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Volatile flavor plays a main role in defining the fruit quality by consumers. Bruising leads often to dark spots on fruits and its amount could highly affect product quality. This paper aims to study the effect of bruising on the volatilome released by pears by using proton transfer reaction – mass spectrometry (PTR-MS).

Fingerprints of non-bruised and bruised pear samples were collected through PTR-MS for 28 days, and discriminant analysis was used to discriminate the fruit products. The CIELAB color changes were also measured during the entire ripening period.

Bruised pears released a higher intensity of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) compared to non-bruised pears (p_16days = 0.049, p_22days = 0.012, p_28days = 0.006). In particular, the release of m/z 45 and m/z 47 were significantly (p_m/z 45 = 0.076, p_m/z 47 = 0.095.) higher in bruised samples, suggesting that the bruising event accelerated the natural ripening process. CIELAB color coordinates were also recorded. The coordinate a* showed a linear increase during the whole 28 days because of the loss of the green component. The CIELAB ΔE* was higher in the bruised pears than the non-bruised pears (p = 0.022).

Bruising can affect food quality and taste. Bruise susceptibility has been largely studied on apples, tomatoes and peaches, but rarely on pears. Very little is known about the effect of bruising on the volatilome of pears. Moreover, bruising research usually involved the study of physical properties; on the contrary, PTR-MS, applied to bruising research, has never been used before. Besides the analysis of volatilome, the changes in color were also recorded for the whole 28 days of analysis. The proposed method could be applied for the monitoring of pears quality in the food industry.

The purpose of this article is to provide information about interactions between pink-pigmented facultative methylotroph (PPFM) organisms and plants, their molecular mechanisms of methylotrophic metabolism, application of PPFMs in agriculture, biotechnology and bioremediation and also to explore lacuna in PPFMs research and direction for future research.

Research findings on PPFM organisms as potent plant growth promoting organisms are discussed in the light of reports published by various workers. Unexplored field of PPFM research are detected and their application as a new group of biofertilizer that also help host plants to overcome draught stress in poorly irrigated crop field is suggested.

PPFMs are used as plant growth promoters for improved crop yield, seed germination capacity, resistance against pathogens and tolerance against drought stress. Anti-oxidant and UV resistant properties of PPFM pigments protect the host plants from strong sunshine. PPFMs have excellent draught ameliorating capacity.

To meet the ever increasing world population, more and more barren, less irrigated land has to be utilized for agriculture and horticulture purpose and use of PPFM group of organisms due to their draught ameliorating properties in addition to their plant growth promoting characters will be extremely useful. PPFMs are also promising candidates for the production of various industrially and medicinally important enzymes and other value-added products. Wider application of this ecofriendly group of bacteria will reduce crop production cost thus improving economy of the farmers and will be a greener alternative of hazardous chemical fertilizers and fungicides.

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Quality deterioration in bananas along the supply chain (SC) due to cosmetic damage has been a persistent challenge in Australia. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the incidence of cosmetic defects in bananas across the post-harvest SC and determining the causes of the diminished fruit quality at the retail stores.

The study quantified the level of cosmetic damage in 243 cartons of Cavendish bananas across three post-harvest SCs in Australia from pack houses to retail stores and identified the risk factors for cosmetic defects.

The level of cosmetic damage progressively increased from pack house (1.3 per cent) to distribution centre (DC) (9.0 per cent) and retail (13.3 per cent) and was significantly influenced by package height and pallet positioning during transit. Abrasion damage in ripened bananas was influenced by the travel distance between DC and retail store. The study also revealed a range of risk factors contributing to the observed damage including weakened paperboard cartons due to high moisture absorption during the ripening process.

This study only investigated damage incidence in three post-harvest banana SCs in Australia and the damage assessments were confined to packaged bananas.

This study assessed the quality of bananas along the entire post-harvest SC from farm gate to retail store. The study provided knowledge of the extent of the quality defects, when and where the damage occurred and demonstrated the underlying factors for damage along the SC. This will enable the development of practical interventions to improve the quality and minimize wastage of bananas in the retail markets.