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Breeding and release of new fresh-market blackberries (Rubus subgenus Rubus Watson) is vital for competitive markets to address evolving changes and production challenges. Physical, composition, and sensory attributes of six University of Arkansas (UA) System Division of Agriculture blackberry cultivars (Caddo, Natchez, Osage, Ouachita, Ponca, and Prime-Ark® Traveler) were evaluated to identify marketable attributes. The consumer sensory study (n = 81) had two elements: a visual evaluation of displayed blackberries and an appearance, tasting, and firmness evaluation of the six cultivars using a 9-point verbal hedonic liking scale and a 5-point just about right (JAR) scale. Consumers preferred large blackberries when presented with individual berries of varying sizes and clamshells filled with equal weights of small or large blackberries. The largest of the six cultivars, Natchez and Caddo, were scored favorably for size and shape. Consumers also preferred clamshells with little to no red drupelet reversion, a postharvest disorder where black drupelets on the blackberry turn red during or after cold storage. Consumers did not detect differences in the appearance or firmness of the cultivars and rated the firmness of all cultivars favorably on the JAR scale. The physical and composition attributes of the six cultivars were within commercially acceptable ranges (soluble solids = 9% to 10%, pH = 3.1–3.8, titratable acidity = 0.6% to 1.4%, and berry weight = 6–10 g). ‘Ponca’, ‘Osage’, ‘Caddo’, and ‘Natchez’ were all rated highly for sweetness, sourness, overall flavor, and overall impression. ‘Ponca’ was rated high for sweetness, overall flavor, and overall impression and had 10.4% soluble solids, 0.82% titratable acidity, and a 12.8 soluble solids/titratable acidity ratio. The identification of these marketability attributes of fresh-market blackberries will provide information to advance breeding efforts for fruit with commercial potential.

As availability of skilled harvest labour is in decline, the sustainability of fresh market apple production in the USA is threatened. A mass mechanical harvesting of apples offers an alternative and promising solution. In addition to harvester design elements, it is important to understand the key canopy parameters of apple trees as they are closely integrated and interact with each other during the harvest process. In this study, the impact of eleven canopy parameters on mechanical harvesting were investigated for vertically-trained “Scifresh” and V-trellis grown “Envy” trees during harvesting trials. A supervised machine learning algorithm with weighted k-nearest neighbours (kNN) was adopted to analyse our canopy datasets. Overall, 2678 ground-truth data points (apples) were classified into two binary classes of fruit removal status: “mechanically harvested” and “mechanically unharvested” apples. For the training dataset (85%), the adopted algorithm achieved overall prediction accuracies of 76–92% and 62–74% for “Scifresh” and “Envy”. With the remaining 15% dataset, the overall test accuracies were 81–91% on “Scifresh” but only 36–79% on “Envy”. The principal components analysis (PCA) was adopted to determine the key canopy parameters by calculating the coefficients of principal components (PCs). The PC1–PC5 explained at least 80% of the data variance. By assuming a coefficient greater than 0.5 as being highly relevant, fruit load per branch, branch basal diameter, and shoot length were the most relevant among all. These results provide guidance for growers in canopy management that could improve efficiency of a mechanical harvesting system.

HighlightsThree shaking methods and vibratory harvesting systems were evaluated and compared.Multi-year field evaluations were performed with up to six cultivars trained to formal architectures.The updated semi-automated system achieved the highest fruit removal efficiency and the best fruit quality.Abstract. Apple is the most economically important agricultural crop in Washington State. In 2018, Washington State produced ~3.3 billion kg of apple, accounting for approximately 63% of U.S. production. Fresh-market apple is currently harvested manually, requiring large numbers seasonal semi-skilled workers for a small harvest window. To overcome the increasing challenges of uncertain labor availability and raising labor costs, a promising mechanical harvesting system, using a targeted shake-and-catch approach, is under development at Washington State University. This study evaluated the system by analyzing its fruit harvest efficiency and fruit quality with three shaking methods, i.e., continuous non-linear, continuous linear, and intermittent linear shaking, on up to six apple cultivars trained to formal tree architectures. Results showed that intermittent linear shaking achieved 90% fruit removal efficiency for ‘Scifresh’ cultivar, while continuous linear shaking achieved only 63% removal efficiency for ‘Gala’. This study also compared three vibratory systems: a hand-held system, a hydraulically driven system, and a semi-automated hydraulic system. The semi-automated system achieved the highest fruit removal efficiency (90%), followed by the hand-held (87%) and hydraulic (84%) systems, mainly due to the different shaking methods employed. However, the differences were statistically insignificant. Fruit catching efficiency varied among the harvesting systems, with the hand-held system achieving the highest efficiency (97%), followed by the hydraulic (91%) and semi-automated (88%) systems. Among the three tested technologies, the prototype semi-automated system achieved the highest level of mechanization, as well as high fruit removal efficiency and the best fruit quality. Because the semi-automated system did not include an auto-positioning function, positioning its shaker head took about eight times longer (~103 s) than the actual shaking time (~13 s), which suggests that a fully automated system is desirable to further increase productivity. This study showed that the shake-and-catch approach has great potential for practical adoption in harvesting of fresh-market apple and therefore can have a positive economic impact on the U.S. apple industry. Keywords: Automation in apple production, Bulk mechanical harvest, Semi-automated system, Shaking method, Time efficiency.

