Search results

Honey peaches are rich in a variety of vitamins and are well known in China as the queen of fruit. However, as highly climacteric fruit, peach is too easy to affect its economic value. In this paper, a new passive modified atmosphere packaging system was proposed to solve the lack of water vapour removal capacity – which is still the technical bottleneck of passive modified atmosphere packaging. This paper aims to address this issue.

Under the conditions of relative humidity 85−90% and temperature 28°C−38°C, the influence of new passive modified atmosphere packaging on the shelf life and quality of 70% ripe peaches was studied in the paper. The effect of the new passive modified atmosphere packaging (PMAP) on fruit appearance, colour, taste, flavour, soluble solids, Vitamin C and titratable acid was investigated.

Regardless of whether 1-Methylcyclopropene is added or not, the research results show that the new PMAP has a significant effect on extending the shelf life and maintaining the quality of peaches. Compared with the control group, the shelf life of peaches treated with modified atmosphere packaging and 1-Methylcyclopropene was prolonged by 7 and 11 days, increasing the retailer's revenue by 44 and 75%.

A new integrated structure, which is composed of two types of films with high oxygen and high water vapour permeability was designed for the retail of peaches at room temperature. The former was mainly responsible for regulating the concentration of O₂ and CO₂, while the latter was for removing water vapour and regulating the relative humidity in PMAP.

This study aims to uncover apple preference and consumption in Indonesia, to disclose the risk of non-halal contamination of apples and the importance of maintaining the halal integrity of apples along the supply chain and to uncover the impacts of food miles of apples along supply chain segmentation.

This study adopted mixed research methods under a fully mixed sequential dominant status design (QUAN → qual). Data were collected through a survey in some Indonesian provinces (N = 396 respondents). Samples were collected randomly from individual consumers. The qualitative data were collected through interviews with 15 apple traders in Indonesia. Data were analysed using crosstab, chi-square and descriptive analysis.

First, Muslim consumers believe in the risk of chemical treatment of apples because it can affect the halal status of apples. Second, Indonesian consumers consider the importance of halal certification of chemical-treated apples and the additives for apple treatments. Third, the insignificance of domestic apple preference contributes to longer food miles at the first- and middle-mile stages (preference for imported apples). Fourth, apple consumption and shopping distance contribute to the longer food miles problem at the last-mile stage. Fifth, longer food miles have negative impacts, such as emissions and pollution, food loss and waste, food insecurity, financial loss, slow development of the local economy and food unsafety.

This research has implications for the governments, farmers, consumers (society) and business sectors.

This study proposes a framework of food miles under a halal supply chain (halal food miles) to reduce the risk of food miles and improve halal integrity. The findings from this research have theoretical implications for the development of the food mile theory, halal food supply chain and green supply chain.

A major challenge facing the fresh‐cut industry is maintaining and preserving the quality of minimally processed or fresh‐cut produce. A low temperature regime, although insufficient, has been the main method of overcoming this challenge so far. Thus, methods preserving the quality and extending the shell life of minimally processed or fresh‐cut produce are needed. This paper seeks to propose that honey could be used to preserve the fresh‐like quality of minimally processed pomegranate arils and extend their shelf life.

Manually extracted pomegranate arils were treated with water as control, 10 or 20 per cent diluted honey solution each for five minutes, then held at 4°C for ten days. Changes in organoleptic and visual quality, softening, soluble solids content, pH, absorbance at 446 and 510nm, and total aerobic count were recorded during the ten‐day storage period.

The study found that honey solution dip treatments extended the fresh‐like quality of minimally processed arils by delaying quality loss, microbial development, and pigment changes.

The paper shows that honey dip treatment may be used, depending on commodity, to preserve quality and extend the shelf life of minimally processed or fresh‐cut produce in the food‐processing industry.

The study pays particular attention to minimally processed pomegranate arils, by adapting a potentially safe organic method, the use of honey dips.

Combining sensory evaluations and hypothetical valuation mechanisms, this study aims to investigate the impact of consumers' product sensory attributes on willingness to pay (WTP) and overall liking for a new apple cultivar.

