1,721,037 research outputs found
Innovations in Traditional Foods
No full textFruits and vegetables (F&V) are both food products in their own right and key ingredients in many processed foods. On the other hand, processed fruits play an important role in the healthy eating of consumers. Both of them, as traditional food products, are an important part of the cultural heritage of the European society as well as in other regions of the world too. Although there is a long-term decrease in the consumption of F&V, fresh-cut products because of their convenience represent a valid alternative to counteract this negative trend. In fact, the fresh-cut sector is showing positive figures, and innovation in product quality and safety attributes, which are generally valued by consumers. Nonetheless, how will F&V products, geography, and the market evolve? This chapter discusses these issues thoroughly. In addition, coverage will include consumer insights, market perspectives, and health benefits of increased vegetable consumption, as well as production and business strategies for Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and distributors
Monitoring the effect of cutting blade sharpness on quality of fresh-cut product
No full textMechanical damage during processing operations such as peeling and cutting is one of the major factors affecting the quality and shelf life of the fresh cut produce. The intensity of mechanical damage is highly associated to the morphology of the cut tissue and to the sharpness of the cutting tool used. The degree of sharpness (DoS, defined as the required force exerted by the instrument to cut a reference body) is an important factor for an efficient cutting operation and a methodology has been developed in order to formulate an objective assessment method to be applied to evaluate cutting damage on fresh-cut products. To this aim, 3 kitchen knives (A, B and C) were used with 8 DoS values (from 1, sharpest to 8, bluntest) to cut silicon plugs as reference bodies with cross-section diameters of 6 and 8-mm. For the 6-mm plugs and knife A the force varied from 16.2±0.5 N (DoS=1) to 93.6±7.0 N (DoS=8), for knife B from 17.9±0.4 (DoS=1) to 80.1±6.1 N (DoS=8), and for knife C from 17.4±0.9 (DoS=1) to 155.3±2.0 N (DoS=8). As for the 8-mm plugs forces ranged for knife A, B and C from 26.0±1.1 N (DoS=1) to 105.6±7.6 N (DoS=8), from 29.0±1.3 (DoS=1) to 104.6±6.5 N (DoS=8) and from 26.1±0.7 (DoS=1) to 195.9±11.7 N (DoS=8) respectively. Cutting force mean values for all knives and DoS resulted statistically significant in relation to standard deviation values. Following, kitchen knives at 3 different DoS corresponding to 30, 90, and 140 N of cutting forces, labeled as DoS1, DoS2 and DoS3 respectively, were used to cut fresh apples and quality of the product was evaluated during storage in terms of changes in the visual appearance (sensorial), CIELAB values and chemical response. It was confirmed that color changes in terms of browning were higher as the DoS decreased with data significantly fitting an exponential relation. These and the other results indicate a potential for further research aimed to define the threshold in terms of sharpness of cutting tools after which the effects on quality of the product would be not compatible with its commercial value
The effect of passive atmosphere on quality of 'Dottato' breba fig stored at low temperature
No full text'Dottato' is the most representative fig (Ficus carica L.) Italian cultivar. Consumers prefer fresh figs at tree ripe maturity stage and fig fruit do no stand more than 3 days, even at low temperatures. To reduce their respiration rate and increase their postharvest life, the effectiveness of low temperature storage was studied on 'Dottato' fig fruit either placed in rigid bi-oriented polystyrene bags or left in open bags, and stored for 3, 5, 7, 10 and 14 days at 4°C and 90% RH. Appearance score, respiration rate, soluble solids, were measured at each sampling date. Fig fruit control in air, showed excellent quality performances still after 7 days of storages, while fruit held, in passive modified atmosphere, showed substantial decay after 3 days of storage
Modeling Shelf-Life of Packaged Ready to eat Fruits and Vegetables with Reference to the Fate of Nutritional Compounds
No full textAssessment of eggplant freshness using nondestructive techniques
No full textEggplant fruit is a chilling injury sensitive vegetable, which should be stored at temperature of 12°C; however, at this temperature, the metabolism of the fruit is still intensively active and therefore significant quality deterioration may be induced. Since these quality losses can be difficultly detected by eyes, objective of this study was to develop a novel non-destructive method to estimate freshness of eggplants. Eggplant fruits ('Fantasy') were harvested from a commercial farm in Lecce, Italy, during July 2017. Fruits were stored at 12°C for 10 days. Every 2 days, fruits from were sampled and left at room temperature (20°C), for one additional day, simulating one-day shelf life at the market. Color spectra (360-740 nm), Fourier Transform (FT)-NIR spectra (800-2777 nm) and hyperspectral images (HSI) in the Vis-NIR range (400-1000 nm) were also acquired on each fruit. Partial least square regression analyses were carried out between the data collected and the storage days and appropriate models were built, allowing safe assessment of the freshness of the fruits. According to the results based on whole wavelength ranges, storage days correlated very well with both the FT-NIR spectra and the hyperspectral data extracted from the Vis-NIR imaging system (RC>0.98, RCV>0.94, RMSEC<0.4 and RMSECV<0.8), in contrast to the color measurements with lower RC and RCV values and significantly high root means square errors (1.5 and 1.8, respectively). Moreover, after conducting SPA as a variable selection method, classification models could almost keep the same performance. The results of this study may set the basis to develop a protocol allowing a rapid screening and sorting of eggplants according to their postharvest freshness at distribution center or even upon the reception in the retail market
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