Tomatoes are the second most consumed vegetable in the United States. In 2017, American people consumed 9.2 kg of tomatoes from a fresh market and 33.2 kg of processed tomato products per capita. One commonly asked question by consumers and the nutrition community is "Are processed tomato products as nutritious as fresh tomatoes?" This review addresses this question by summarizing the current understandings on the effects of industrial processing on the nutrients and bioactive compounds of tomatoes. Twelve original research papers were found to study the effects of different industrial processing methods on the nutrients and/or bioactive compounds in tomato products. The data suggested that different processing methods had different effects on different compounds in tomatoes. However, currently available data are still limited, and the existing data are often inconsistent. The USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference Legacy was utilized to estimate nutrient contents from raw tomatoes and processed tomato products. In addition, several other important factors specifically related to the industrial processing of tomatoes were also discussed. To conclude, there is no simple "yes" or "no" answer to the question "Are processed tomato products as nutritious as fresh tomatoes?" Many factors must be considered when comparing the nutritious value between fresh tomatoes and processed tomato products. At this point, we do not have sufficient data to fully understand all of the factors and their impacts.

A novel deep learning algorithm is proposed for hollow heart detection which is an internal tuber defect. Hollow heart is one of many internal defects that decrease the market value of potatoes in the fresh market and food processing sectors. Susceptibility to internal defects like the hollow heart is influenced by genetic and environmental factors so elimination of defect-prone material in potato breeding programs is important. Current methods of evaluation utilize human scoring which is limiting (only collects binary data) relative to the data collection capacity afforded by computer vision or are based upon X-ray transmission techniques that are both expensive and can be hazardous. Automation of defect classification (e.g. hollow heart) from data sets collected using inexpensive, consumer-grade hardware has the potential to increase throughput and reduce bias in public breeding programs. The proposed algorithm consists of ResNet50 as the backbone of the model followed by a shallow fully connected network (FCN). A simple augmentation technique is performed to increase the number of images in the data set. The performance of the proposed algorithm is validated by investigating metrics such as precision and the area under the curve (AUC).

Pacific Northwest North America (PNW) strawberry (Fragaria ×ananassa) growers are transitioning away from the processing to fresh-market sector in response to changes in local and regional markets. However, many of the regional cultivars bred for the PNW were not developed for the fresh market. There is a need to gain a better understanding of growers’ priority traits and their relative importance to enable breeders, researchers, and extension specialists to better serve this growing industry. The objective of this study was to provide such information on strawberry genetic traits of importance for the changing strawberry industry in the PNW with an emphasis on fresh-market production. Six surveys were administered to 32 growers representing ≈53%, 23%, and 15% of the total strawberry acreage in Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia, Canada, respectively. Growers ranked the relative importance of five plant and fruit traits, including fruit quality, disease resistance/tolerance, insect pest resistance/tolerance, plant stress tolerance, and other plant factors. Information about target markets, marketing channels, and general grower characteristics were also obtained. Whereas overall responses differed among the surveyed locations, fruit quality was considered the most important trait across all locations, with disease resistance/tolerance as the second most important. Specific fruit quality traits of importance were external appearance free of defects, skin color, size, sweetness, firmness, and flavor, whereas phytonutrients, seed color, and low drip loss after freezing and thawing were less important. Plant stress tolerance was identified as less important for strawberry growers in all locations. Results also showed many growers have already or are in the process of transitioning to the fresh market. Information obtained from this survey can be leveraged to target important breeding traits for fresh-market strawberry breeders within the PNW. Results also suggest priority areas of synergistic research and outreach activities to help growers achieve high fruit quality while managing diseases for fresh-market producers.

