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•A LCA of the packages used for distribution of fruit and vegetables was done.•The packages considered were reusable plastic crates and single-use cardboard boxes.•The Spanish market ...is studied as a pool system.•Reusable plastic crates resulted the most environmentally friendly option.•Robust preference for plastic crates versus cardboard boxes even in alternative scenarios.
Food packaging is an important industrial sector that has great influence on food loss and waste. The search of optimal conditions to minimize the negative impacts of food packaging on the environment must promote the selection of the best available packages. This work has evaluated the environmental impact of the distribution of fruit and vegetables in the Spanish peninsular context using reusable plastic crates and single-use cardboard boxes. Discussion and decision at each phase and step of the methodology were provided, being an example to follow for similar studies in the future. For the analysis, five different impact categories were considered: global warming potential, acidification potential, eutrophication potential, ozone depletion potential and photochemical oxidant creation potential. In addition, energy and water consumption were taken into account. According to the results of the analysis, the use of reusable plastic crates should be selected, since the values of all impact categories and energy consumption indicators were higher in the case of single-use cardboard boxes. The sensitivity analysis revealed a robust preference for plastic crates in comparison with cardboard boxes even in alternative scenarios, and only the hypothetic reduction of the quality of the cardboard resulted in significant lower impacts for cardboard boxes in comparison to plastic crates in photochemical oxidant creation potential, acidification potential, and energy consumption. This work demonstrates that plastic packaging should not be totally excluded or banned, since it can be the most environmentally friendly option in certain applications.
Precooling is a critical step in the postharvest cold chain. Studies of the precooling of fruit and vegetables are based on the strong interactions between modelling, engineering, physiology and ...commercial outcomes. In recent years, new progress in precooling has been achieved. These achievements include different cooling strategies, research into precooling mechanisms, and numerical simulations. This review aims to provide the most recent information about precooling and promote its application in the fruit and vegetable industry.
Different precooling strategies are evaluated with respect to the cooling rate, cooling uniformity, and multiscale simulation. An overview of mathematical modeling approaches used to quantitatively describe precooling processes for computer-aided designs is provided. The effect of precooling on fruit quality at the physiological and molecular levels is outlined.
Numerical simulations have become widely used to improve the precooling performance. Cooling homogeneity, in particular, has attracted increasing attention in recent studies because of the substantial effects of cooling homogeneity on the precooling efficiency and produce quality. The spatial scale of numerical simulations of the precooling process has started to become more precise and specific. Recent numerical simulations have focused on the bin and package scale. Models of transport processes at multiple spatial scales are investigated using multiscale modeling. Moreover, the effect of precooling on produce quality has recently received increasing attention. In addition, the investigation of the effect of precooling on fruit at the metabolomic and genomic levels has become an emerging trend and has provided deeper insights into the molecular mechanisms underlying the effect of precooling treatments on fruit.
•The latest advances in fruit precooling study are highlighted, especially since 2001.•Numerical simulation is widely used, especially to improve cooling homogeneity.•Spatial scale study of precooling is more specific, mainly for bin and package scale.•Effect on fruits at the metabolomics and genomic levels starts to be investigated.•Different precooling strategies were further investigated to obtain good quality.
When someone decides to buy organic food products trust plays a role. Consumers, in fact, are neither supposed to have the appropriate knowledge to evaluate the characteristics of these products, nor ...can they control that the food was actually manufactured following the procedures prescribed by organic production. Therefore, trust may contribute to the explanation of both purchasing intention and behavior since it represents a heuristic or shortcut that people adopt in order to reduce the large amount of information that consumers need to take into account. The present research aimed to analyze the role of trust in organic products on buying behavior adopting the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) as theoretical framework. A relational model was tested in which this variable was supposed to act as a background factor associated with all the classical constructs foreseen by the theory and the buying behavior. Also, indirect effects of trust on both intention and behavior were assessed. Two studies were conducted targeting the purchase of organic food products in general (Study 1) and of fresh organic fruit and vegetables (Study 2). In both studies, the data collection was organized in two waves, with a time lag of 1 month. At Time 1, the questionnaires included measures of intention, its antecedents and trust, while at Time 2 self-reported buying behavior was collected. Data were supplied by two convenience samples of Italian adults (237 and 227 participants) and analyzed via structural equation modeling. Results turned out to be overlapping in both studies, since trust was positively associated with attitude and subjective norm, and it was indirectly associated with intention and behavior, thanks to the mediation of the TPB constructs. The outcomes highlighted the importance of people’s trust in organic products as a meaningful antecedent that boosts the TPB-based psychosocial processes that are supposed to stand behind both purchasing intentions and behaviors.
Sweet potato, green beans, Tommy Atkins mango, and blue potato were fried in a vacuum frying process at a temperature of 120–130
±
1°C. Before frying, green beans and mango slices were soaked in a ...50% maltodextrine 0.15% citric acid solution. The products were also fried in a traditional (atmospheric pressure) fryer at 160–165
±
1°C for 4 min. A 30-member consumer panel rated the sensory quality of both types of fried snacks using a 1–9 hedonic scale. Compared with traditional frying, oil content of vacuum-fried sweet-potato chips and green beans was 24% and 16% lower, respectively. Blue potato and mango chips had 6% and 5% more oil, respectively, than the traditional-fried samples. Anthocyanin (mg/100 g d.b.) of vacuum-fried blue potato chips was 60% higher. Final total carotenoids (mg/g d.b.) were higher by 18% for green beans, 19% for mango chips, and by 51% for sweet-potato chips. Sensory panelists overwhelmingly preferred (
p
<
0.05) the vacuum-fried products for color, texture, taste, and overall quality. Most of the products retained or accentuated their original colors when fried under vacuum. The traditional-fried products showed excessive darkening and scorching. These results support the applicability of vacuum frying technology to provide high-quality fruit and vegetable snacks.
