can be prohibitively expensive.
ProvisionGard® provides protection to multiple forms of packaging materials, by arresting the growth and development of insects at the earlier stage. It affects larvae moulting and transformation from the larvae to pupal stage or from pupal to adult stage. The objective of this study was to determine the effect of untreated and PVG treated packaging materials on egg hatchability and growth from egg to adult emergence of T. castaneum and L. serricorne.
To determine the effect of packaging material on life stage of T. castaneum and L. serricorne, both untreated and PVG treated materials were cut to size and inserted into the 9cm diameter petri dishes. Approximately two grams of wheat flour was added to each dish.
The present study has demonstrated the effectiveness of ProvisionGard® treated packaging materials against red flour beetle, T. castaneum and cigarette beetle, L. serricorne. Exposure of egg stage of T. castaneum to PVG treated packaging materials showed efficacy in inhibiting the growth of larval stage and further development of insects. The packaging treatment with PVG could be used as a preventive method to help manage stored products insects in areas where bagged and packaged food products are stored. Thus PVG products will effectively help in the inhibiting the growth of T. castaneum and L. serricorne.”
Project Leader: Dr. M. Loganathan
Assistant: Mr Akash, PA
Effect of PVG treated polymer packaging on fecundity, Egg hatchability and egg to adult emergence of Tribolium castaneum Larvae development of Lasioderma serricorne
Indian Institute of Food Processing Technology
(Ministry of Food Processing Industries)