Cover crops and compost application may influence soil quality and productivity of fresh-market tomatoes. The effects of hairy vetch (HV) (Vicia villosa Roth) and livestock compost on soil C and N stocks, N availability, and tomato yield were evaluated for 2 years in a plastic high tunnel. Averaged across years, soil C and N stocks increased in plots incorporating hairy vetch and compost more than in plots with no hairy vetch and compost. When compared with baseline stocks (initial soil C and N stocks before the initiation of the examination), soil C stock increased by 3%, 2.8%, 2.6% in the HV treatment, the compost treatment, and the HV and compost treatment, respectively. In contrast, a 1.85% loss of soil C stock was observed in a no HV and no compost (bare) treatment. Soil N stocks increased in all treatments, with the greatest increase in the compost treatment (26%) and the lowest in the bare treatment (9.3%). Averaged across sampling dates, the HV treatment exhibited the greatest soil N availability and nitrate levels in leaf petiole in both years, whereas the bare treatment exhibited the lowest soil N availability and nitrate levels in leaf petiole. HV + compost and compost treatments showed a similar influence on soil N availability, but HV + compost exhibited greater nitrate levels in leaf petiole than the compost treatment. The marketable and total yields were 10% to 15% greater in the HV and the compost treatments than in the bare treatment. N uptake was 17% to 38% greater in the HV treatment than in the other treatments. Because of unstable cover crop production in the northern region, a combined application of cover crops and compost may be one of the best practices to compensate for low cover crop biomass production by increasing organic matter input to the soil, thereby improving soil quality and tomato yield.

Potato culinary evaluation is an integral component of a breeding programme to determine suitability of new cultivars to specific end-uses. In most breeding programmes, quality assessment is conducted after a few generations of field selection on tubers collected from the field or from storage conditions. In order to optimize selection procedures, we analysed the relationship between specific gravity of potato tubers and quality evaluation traits as well as the effects of field selection parameters in clones that are intended for fresh market and processing uses. A total number of 237 advanced breeding clones were analysed over three consecutive years in the potato breeding programme at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC). Principal component analysis (PCA) and linear mixed-effects model fit by maximum likelihood indicated that parameters used in field selection significantly contributed to specific gravity and culinary components. Specific gravity also contributed significantly to culinary traits related to acceptable quality of baked, boiled and French-fried products. However, such relationship was not observed for chip quality. Significant associations were found between field selection parameters, such as maturity, early vigour, top vigour, early harvest, tuber size and tuber appearance and culinary components related to French fry and chip quality, but not for quality of baked and boiled products. Broad-sense heritability estimates for various culinary evaluation traits ranged from 57 to 92%. The results suggest that specific gravity and culinary traits should be incorporated in early or intermediate generation selection parameters in order to optimize selection gains for specific end-uses.

The efficiency and effectiveness of end-effectors greatly influence the overall performance of the robotic systems as they come into direct contact with the objects being manipulated by the robot. Considering the extensive need of robotic technologies for various labor-intensive tasks in agriculture, end-effectors for agricultural robots are required to handle a great diversity of objects, such as fruit, leaves, flowers, stems, and even animal body parts. Example end-effectors that depict special challenges faced in agricultural robotics are the end-effectors for picking fresh market fruit such as tomato, apples and oranges. There have been wide research and development efforts around the world in developing efficient and robust fruit picking end-effectors. Therefore, this chapter provides a comprehensive review on the existing end-effectors for fresh-market fruit picking/harvesting. The end-effectors were categorized according to the principle of fruit picking: (i) fruit-holding mechanisms; (ii) stem-holding mechanisms; and (iii) direct separation. Specially for fruit-holding end-effectors, five different categories of methods for flexible fruit holding were introduced in detail: (i) elastic buffering; (ii) under-actuated fingers; (iii) flexible driving; (iv) clamping force feedback system; and (v) air suction. With reference to these methods, crucial parameters for designing an effective picking end-effector were discussed in depth including finger configuration, number of fingers, and physical property of fruit. Besides, major challenges on picking fresh market fruit with an automatic end-effector were discussed. Finally, some thoughts and insights on the future trends in technology advancement and potential solutions for overcoming the existing technical challenges were presented.

