UC professors share innovations with PMA audience
UC professors share innovations with PMA audience
MONTEREY, CA -- Technological innovations will play a key role in improving the taste of fresh produce and in marshaling produce through the supply chain, according to two University of California- Davis professors who spoke during the recent Produce Marketing Association Foodservice Conference & Expo, here.
James Thompson, a professor in the school's biological and agricultural engineering department, and Michael Reid, a professor in the school's department of plant sciences, presented a foreshadowing into the future during a workshop held at the PMA conference.
Some innovations the two professors presented are in their infancy and others in the concept or design stage.
The two professors said that customers want taste, texture, reliability, value/price, freshness, ripeness, safety and appearance. But Mr. Reid said that taste life and nutrition life "are shorter than appearance life." Vitamin C and antioxidants deplete as fresh produce ages. Chlorophyll sensors and continuous monitoring of ethylene and carbon dioxide levels will be commonly used to gauge quality in the future.
"The apricot industry is going away because we harvest the fruit prematurely," Mr. Reid said, adding that new ripening technology featuring molecular regulation of ripening helps address such problems.
One packaging innovation being introduced is a "hammock pack" clamshell that suspends fruit above the bottom of the container. UC-Davis developed the hammock pack and enlisted Pomona, CA-based F-D-S Manufacturing Co. Inc. to manufacture it. This year, Southern Oregon Sales will distribute its pears in the hammock pack, Mr. Thompson said.
UC-Davis made arrangements to test the hammock pack with avocados and stone fruit, Mr. Thompson said. As a food-safety measure, the fresh produce industry has increased its use of packaging such as clamshell packaging, he said.
Mr. Thompson told the audience of a new instrument that is a battery-operated, hand-held unit that acts as an "electronic nose." Additionally, research is under way on miniaturized instrumentation that will measure for sugar and other taste components. Sensors to check for taste "are a few years away," he said. Such technology will enable the industry to grow "high-flavor cultivars" and "genetically modified cultivars" as it improves on its varieties, he said.
The two professors argued that genetically modified organisms have their place in food production.
"We've all been eating a lot of GMOs," Mr. Thompson said, adding that Europe and China "aren't protesting" the use of GMOs much now, as had been the case in the past.
"In 20 years there's no doubt GMOs will be a standard tool," Mr. Thompson said.
In the area of information-intensive product handling, Mr. Thompson said that new information technologies would transform quality management. "There will be a transparent post-harvest handling," Mr. Thompson said.
Included in the technology mix will be "active RFID," Mr. Thompson said. The next generation of RFID has batteries in it and tests for temperature and humidity and gases such as ethylene. "We'll be able to measure post-harvest life and know who's to blame," Mr. Thompson said.
James Thompson, a professor in the school's biological and agricultural engineering department, and Michael Reid, a professor in the school's department of plant sciences, presented a foreshadowing into the future during a workshop held at the PMA conference.
Some innovations the two professors presented are in their infancy and others in the concept or design stage.
The two professors said that customers want taste, texture, reliability, value/price, freshness, ripeness, safety and appearance. But Mr. Reid said that taste life and nutrition life "are shorter than appearance life." Vitamin C and antioxidants deplete as fresh produce ages. Chlorophyll sensors and continuous monitoring of ethylene and carbon dioxide levels will be commonly used to gauge quality in the future.
"The apricot industry is going away because we harvest the fruit prematurely," Mr. Reid said, adding that new ripening technology featuring molecular regulation of ripening helps address such problems.
One packaging innovation being introduced is a "hammock pack" clamshell that suspends fruit above the bottom of the container. UC-Davis developed the hammock pack and enlisted Pomona, CA-based F-D-S Manufacturing Co. Inc. to manufacture it. This year, Southern Oregon Sales will distribute its pears in the hammock pack, Mr. Thompson said.
UC-Davis made arrangements to test the hammock pack with avocados and stone fruit, Mr. Thompson said. As a food-safety measure, the fresh produce industry has increased its use of packaging such as clamshell packaging, he said.
Mr. Thompson told the audience of a new instrument that is a battery-operated, hand-held unit that acts as an "electronic nose." Additionally, research is under way on miniaturized instrumentation that will measure for sugar and other taste components. Sensors to check for taste "are a few years away," he said. Such technology will enable the industry to grow "high-flavor cultivars" and "genetically modified cultivars" as it improves on its varieties, he said.
The two professors argued that genetically modified organisms have their place in food production.
"We've all been eating a lot of GMOs," Mr. Thompson said, adding that Europe and China "aren't protesting" the use of GMOs much now, as had been the case in the past.
"In 20 years there's no doubt GMOs will be a standard tool," Mr. Thompson said.
In the area of information-intensive product handling, Mr. Thompson said that new information technologies would transform quality management. "There will be a transparent post-harvest handling," Mr. Thompson said.
Included in the technology mix will be "active RFID," Mr. Thompson said. The next generation of RFID has batteries in it and tests for temperature and humidity and gases such as ethylene. "We'll be able to measure post-harvest life and know who's to blame," Mr. Thompson said.
