Scanning Report Y2 "Fruit Quality, Improvement of handling/storage"

The Autonomous Province of Bolzano (South-Tyrol) funded the multidisciplinary research project “MONALISA – Monitoring key environmental parameters in the Alpine Environment involving science, technology and application” in which different research organizations collaborated to develop multi-scale approaches for monitoring key environmental parameters at regional, orchard and plant level. Another aim of the project was monitoring the production processes and evaluating the feasibility of non-destructive assessments of fruit quality.
In order to reduce losses in the post-harvest phase, Laimburg Research Centre worked on non-destructive techniques to assess the quality, maturity and storability of the apple fruit. In this context, the experts of Laimburg collaborated with leading institutes throughout Europe.
The investigated novel techniques showed promising results if various quality criteria are concerned, but are not the most suitable for assessing Magness-Taylor firmness (MT FFF). Given the many shortcomings of the MT FFF evaluations, efforts towards relating the non-destructively obtained indices with sensory parameters should be made. The results have a potential for further improving pre- and post-harvest management of apple fruit quality by adding knowledge regarding environmental factors, by simplifying the decisions on the time of optimal harvest, by predicting the ripening behavior during storage and shelf-life, and by enabling grading of fruit based on their internal quality and their susceptibility to disorders.
Further research in this direction and collaboration with research institutes is needed in order to improve and develop the most promising technologies for non-destructive measurements of fruits.

Documents

Scanning Report Y2 "Fruit Quality, Improvement of handling/storage" ()

Details

Activity type

Publication of scanning report

Activity work package

Fruit quality; improvement of fruit handling/storage

Activity number

Laimburg-WP4-A133

Activity contact

Dr. Angelo Zanella
Laimburg Research Centre
Laimburg 6 - Pfatten
I-39040 Post Auer (BZ), Italy
[email protected]

Activity partner

Laimburg

Activity country

Italy

Last edit

19-07-2019