Selecting a potato variety to grow and successfully market has become more complex in recent years, as the number and range of market types and acceptable attributes has greatly increased. Changing consumer preferences have also been a significant driving force behind this change, resulting in a much more colorful market produce section than in the past. Descriptions are provided for some of the major varieties grown in North America, along with their morphological and agronomic characteristics, incentives for production, strengths and weaknesses, and key management considerations. Although variety acceptance in the marketplace is a dynamic process, many of these varieties have remained and will likely remain in commerce for years to come.

The management practice of the fresh market wastes (wastewater and solid waste) plays an important role in the presence or absence of the adverse effect on the environment which received the disposed of wastes. The management process included the collection, segregation, transportation, treatment, and final disposal of the wastes into the environment. These processes aim to minimize the health risk associated with the fresh market wastes in terms of infectious agents. The health risk of the fresh market wastes is coming with the presence of pathogenic bacteria transferred from the fruits, vegetables as well as meats and fishes. The present chapter aimed to highlight the management role for reducing the infectious agents in fresh market wastes before the final disposal. It appeared that most of the infectious agents in fresh market wastes are pathogenic for plants. However, many of the infectious agents coming from meat and fishes might also cause some diseases for human. The main concern lies in the potential of fresh market wastewater to induce the eutrophication in terms of harmful algae blooms (HABs). However, the technologies used for the inactivation of HABs in the freshwater have been reviewed in this chapter.

Safety of food in the fresh market has been a critical issue for many countries, including Thailand. In this study, data related to the criteria pertaining to food safety in selected fresh markets in Thailand are collected and analyzed using selective analytical methods to understand the perspectives of stakeholders in food safety system. In particular, our study considered 2 methodologies in the analysis-1) Mixed Method Research based on questionnaires and interviews with an aim to analyze stakeholders’ behaviours and 2) Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), one of the Multi Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) tools, with an aim to analyze criteria weights for food safety. Our case study was conducted at two fresh markets in Ubonratchathani province in Thailand: Municipal Market and Donklang Market, by collecting samples of vendors and consumers. It was found that vendors considered rental arrangement as the most important factor with weight 0.5489 (54.8 percent), whereas consumers concerned with the market building and related environment the most with criterion’s weight 0.2480 (24.80 percent). This initial result can be used for further analysis of fresh market layout and design, subject to viewpoints of stakeholders.

Greengrocers are occupationally exposed to pesticide residues (PRs) on vegetables via dermal contact, especially organophosphates (OPs). The study's aim was to explore health effects from exposure ...

[EN] A designed lightweight experimental shaker successfully used to collect ornamental oranges has been tested to harvest fresh market citrus. The aim of this study was to evaluate the removal efficiency and operational times of this experimental device compared to an orchard trunk shaker. Three different collecting systems were studied. 'Caracara' citrus trees were tested. Removal efficiency, vibration parameters, fruit and tree damages, and fruit quality were measured. A high-speed camera was used to record operational times and determine cumulative removal percentage over vibration time. The canvases on the ground reduced the severe fruit damages but were not useful to protect against light damages. The experimental shaker produced a higher percentage of slightly damaged oranges. No significant differences in removal efficiency were found between the two harvesting systems. However, removal efficiency using the experimental device could be reduced by 40 percent and working time increase by more than 50 percent when access to the main branches was difficult. In agreement with previous results, the curve representing the branch cumulative removal percentage in time followed a sigmoidal pattern. A model was built showing that during the first 5 s more than 50 percent of the fruits were detached, This research has been fund by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development and cofounded by the Ministerio de Agricultura, Pesca y Alimentacion (project GO "Avances tecnologicos para la modernizacion y la sostenibilidad en la produccion de citricos CITRUSTECH").

Broccoli is a vegetable grown worldwide due to its good nutritional properties. The harvest of this product is done selectively by hand depending on their size and state of maturation for both fresh market and agri-food industry. The final aim of our work is the development of a machine that is able to automatically harvest only those broccoli heads that have the size and ripeness suitable for the agri-food industry, besides discarding those overripe or with diseases. One critical element in such a machine is a vision system that locates and classifies the broccoli heads present in photographic images, to trigger later a cutting module. In this paper, we present an approach to that vision system, based on deep learning techniques. The proposed algorithm, running in a relatively cheap hardware, is able to work in real time, locating broccoli heads in 640 × 480 px digital images, and classifying then into harvestable, immature and wasted classes. Tested with images taken in real conditions, with many heads partially hidden by leaves, the system was able to correctly locate and classify up to 97% of the cases presented in the test set.

