Articles
Raspberry Shelf Life: What Causes Quality Loss After Harvest?
Raspberry postharvest quality problems include loss of firmness, color, and flavor, weight loss, microbial decay, physiological disorders, leakage, and rapid senescence. Raspberries’ characteristics, such as their high fruit respiration and transpiration rates, thin cuticle, and ethylene sensitivity, cause postharvest problems. Cold storage, high relative humidity, and an artificial controlled atmosphere of ethylene, oxygen, and carbon… Continue reading…
Additional reading
Can I Monitor Ethylene and CO₂ Simultaneously with One Device?
Yes. Ethylene and CO₂ monitoring can be handled with one device when the analyzer is built for multi-gas measurement rather than single-gas spot checks. For postharvest teams, that matters because ethylene rarely tells the whole story by itself. A room, package, bin, container, or ripening system can look acceptable from an ethylene reading alone, while… Continue reading…
How Do the F-750 and F-751 Correlate with Refractometer Brix Measurements?
Refractometer Brix measurements are still one of the most familiar ways to check soluble solids in fruit. They are simple, accepted, and useful. But they are also destructive, slow when sample numbers get large, and limited to the fruit that gets cut or juiced. Felix Instruments’ F-750 Produce Quality Meter and F-751 Quality Meter series… Continue reading…
Why Are My Readings Drifting During Long Storage Studies?
Gas analyzer drift is one of those problems that rarely shows up during a quick spot check, but it can become obvious during a long storage study. A reading that looked stable on day one may slowly move away from the expected trend after days or weeks of monitoring. In postharvest research, controlled atmosphere storage,… Continue reading…
Controlled Atmosphere Facilities: What Are the Different Types?
Different Types of Controlled Atmosphere Facilities for Fresh Produce Controlled atmosphere (CA) facilities alter temperature, relative humidity, and the concentrations of oxygen, carbon dioxide, and ethylene. CA works by slowing biological activity such as respiration, transpiration, ripening, and senescence, and by limiting physiological disorders, insect damage, and disease. Commercial CA types available are standard, static,… Continue reading…
What is Third-Party Certification for Fresh Produce Quality, and Who Are the Certifiers?
Third-party certification (TCP) is necessary to regulate compliance with fresh produce standards by suppliers, growers, packers, and retailers. Most TCP is conducted by private organizations that are fast, flexible, and use many standard frameworks- private and public. Objective and quantifiable data on quality parameters can make the certification process transparent, reliable, and actionable. Earlier, food… Continue reading…
What Are Fruit Ripening Systems? Types, Methods, and How They Work
Artificial ripening systems are necessary for providing evenly ripened, high-quality fresh produce year-round. The ripening agent used is usually ethylene, but others like gibberellins, acetylene, ethephon, and calcium carbide are also applied. Simple ripening systems depend on natural internal enzymatic processes and lack environmental control. Advanced ripening systems use artificial agents and improve efficiency by… Continue reading…
