Despite a worldwide increase in demand for fresh-cut fruit and vegetables, in many countries these products are prepared in uncontrolled conditions and have the potential to pose substantial risk for consumers. Correspondingly, researchers have ramped up efforts to provide adequate technologies and practices to assure product safety while keeping n

Because they meet the needs of today’s consumers, fresh-cut plant products are currently one of the hottest commodities in the food market of industrialized countries. However, fresh-cut produce deteriorates faster than the correspondent intact produce. The main purpose of Fresh-Cut Fruits and Vegetables: Technology, Physiology, and Safety is to provide helpful guidelines to the industry for minimizing deterioration, keeping the overall quality, and lengthening the shelf life. It provides an integrated and interdisciplinary approach for accomplishing the challenges, where raw materials, handling, minimal processing, packaging, commercial distribution, and retail sale must be well managed. It covers technology, physiology, quality, and safety of fresh-cut fruits and vegetables. In this book, the chapters follow a logical sequence analyzing most of the important factors affecting the main characteristics of fresh-cut horticultural products. The most relevant technologies to prevent deterioration and improve final overall quality of fresh-cut commodities are described in detail. This book covers the basics of the subject from quality preservation, nutritional losses, physiology, and safety to industry-oriented advancements in sanitization, coatings, and packaging. It examines such novel preservation technologies as edible coatings, antimicrobial coatings, natural antimicrobials, gum arabic coatings, and pulsed light treatments. Minimal processing design and industrial equipment are also reviewed. With its international team of contributors, this book will be an essential reference work both for professionals involved in the postharvest handling of fresh-cut and minimally processed fruits and vegetables and for academic and researchers working in the area.

Fresh-cut products are estimated to account for about 18 to 20 percent of the value of fresh fruit and vegetables marketed through retail and food service channels in the United States. From salad mixes to "baby" carrots, broccoli and cauliflower florets to slaw mixes, these products continue to grow in popularity with consumers. For the consumer, fresh-cut fruit and vegetables offer several potential benefits. They can reduce meal preparation time, provide more uniform quality, and increase access to healthy produce. For the processor, successful fresh-cut products can actually be more cost-effective because of reduced waste for the end user. Concerns about fresh-cut products include their variable shelf life, the need for temperature control, microbial food safety, and inconsistent overall product quality, including flavor and nutrition. Whereas most food-processing techniques stabilize products and lengthen their storage and shelf life, fresh-cut processing increases the perishability of fruit and vegetables. This volume addresses the physiology of fresh-cut fruits and vegetables, treatments for maintaining quality, optimal storage temperatures, and modified atmospheres. The chapter on processed products covers the principles of horticultural crop preservation, the importance of raw material quality, and common unit operations and technologies used for processing horticultural crops. The advantages and disadvantages of various technologies are addressed, followed by general information on packaging and quality control.

This book provides an overview of issues associated primarily with food safety, shelf-life assessment and preservation of foods. Food safety and protection is a multidisciplinary topic that focuses on the safety, quality, and security aspects of food. Food safety issues involve microbial risks in food products, foodborne infections, and intoxications and food allergenicity. Food protection deals with trends and risks associated with food packaging, advanced food packaging systems for enhancing product safety, the development and application of predictive models for food microbiology, food fraud prevention, and food laws and regulations with the aim to provide safe foods for consumers. Food Safety and Protection covers various aspects of food safety, security, and protection. It discusses the challenges involved in the prevention and control of foodborne illnesses due to microbial spoilage, contamination, and toxins. It starts with documentation on the microbiological and chemical hazards, including allergens, and extends to the advancements in food preservation and food packaging. The book covers new and safe food intervention techniques, predictive food microbiology, and modeling approaches. It reviews the legal framework, regulatory agencies, and laws and regulations for food protection. The book has five sections dealing with the topics of predictive microbiology for safe foods; food allergens, contaminants, and toxins; preservation of foods; food packaging; and food safety laws.

The book consists of 19 chapters on different subjects and in different dimensions, with particular emphasis on the post-harvest handling and processing of fruits and vegetables, including mushrooms. Scope for the technology on fruits and vegetables, non-destructive methods to evaluate fresh quality, radiation preservation, chemistry of pectin and pigments and their applications, nutraceutical compounds, membrane processing of liquid fruits, dehydrated and intermediate moisture products, importance of bamboo and mushrooms as food, influence of process conditions on product quality, food additives in product preparation, packaging aspects, microbiological safety concerns, relevant analytical methods, mushroom nutraceuticals and bio-technological interventions for improvement of banana with a final note on conclusions in the last