In this article, a review of the mechanisms that have been developed to improve the efficiency of Chinese jujube (Ziziphus Jujuba Mill) was made. This fruit is considered as an economic crop in the arid and semiarid regions especially in China, where the cultivation methods alternate between traditional and intensive. In the former the trees are large and planted with relatively wide space, whereas in the latter the trees are dwarfed with tight spacing among them. Mechanisms which were studied and tested, for each cultivation method, were summarized and compared in terms of fruit collecting efficiency and rate of damage. These mechanisms were branch beating, trunk shaking, air shaking for traditional cultivation and tree shaking, canopy shaking, and vacuum suction for intensive cultivation. The comparison indicated that as the efficiency increase for any single mechanism the rate of damage increases accordingly. Therefore, a combination of mechanism would maintain the efficiency and reduce damage. In particular, a combination of a mechanism of tree shaking, developed earlier for blueberry, and trunk shaking was thought to be with high potential of low rate of damage. This article also spots on the possibilities of fully automating the post-harvest operation of fruit grading by describing a number of previous articles that have tackled fruit sorting not only for fruit processing but also for fresh market. The hope is that this review will spark the renewal of research and development of the cultivation of Chinese jujube so as to meet the increasing demand.

Pesticide residues (PRs) in market vegetables have been reported regularly. Greengrocers may be exposed to several sorts of PRs on vegetables through hand contact. Health risk assessment from occup...

Currently, fresh market apples are picked manually around the globe, which has become a challenge due to the decreasing availability of labor and the high associated cost. To reduce harvest cost and dependence on human labor, researchers and growers have been seeking mechanical solutions for decades. However, the high rate of harvest-induced fruit damage has been an obstacle to commercializing these technologies. To achieve a desirable level of fruit quality with mechanical harvesting, a new shake-and-catch system with two catching buffers for reducing fruit impact was developed and evaluated in this study. The system provides localized harvesting by shaking targeted tree limbs and catching the detached fruits directly under the limbs. To test the performance of the catching device, a series of laboratory tests was conducted using an impact recording device. The results showed that the impact force of falling fruit and the number of impacts decreased dramatically when using a catching surface with buffers compared to using a catching surface without buffers. A harvesting test was performed with ‘Jazz‘ apple trees trained to vertical fruiting wall architecture. The system achieved fruit removal efficiencies of 84%, 86%, and 92% for shaking frequencies of 15, 20, and 25 Hz, respectively. The corresponding collection efficiencies were 99%, 98%, and 93%. The system achieved the highest quality grade (Extra Fancy) for 85% of the harvested fruits when the limb was shaken at 15 Hz and fruits were collected using a catching surface tilted at an angle of 25°. With this level of performance of the prototype system, this study showed that the developed shake-and-catch system offers a promising solution for mechanical harvesting of ‘Jazz‘ apples, with potential extension to other apple varieties grown in modern fruiting wall architectures.

Currently, fresh market apples are harvested manually in the U.S. and around the world. Because of increasing labor shortages and costs, there is a critical need for developing mechanical harvesting techniques. Mass harvest using a shake-and-catch system is a potential solution for addressing this issue. Selecting suitable materials that can provide adequate cushioning for apples could help to reduce fruit bruising during mechanical harvesting. To gain an understanding of how cushioning materials can absorb impacts on fruit, an experimental study was conducted to investigate the bruise response of apples to different impact levels. A specially designed pendulum impact platform was used to conduct the tests. Three types of cushioning materials (polyurethane foam) covering an aluminum plate were used as the impact surfaces, and the bare aluminum plate was used as the control surface. Polyurethane foams with the same thickness but different firmness ratings (at 25% deflection) were used to exert impacts on stationary apples sitting freely on a horizontal surface. In this study, seven different impact levels were applied at three impact zones (top, middle, and bottom) of ‘Jazz‘ apples. Impact tests were repeated 50 times for each impact level at each zone. The results showed that no bruising resulted when apples were impacted at ≤22 N with the bare aluminum plate regardless of the impact zone. The non-bruising impact level increased to 95, 160, and 160 N after 12.7 mm thick foam cushions with firmness ratings of 2.1, 4.8, and 9.7 to 11 kPa (foams 1, 2, and 3, respectively) were used to cover the aluminum plate. Based on USDA grades, 100% of the apples maintained Extra Fancy quality at 50, 115, 171, and 180 N when impacted by the bare aluminum plate and by the plate covered with foams 1, 2, and 3, respectively. The tolerable impact levels to maintain 100% of apples within the fresh-market quality threshold were 95, 189, 230, and 232 N, respectively. These results showed that the foams with firmness ratings of 4.8 kPa and 9.7 to 11.0 kPa (foams 2 and 3) provided better cushioning for apples, as the fruit tolerated a substantially higher level of impact compared to using the bare aluminum plate or foam 1. The results also showed that the difference between foams 2 and 3 was very slight, which could indicate that a cushioning material with a firmness rating of 4.8 kPa or higher could provide sufficient cushioning for apples.

