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Processing and Preservation of Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Products: Current Status and Emerging Techniques and Technologies

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Special Issue Information
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Published Papers

A special issue of Foods (ISSN 2304-8158). This special issue belongs to the section "Food Engineering and Technology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 May 2022) | Viewed by 13800

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Roberto Moscetti

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Guest Editor

Department of Sciences and Technology for Agriculture, Forest, Environment and Energy, Tuscia University, Viterbo, Italy
Interests: food processing technology; process and analytical technology; near infrared spectroscopy; hyperspectral imaging; computer vision; chemometrics; deep learning

Prof. Dr. Riccardo Massantini

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Guest Editor

Department of Innovation of Biological Systems, Food and Forestry DIBAF, Tuscia University, Viterbo, Italy
Interests: postharvest technology; fresh-cut products; food quality; non destructive technologies

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The Special Issue in the Foods journal aims to be a reference for the publication of original papers, review articles, and frontier papers in the branches of science and engineering, providing international coverage on advances in the development of emerging techniques and technologies in the food industry. Papers extending the boundaries of fruit and vegetables processing and preservation, solving problems, or indicating new perspectives on established principles or advances in the implementation of computer or electronics, are particularly encouraged. The Special Issue accepts any topic on the synergy between postharvest biology and technology, food engineering and computer science, including: postharvest operations; thermal and non-thermal treatments and processing; minimal processing; preservation treatments; post-processing operations; and their monitoring and control for fresh fruit and vegetables. This also includes the areas of non-destructive technologies, machine visions, robotics, sensors, networking, simulation modeling and artificial intelligence.

Papers that are primarly concerned about chemical and nutritional analysis, sensory evaluation and colour without proving insight of processing and preservation are not likely to be published.

Prof. Dr. Roberto Moscetti
Prof. Dr. Riccardo Massantini
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Foods is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

engineering for food quality and safety
unit operations
process and analitycal technology (pat)
process monitoring and control
artificial intelligence
computer
electronics
non-destructive technologies
preservation

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

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16 pages, 1957 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Enhance Fruit Ripening Uniformity and Accelerate the Rutab Stage by Using ATP in ‘Zaghloul’ Dates during the Shelf Life

by A. A. Lo’ay, Rania E. Elgammal, Haifa A. S. Alhaithloul, Suliman M. Alghanem, Mohammad Fikry, Mohamed A. Abdein and Dalia M. Hikal

Foods 2021, 10(11), 2641; https://doi.org/10.3390/foods10112641 - 31 Oct 2021

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2373

Abstract

The Rutab date involves a physiological process by which the fruit turns completely ripe. The objective of this study was to research the effect of ATP-treated fruit to improve their biologically active compounds of the Rutab process of the ‘Zagloul’ date during shelf-life. Fruits at full color (red) were dipped in 0, 1, 1.5 mmol L⁻¹ ATP solution for 10 min, and then stored at room temperature (27 ± 1 °C) with a relative humidity of (67 ± 4 RH%) for 12 d. We found that ATP treatment, especially at 1.5 mM, enhances the Rutab stage of date fruit, and certain biologically active compounds such as total phenols and flavonoids, in all ATP treatments compared to untreated fruits. ATP enhanced the loss of tannin compounds in fruit but had no impact on the change in fruit moisture percentage of fruit during storage. The treatments did affect the changes in total sugar content and activated the sucrose enzymes, i.e., acid invertase (AI), neutral invertase (NI), sucrose synthase-cleavage (SS-c), and sucrose synthase-synthesis (SS-s) during storage. Interestingly, immersion in 1.5 mM ATP forced the date fruit to reach the Rutab stage during storage. These results indicated that the dose of ATP (1.5 mM) is a new potential tool that pushes the fruits to regular ripening after harvest, thus reducing the losses in the fruits during the production process. A linear model could be satisfactorily used for predicting the properties of the treated date with ATP 1.5 mM at different shelf-life durations. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Processing and Preservation of Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Products: Current Status and Emerging Techniques and Technologies)

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15 pages, 1571 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Chestnut Cultivar Identification through the Data Fusion of Sensory Quality and FT-NIR Spectral Data

by Piermaria Corona, Maria Teresa Frangipane, Roberto Moscetti, Gabriella Lo Feudo, Tatiana Castellotti and Riccardo Massantini

Foods 2021, 10(11), 2575; https://doi.org/10.3390/foods10112575 - 26 Oct 2021

Cited by 14 | Viewed by 2036

Abstract

The world production of chestnuts has significantly grown in recent decades. Consumer attitudes, increasingly turned towards healthy foods, show a greater interest in chestnuts due to their health benefits. Consequently, it is important to develop reliable methods for the selection of high-quality products, both from a qualitative and sensory point of view. In this study, Castanea spp. fruits from Italy, namely Sweet chestnut cultivar and the Marrone cultivar, were evaluated by an official panel, and the responses for sensory attributes were used to verify the correlation to the near-infrared spectra. Data fusion strategies have been applied to take advantage of the synergistic effect of the information obtained from NIR and sensory analysis. Large nuts, easy pellicle removal, chestnut aroma, and aromatic intensity render Marrone cv fruits suitable for both the fresh market and candying, i.e., marron glacé. Whereas, sweet chestnut samples, due to their characteristics, have the potential to be used for secondary food products, such as jam, mash chestnut, and flour. The research lays the foundations for a superior data fusion approach for chestnut identification in terms of classification sensitivity and specificity, in which sensory and spectral approaches compensate each other’s drawbacks, synergistically contributing to an excellent result. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Processing and Preservation of Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Products: Current Status and Emerging Techniques and Technologies)

