Abstract
The date palm, especially the variety Deglet Nour, produces some dates of high quality. The crop is increasingly attacked by insects while ripening on the palm and damaged by autumnal rains. Various forms of covers have been tried commercially. In this study we considered common materials used worldwide and tested under laboratory conditions. These products require the satisfaction of several properties at the same time. On this basis, the product’s requirements can be identified and converted into a physical element, that is, quality index “QI”, which measures the overall satisfaction of the bagging product. Its value ranges from 0 to l. Hence, “QI” can be used to detect the lack of effectiveness of one of the properties, and thus it should serve as an important measure in quality assurance. It includes the following eight parameters with their ranges: overall migration of toxicological specific substances; solar absorption coefficient; air permeability; resistance to water penetration; breaking load; tear strength; thickness; and weight.
The results show that the highest quality index reached is 0.5. It is concluded that the “QI” can evaluate and classify the existing date bunch bags and it can effectively identify the property that should be improved.
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