Fresh produce

More than half of flexible packaging is used for food. Within foods, candy, bakery products, and snack-type foods, such as potato and com chips, use well over half of flexible packaging. Cheese, processed meat, shrink wraps, condiments, dry-drink mixes, fresh meats, and fresh produce represent smaller appHcations. 

Post-Harvest Treatment, fresh produce during transportation, distribution, storage... 

Pubhc concerns about pesticides in the diet of infants and children resulted in an expert committee convened by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences which devoted four years to the review of all available data. A consensus report was issued in 1993 (80). A number of recommendations for further work to more precisely define what constitutes the diet of infants and children were made. No risk could be estimated. The residue data reviewed by the panel were mainly from monitoring studies conducted by the PDA using multiresidue methods to analyze fresh produce and market basket samples collected from various geographic areas (81,82). These and other rehable scientific studies have demonstrated that relatively few food samples contain detectable residues. Most residues are far below estabhshed tolerances which are set above the maximum residue found in treated raw agricultural... 

The Food and Drug Administration has not as yet held hearings concerning the establishment of formal tolerances for DDT or parathion on fresh produce or in processed foods. For apples and pears, an informal tolerance for DDT of 7 p.p.m. has been announced (3). [These hearings were in progress at the time of publication. ]... 

Pathogen contamination can occur at every stage of the whole production chain from field-to-fork (Table 19.1). Nevertheless, besides other components of infection, manures derived from livestock are considered to be an important potential preharvest contamination source (Fig. 19.1). Several disease outbreaks have been associated with raw fruits and vegetables and unpasteurised products some have been traced back to livestock (Pell, 1997), but in the majority of the outbreaks associated with fresh produce, minimally processed products and unpasteurised products, the source of contamination remains unknown (de Roever, 1998). 

Table 19.1 Sources of pathogenic microorganisms on fresh produce and conditions that influence their survival and growth (based on Beuchat, 1996)...

Beuchat LR (1996), Pathogenic microorganisms associated with fresh produce , Journal of Food Protection, 59 (2), 204—216. 

De Roever C (1998), Microbiological safety evaluations and recommendations on fresh produce , Food Control, 10, 117-143. 

Ultrasound (US) disrupts biological structures and may lead to death when applied with sufficient intensity (Betts and Everis, 2005). The use of ultrasound to disinfect fruit and vegetables has not been described frequently in the literature. The results from a study by Seymour et al. (2002) indicated that a combination of ultrasound and chlorinated water reduced the numbers of both Salmonella Typhimurium and E. coli from iceberg lettuce. However, the authors concluded that the cost of such a method is high and that the combination does not completely remove pathogens from fresh produce. Therefore, this is probably not a well-suited alternative method for the decontamination of fruit and vegetables. 

High hydrostatic pressure (HHP) and pulsed electric fields (PEFs) are rather novel technologies where relatively little research has been carried out. These methods have mostly been tested in combination with other decontamination methods and also mostly on either microorganisms in vitro or on foods of animal origin (e.g. milk, eggs and meat) (Raso and Barbosa-Canovas, 2003 Ross et al., 2003). More research is needed in order to find out if such methods are applicable to the fresh produce industry. 

The national organic certification bodies will also provide useful information on food processing standards in organic food production. In addition, there are publications that have reviewed decontamination processes and disinfection procedures used in the fresh produce industry. Some of these are also listed below. 

Beuchat, L.R., Harris, L.J., Ward, T.E. and Kajs, T.M. (2001) Development of a proposed standard method for assessing the efficacy of fresh produce sanitizers . Journal of Food Protection, 64, 1103-1109. 

Johannessen, G.S., Loncarevic, S. and Kruse, H. (2002) Bacteriological analysis of fresh produce in Norway . International Journal of Food Microbiology, 77, 199-204. 

Harris LJ, Farber JN, Beuchat LR, Parish ME, Suslow TV, Garrett EH and Busta FF. 2003. Outbreaks associated with fresh produce incidence, growth, and survival of pathogens in fresh and fresh-cut produce. Compreh Rev Food Sci Food Saf 2(suppl) 78-141. 

Johnston LM, Jaykus LA, Moll D, Martinez MC, Anciso J, Mora B and Moe CL. 2005. A field study of the microbiological quality of fresh produce. J Food Prot 68(9) 1840-1847. 

Koseky S and Isobe S. 2007. Microbial control of fresh produce using electrolyzed water. JARQ 41(4) 273—282. 

Thunberg RL, Tran TT, Bennett RW, Matthews RN and Belay N. 2002. Microbial evaluation of selected fresh produce obtained at retail markets. J Food Prot 65(4) 677-682. 

Investigations of the effects of UV- and hypochlorite-induced oxidative modification of 20 amino acids and human serum albumin (HSA) on their antiradical properties showed unexpected results [36], Seven amino acids (cystine, histidine, methionine, phenylalanine, serine, tryptophan, and tyrosine) and HSA developed ACW following oxidation (see examples in Fig. 14). The fresh (produced in 1998) HSA from Serva had no antiradical capacity, but it acquired this quality during irradiation. The out-of-date HSA sample (Dessau, GDR, 1987, expiration date 7/1/1992) showed a remarkable ACW even in an unirradiated state. 

Apart from specifications as to origin, e.g. palm kernel oil, fats are normally supplied on the basis of established parameters. One of these is the iodine value. This reflects the tendency of iodine to react with double bonds. Thus, the higher the iodine value the more saturated the fat is. An iodine value of 86 would approximate to one double bond per chain, while an iodine value of 172 approximates to two double bonds per chain. Another parameter is the peroxide value. This attempts to measure the susceptibility of the fat or oil to free radical oxidation. The test is applied on a freshly produced oil and measures the hydroperoxides present. These hydroperoxides are the first stage of the oxidation process. Obviously, this test would not give reliable results if applied on a stale sample. 

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