A sample of non-expert participants (n = 122) evaluated the overall liking and just-about-right (JAR) attributes. A variable transformation approach was applied to make linear and interval regression models between the JAR attributes, overall liking scores and participants' WTP.

The study reveals the high consumer appreciation for the new apple in both hedonic and economic terms. After controlling the anchoring effect's bias, the predicted mean WTP for the new apple cultivar was €3.26 per kilogramme. Crunchiness and flavour significantly affect both participants' overall liking and WTP.

The main limitation is the non-probabilistic sampling procedure, which does not allow for the generalisation of the results. Penalty analysis for JAR attributes in monetary and hedonic terms is beneficial for optimising the product and evaluating its potential in the marketplace.

The findings provide helpful directions for product optimisation in future breeding programmes to ensure the long-term sustainability of the new apple cultivars in the marketplace.

This study provides evidence of the beneficial synergy of mixing sensory-oriented research with the behavioural economics field of study.

Visible and near infrared spectroscopy have been applied widely in fruits quality assessment especially on the measurement of soluble solids content (SSC) measured in ^oBrix and acidity measured in pH. Spectroscopy technique has been applied on three botanically different categories of fruits, that is: imported Californian table grape, Mandarin lime and star fruit. The purpose is to examine the ability of spectroscopy technique to quantify internal quality parameters with very narrow variability due to the characteristics of the raw material analyzed. This work also presents comparative study on peak wavelengths that can best be used to calibrate SSC and pH of different types of fruits.

The effective wavelengths chosen for calibration development are compared with those selected by other researchers in similar experiments. NIR wavelengths 910 nm (C−H band) and 950 nm (O−H band) are the most important wavelengths for the prediction of SSC for all examined fruits while wavelengths 922‐923 nm and 990‐995 nm for pH. Visible wavelength 605, 675 and 654 nm can efficiently improve the SSC and pH prediction for grape, lime and star fruit, respectively.

The best prediction for SSC has been achieved with R²=0.953 and RMSE=0.182 for grape, R²=0.918 and RMSE=0.109 for lime and R²=0.957 and RMSE=0.354 for star fruit. The best prediction for pH has been achieved with R²=0.763 and RMSE=0.110 for grape, R²=0.841 and RMSE=0.073 for lime and R²=0.862 and RMSE=0.261 for star fruit.

Currently, the spectroscopy research conducted for the measurement of fruits qualities is conducted through wide range spectrometer. However, the peak responses are only located at specific wavelengths. Hence, the selection of wavelengths related to SSC and pH will allow the design of low cost instruments for the prediction of these internal quality parameters.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the difference in antioxidant contents of pre‐packed fresh‐cut and whole fruit and vegetables as sold in the market.

Samples of pre‐packed fresh‐cut fruit and vegetables as well as whole produce were collected from the market in Muscat and Oman, and analyzed for vitamin C, lycopene and total carotenoids. Analysis of variance was carried out to determine the level of statistical differences between fresh‐cut and whole fruit and vegetables.

In both fruit and vegetables, vitamin C contents are higher in whole than fresh‐cut produce, with greater reductions in vitamin C contents of fresh‐cut vegetables than fruit. In both fresh‐cut and whole fruit, lycopene content is 30‐36 times higher in watermelon than the contents of other fruit genotypes studied. Similarly, total carotenoids content of watermelon is six to 21 times higher than other types of fruit studied. Both lycopene and total carotenoids content are higher in whole than fresh‐cut fruit, except in pineapple fruit. In both fresh‐cut and whole vegetables, lycopene content of carrot is three to four times higher than cucumber, and four to six times higher than celery. Implications of these results on public health policy are discussed.

Previous studies on quality of fresh‐cut produce are based on controlled experimental studies using samples of produce from the same batch to compare fresh‐cut versus whole produce. However, consumers in retails stores often have to make a choice between pre‐packed fresh‐cut or whole (un‐cut) produce, which are not usually from the same source or batch. It is therefore essential to understand the differences in nutritional value of whole and pre‐packed fresh‐cuts sold in the market.