The search for better strategies to preserve foods with minimal changes during processing has been of great interest in recent decades. Traditionally, edible films and coatings have been used as a partial barrier to moisture, oxygen, and carbon dioxide through selective permeability to gases, as well as improving mechanical handling properties. The advances in this area have been breathtaking, and in fact their implementation in the industry is already a reality. Even so, there are still new developments in various fields and from various perspectives worth reporting. Edible Films and Coatings: Fundamentals and Applications discusses the newest generation of edible films and coatings that are being especially designed to allow the incorporation and/or controlled release of specific additives by means of nanoencapsulation, layer-by-layer assembly, and other promising technologies. Covering the latest novelties in research conducted in the field of edible packaging, it considers state-of-the-art innovations in coatings and films; novel applications, particularly in the design of gourmet foods; new advances in the incorporation of bioactive compounds; and potential applications in agronomy, an as yet little explored area, which could provide considerable advances in the preservation and quality of foods in the field.

Attempts to provide safer and higher quality fresh and minimally processed produce have given rise to a wide variety of decontamination methods, each of which have been extensively researched in recent years. Decontamination of Fresh and Minimally Processed Produce is the first book to provide a systematic view of the different types of decontaminants for fresh and minimally processed produce. By describing the different effects – microbiological, sensory, nutritional and toxicological – of decontamination treatments, a team of internationally respected authors reveals not only the impact of decontaminants on food safety, but also on microbial spoilage, vegetable physiology, sensory quality, nutritional and phytochemical content and shelf-life. Regulatory and toxicological issues are also addressed. The book first examines how produce becomes contaminated, the surface characteristics of produce related to bacterial attachment, biofilm formation and resistance, and sublethal damage and its implications for decontamination. After reviewing how produce is washed and minimally processed, the various decontamination methods are then explored in depth, in terms of definition, generation devices, microbial inactivation mechanisms, and effects on food safety. Decontaminants covered include: chlorine, electrolyzed oxidizing water, chlorine dioxide, ozone, hydrogen peroxide, peroxyacetic acid, essential oils and edible films and coatings. Other decontamination methods addressed are biological strategies (bacteriophages, protective cultures, bacteriocins and quorum sensing) and physical methods (mild heat, continuous UV light, ionizing radiation) and various combinations of these methods through hurdle technology. The book concludes with descriptions of post-decontamination methods related to storage, such as modified atmosphere packaging, the cold chain, and modeling tools for predicting microbial growth and inactivation. The many methods and effects of decontamination are detailed, enabling industry professionals to understand the available state-of-the-art methods and select the most suitable approach for their purposes. The book serves as a compendium of information for food researchers and students of pre- and postharvest technology, food microbiology and food technology in general. The structure of the book allows easy comparisons among methods, and searching information by microorganism, produce, and quality traits.

The second edition of Emerging Technologies in Food Processing presents essential, authoritative, and complete literature and research data from the past ten years. It is a complete resource offering the latest technological innovations in food processing today, and includes vital information in research and development for the food processing industry. It covers the latest advances in non-thermal processing including high pressure, pulsed electric fields, radiofrequency, high intensity pulsed light, ultrasound, irradiation, and addresses the newest hurdles in technology where extensive research has been carried out. - Provides an extensive list of research sources to further research development - Presents current and thorough research results and critical reviews - Includes the most recent technologies used for shelf life extension, bioprocessing simulation and optimization

Postharvest and Postmortem Processing of Raw Food Materials, a volume in the Unit Operations and Processing Equipment in the Food Industry series, presents the processing operations and handling of agricultural crops, animal products, and raw food materials after their harvesting/slaughtering and entrance into food production factories. Chapters in this new release cover an Introduction to postharvest and postmortem technology, Primary operations in postharvest processing, Disintegration of raw agricultural crops, Disintegration with little changes in form (Husking, Shelling, Pitting, Coring, Snipping and Destemming), Disintegration with considerable changes in form (Cutting/dicing, crashing and grinding, Slaughtering, Shredding, Sheeting), and much more. Written by experts in the field of food engineering, and in a simple and dynamic way, this book targets all who are engaged in food processing operations worldwide, giving readers good knowledge on the basics of food engineering principles and applications. - Thoroughly explores novel applications of postharvest/postmortem operations in processing food products - Brings perspectives about the postharvest processing of different agricultural crops and postmortem processing of different animal meats - Helps to improve the quality and safety of food products with postharvest/postmortem operations

Packed with case studies and problem calculations, Handbook of Food Processing: Food Safety, Quality, and Manufacturing Processes presents the information necessary to design food processing operations and describes the equipment needed to carry them out in detail. It covers the most common and new food manufacturing processes while addressing rele