Abstract Fruit and vegetable prescription programs have been shown to increase consumption of fresh produce, but whether they have an impact on medical outcomes is unknown. The purpose of this study ...was to examine the role of participation in a farmers' market and fruit and vegetable prescription program on changes in hemoglobin A1C (HbA1C), blood pressure (BP) and weight in patients with uncontrolled type 2 diabetes at a federally qualified health center (FQHC) in Detroit, MI. The 13-week Fresh Prescription program (June 2015–October 2015) was designed to improve access and consumption of produce among low-income patients with uncontrolled type 2 diabetes. The program allotted up to $40 ($10 per week for up to four weeks) for purchase of produce from a FQHC located farmers' market. Adult, non-pregnant patients with a history of type 2 diabetes that had an elevated HbA1C > 6.5 within three months before Fresh Prescription program were eligible to participate. HgA1c, BP and weight were collected within three months of program start and within three months of completion. There were 65 eligible participants with complete biometric data. A statistically significant ( p = 0.001) decrease in HbA1C was found (9.54% to 8.83%). However, weight (208.3 lbs. to 209.0 lbs.) and BP (135.1/79.3 mm Hg to 135.8/77.6 mm Hg) did not change from pre- to post-study ( p > 0.05). Access to a fruit and vegetable prescription program over a 13-week period led to decreased HbA1C concentrations in uncontrolled type 2 diabetic patients living in an urban area of predominately-lower socioeconomic status.
Ethylene is a ripening hormone biosynthesized by fruit and vegetables that can accumulate inside the package and accelerate ripening in fresh produce, which, in turn, affects its shelf-life. ...Perforating the fruit package material can facilitate the effective removal of ethylene gas through the transmission process. Excessive perforations will allow ethylene to completely escape, but will then invalidate the possibility of modified atmosphere packaging (MAP). In order to design MAP for climacteric fruits, it is therefore essential to quantify ethylene transfer through the package, and not only oxygen and carbon dioxide. While there is ample information on the transmission of water vapour, oxygen, and carbon dioxide in perforated MAP, little research has focused on ethylene. The objective of this study was to develop a dimensionless correlation for predicting ethylene permeance through a perforated film. The ethylene permeance ranged from 1.70 to 4.06 cm/s per perforation, depending on film thickness (0.002–0.003 cm), perforation diameter (0.050–0.095 cm), cooling air velocity (1–18 cm/s), and temperature (4–24 °C). The developed dimensionless correlation relates Stanton, Peclet and Schmidt numbers. The coefficient of determination (R2) of the dimensionless correlation developed with a first set of 36 data points was 99.62%. The dimensionless correlation developed was then validated with 2 sets of 12 data points each, with the model predictions fitting very well the experimental data of these validation trials (coefficient of determination R2 = 97.69%). The correlation is thus validated for axial Peclet numbers in the 0.01–0.35 range and radial Peclet numbers in the 0.4–11.1 range, while the Schmidt number barely varies in MAP conditions (being around 0.98). The perforation diameter was the most influential parameter on ethylene permeance, while cooling air velocity and temperature had a moderate impact, and film thickness had little effect.
•Ethylene permeance ranged from 1.70 to 4.06 cm/s per perforation.•A dimensionless correlation for predicting ethylene permeance was developed and validated.•The perforation diameter was the most influential factor, with permeance decreasing significantly with it.•Film thickness did not impact ethylene permeance significantly.
Fruit and vegetables are easily subjected to postharvest quality losses. Therefore, active and functional packaging materials are needed to extend the shelf life of fruit and vegetables and improve ...their postharvest quality. Nanocomposite packaging materials (nano-PMs) have garnered increasing attention because of their structural and functional advantages over conventional packaging materials. Compared with conventional materials, nano-PMs showed excellent thermal stability as well as mechanical, gas barrier, and antibacterial properties. Compared with traditional techniques for preparing nano-PMs, electrospinning, which is considered an emerging and powerful technique, is used to fabricate continuous polymer nanofibers with different morphologies, structures, functions, and applications. This review focuses on different biopolymer materials (proteins and polysaccharides) and biocompatible material used for electrospinning. This review summarized the application tests of different electrospun nanofibrous materials on the postharvest quality of fruit and vegetables. The electrospun nanofibers exhibited good antimicrobial properties and maintained the morphology and nutritional quality of fruit and vegetables. In addition, the antimicrobial mechanism of functional nanoparticles and natural antimicrobial agents as well as the mechanism of oxygen and ethylene scavengers are summarized. The challenges of using nano-PMs (migration, safety, and biocompatibility) and future perspective are also discussed.
•Summary of electrospun nanofibers applied to fruits and vegetables.•Mechanism on function of nanoparticles and natural antimicrobial agents.•Safety investigation of electrospun nanofibers materials.
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