Post Harvest Physiology - Research & Testing
Fruit processing is increasingly a year around activity.
This permits production to order and better utilization of facilities, but requires longer storage times.
Research Focus
- To evaluate fresh and processed fruit quality as a function of pre-storage treatments, storage conditions and duration of storage.
- To determine the nature and mechanism of changes in the cell walls of apples during maturation and storage.
- To decrease or eliminate softening in apples using the antisense gene technology.
Quality of Fresh & Processed Fruit
- Ripening stage - harvest date
- Handling of fruit prior to storage
- Post-harvest treatments
- Heat treatments
- Effect of storage type (CA vs. cold storage)
- Pre-storage treatments on processed quality of cherry, pear or plum products.
Understanding the properties of the raw material is a preliminary requirement to any modification of the textural properties of apples and other fruits, whether they are consumed fresh or processed.
Fruit Softening
Apple softening is associated with the breakdown of the cell wall material. Studies on tomatoes indicated that while polygalacturonase is an important factor in softening, other cell wall hydrolases also play an important role. The cell wall hydrolases are under the control of ethylene. Therefore, diminishing ethylene production will result in the reduced production of these enzymes and firmer fruit during storage.
- Variety and the stage of ripeness of the fruits when harvested are among the most important factors.
Contact:
Dr. Geza Hrazdina - (Tel: 315-787-2285)
Email: Geza_Hrazdina@Cornell.edu