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11 pages, 1742 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Effect of High Hydrostatic Pressure Processing on the Anthocyanins Content, Antioxidant Activity, Sensorial Acceptance and Stability of Jussara (Euterpe edulis) Juice

by Andressa Alves de Oliveira, Alexandre Guedes Torres, Daniel Perrone and Mariana Monteiro

Foods 2021, 10(10), 2246; https://doi.org/10.3390/foods10102246 - 22 Sep 2021

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1887

Abstract

Jussara (Euterpe edulis) fruit is a strong candidate for exportation due to its high content of anthocyanins. However, its rapid perishability impairs its potential for further economic exploration, highlighting the relevance of producing ready-to-drink juices by applying innovative processing, such as high hydrostatic pressure (HHP). The effect of HHP (200, 350, and 500 MPa for 5, 7.5, and 10 min) on anthocyanins content and antioxidant activity (AA) by FRAP and TEAC assays, and the most effective HHP condition on overall sensory acceptance and stability of jussara juice, were investigated. While mild pressurization (200 MPa for 5 min) retained anthocyanins and AA, 82% of anthocyanins content and 46% of TEAC values were lost at the most extreme pressurization condition (500 MPa for 10 min). The addition of 12.5% sucrose was the ideal for jussara juice consumer acceptance. No significant difference was observed for overall sensory acceptance scores of unprocessed (6.7) and HHP-processed juices (6.8), both juices being well-accepted. However, pressurization was ineffective in promoting the retention of anthocyanins and AA in jussara juice stored at refrigeration temperature for 60 days, probably due to enzymatic browning. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Processing and Preservation of Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Products: Current Status and Emerging Techniques and Technologies)

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15 pages, 1118 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Stinging Nettles as Potential Food Additive: Effect of Drying Processes on Quality Characteristics of Leaf Powders

by Swathi Sirisha Nallan Chakravartula, Roberto Moscetti, Barbara Farinon, Vittorio Vinciguerra, Nicolò Merendino, Giacomo Bedini, Lilia Neri, Paola Pittia and Riccardo Massantini

Foods 2021, 10(6), 1152; https://doi.org/10.3390/foods10061152 - 21 May 2021

Cited by 11 | Viewed by 3773

Abstract

Stinging nettle (Urtica dioica L.) is a ubiquitous, multi-utility, and under-utilized crop with potential health benefits owing to its nutritional and bioactive components. The objective of the work is to produce powders by drying wild stinging nettle leaves as a storable, low-cost functional additive to be used in bakery and ready-to-cook products. Convective drying (CD) and freeze-drying (FD) were applied on unblanched (U) or blanched (B) leaves, which were then milled to nettle powders (NPs). The obtained NPs were evaluated for selected physicochemical (moisture, color), techno-functional (flow indices, hygroscopicity), and phytochemical (pigments, phenols) characteristics as well as mineral contents. Blanching improved mass transfer and reduced the oxidative degradation of pigments during drying, but it caused a loss of total phenols content, antioxidant activity, and potassium content. As for the drying method, CD resulted in better flow properties (i.e., Carr Index and Hausner Ratio), while FD retained better the color, pigments, magnesium content, phenolic, and antioxidant parameters. Overall, the evaluated processing methods resulted in different technological properties that can allow for better evaluation of NPs as a food additive or ingredient. Among the NPs, blanched and freeze-dried powders despite showing inferior technological properties can be recommended as more suitable ingredients targeted f or food enrichment owing to better retention of bio-active components. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Processing and Preservation of Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Products: Current Status and Emerging Techniques and Technologies)

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Review

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12 pages, 1040 KiB

Open AccessReview

A Review on High-Power Ultrasound-Assisted Extraction of Olive Oils: Effect on Oil Yield, Quality, Chemical Composition and Consumer Perception

by Marco Nardella, Roberto Moscetti, Swathi Sirisha Nallan Chakravartula, Giacomo Bedini and Riccardo Massantini

Foods 2021, 10(11), 2743; https://doi.org/10.3390/foods10112743 - 09 Nov 2021

Cited by 11 | Viewed by 2221

Abstract

The objective of this review is to illustrate the state of the art in high-power ultrasound (HPU) application for olive oil extraction with the most recent studies about the effects of HPU treatment on oil yield, quality, chemical composition, as well as on the consumer’s perception. All the examined works reported an increase in oil yield and extractability index through the use of HPU, which was ascribed to reduced paste viscosity and cavitation-driven cell disruption. Olive oil legal quality was generally not affected; on the other hand, results regarding oil chemical composition were conflicting with some studies reporting an increase of phenols, tocopherols, and volatile compounds, while others underlined no significant effects to even slight reductions after HPU treatment. Regarding the acceptability of oils extracted through HPU processing, consumer perception is not negatively affected, as long as the marketer effectively delivers information about the positive effects of ultrasound on oil quality and sensory aspect. However, only a few consumers were willing to pay more, and hence the cost of the innovative extraction must be carefully evaluated. Since most of the studies confirm the substantial potential of HPU to reduce processing times, improve process sustainability and produce oils with desired nutritional and sensory quality, this review points out the need for industrial scale-up of such innovative technology. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Processing and Preservation of Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Products: Current Status and Emerging Techniques and Technologies)

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