How does Dry Misting keep fruit and vegetables fresh without plastic?

From 2030, a large proportion of the single-use plastic used to wrap fresh, unprocessed fruit and vegetables will be How Does Dry Misting Keep Fruit and Vegetables Fresh Without Plastic?

From 2030, much of the single-use plastic packaging around fresh, unprocessed fruit and vegetables will disappear. Dry Misting takes over the moisture-regulating function of this packaging using an ultra-fine mist of purified water.

Fresh produce

From 1 January 2030, much of the plastic packaging around fresh fruit and vegetables will disappear. The plastic wrap around cucumbers, bags of peppers and containers of cherry tomatoes all serve a purpose: they help retain moisture in the products.

Dry Misting takes over this function. A fine mist of purified water keeps the air around your products humid, helping them retain their weight without packaging and without becoming wet.

What Will Change for Plastic Packaging Around Fruit and Vegetables in 2030?

The European Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) has applied across all EU countries since 12 August 2026. From 1 January 2030, it will prohibit single-use plastic packaging for fresh, unprocessed fruit and vegetables weighing less than 1.5 kilograms.

Exceptions will be made for products that can demonstrably spoil or become damaged without plastic packaging. Which products will qualify for these exceptions in the Netherlands has not yet been finalised. The more alternative methods available to keep products fresh, the less likely an exception becomes.

You should therefore prepare for most fruit and vegetables under 1.5 kilograms to be displayed without plastic packaging from 2030.

Why Are Your Vegetables Currently Wrapped in Plastic?

Take a cucumber, for example. The plastic wrap helps retain moisture. Without it, the cucumber releases water into the surrounding air, develops wrinkles and becomes soft.

Plastic acts like a miniature greenhouse. The air inside the packaging becomes saturated with water vapour, reducing moisture loss from the product.

Remove the packaging, and the product is exposed to the dry air of your fruit and vegetable display. The evaporator removes moisture from the air, while the fan circulates that dry air over your products.

At around 5 percent moisture loss, many products begin to visibly shrivel and become unsellable. Over the course of a week, these losses can quickly add up.

Plastic packaging therefore primarily protects your products against dry air. And that’s exactly what Dry Misting addresses.

What Is Dry Misting and How Does It Work?

Dry Misting transforms purified water into a mist of extremely fine droplets. These droplets are so small that they do not make your products wet. Instead, they increase the humidity of the surrounding air.

The effect is similar to the plastic wrap around a cucumber. When the air surrounding a product is humid, the product retains more of its own moisture.

Dry Misting creates this effect across your entire display at once, without using a single gram of plastic.

In other words, Dry Misting provides the humid environment that plastic packaging currently creates around your products.

What Are the Benefits of Dry Misting?

Your products stay fresh for up to 50 percent longer. This directly helps reduce food waste, especially as plastic packaging becomes more restricted.

You can sell more kilograms of fresh produce. Products that retain their moisture also retain their weight. For fruit and vegetables sold by weight, that means more revenue.

Your displays look fresher. PLUS supermarket owner Sabine Zondag has noticed that her products retain their colour better and that customers perceive them as fresher.

The technology has proven itself in practice. Albert Heijn has introduced Dry Misting in more than 1,000 stores. The European Fresh Demo research project earned Contronics the European Commission’s Horizon Impact Award in 2020.

Which Products Benefit from Dry Misting?

Dry Misting helps any fresh product that loses moisture to the surrounding air.

Leafy vegetables, herbs, berries, stone fruits and bananas benefit particularly strongly because of their large surface areas and thin skins.

Learn more about Dry Misting for fruit and vegetables.

Beyond the fruit and vegetable department, Dry Misting is also used for meat and fish, in refrigerated storage and in industrial bakeries.

It’s important to be realistic about what the technology can achieve. Dry Misting helps prevent moisture loss, but it cannot protect delicate raspberries from bruising. Products like these will still require some form of protective packaging.

With Dry Misting, you can keep unpackaged fresh produce fresh, even when plastic packaging disappears from your shelves in 2030.

Want to find out what this means for your fresh produce department?

Request a free, no-obligation consultation. Prefer to speak to someone directly? Call us on +31 (0)413 487000 or email info@contronics.nl.