Apple harvest depends on a large seasonal workforce, and decreasing availability of agricultural employees, increasing labor costs, and occupational injuries are creating challenges for apple harvest activities. Researchers at The Pennsylvania State University developed a low-cost apple harvest-assist unit to improve apple harvest efficiency. The unit performed reliably during field tests. Apple bruising incidence, however, was extremely high with the initial design. This was a major problem for this unit, which targeted fresh market apples. This study focused on identifying reasons for apple bruising, and designing and testing a new speed-reduction brush mechanism for distributing the apples into the bin. Field tests demonstrated that 98.50% and 1.50% of ‘Fuji’ apples harvested by this unit with the speed-reduction brush mechanism mounted were graded as “Extra Fancy” and “Fancy”, respectively. The satisfactory experimental results demonstrated the commercialization potential for this low-cost apple harvest-assist unit utilizing the brush speed-reduction mechanism.

Cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) yield quantity and quality can be improved. Estimates of combining ability are useful in determining breeding value of cucumber lines by suggesting the appropriate use in breeding to generate new hybrids with high yield and quality. The research was conducted to estimate general and specific combining ability and heterosis in seven inbred lines proposed for cucumber breeding according previous research. The highest early yield specific combining ability (SCA) and general combining ability (GCA) were related to lines B10 and B12 and crosses B12 × A0 and B10 × A4. Lines A11 and B12 had the highest positive and negative cull yield GCA and the crosses A0 × B10 and A0 × B12 had the highest negative cull yield SCA. Lines B10, A4, and B12 and crosses B12 × A0, B10 × A11, and B10 × A4 had the highest positive marketable yield GCA and SCA. Lines B10 and A4 and crosses B12 × A0, B10 × A11, and B10 × A4 had the highest positive total yield GCA and SCA. Lines B10, B12, and A11 an...

Pesticide use values for 2004 compared to peak usage data for the period 1992 through 2004 demonstrate a 75% reduction in the application of restricted or “Danger”-labeled insecticides in fresh market tomato. Paraquat use was reduced by 31%. Fumigant use (17% reduction) was mainly influenced by rate reduction, rather than reduction of use (1-7). This document is PI-87, one of a series of publications of the Pesticide Information Office, Agronomy Department, Florida Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida. Published November 2005.

Harvest is one of the most challenging production tasks in apple production. It is a labor-intensive operation, and mechanization has been slow in development for a myriad of reasons. With increasing labor costs and decreasing availability of harvest employees, researchers have been focusing on mechanical apple harvest technologies. Studies on semi-automatic harvesters, harvest robots, and harvest-assist platforms target development of mechanical apple harvesting. Semi-automatic harvesters for fresh market apples have not been commercialized due to unacceptably high incidence of apple bruising. Harvest robots have not been commercialized due to their high costs and low efficiency. Apple harvest-assist platforms are a technology that has the potential to be more widely commercialized based on the current research.

The U.S. apple industry is facing difficulties because apple production costs have been continuously increasing. Three factors contribute to this situation: close dependence on a large seasonal workforce, increasing labor costs, and decreasing availability of agricultural employees. Apple harvest is the most labor-intensive operation during the production season. An economical apple harvest-assist unit prototype targeting fresh market apples was designed and field tested, aimed at increasing harvest efficiency, reducing harvest-related injuries, and increasing the potential labor pool through decreased working strength requirements. This harvest-assist unit focused on apples in the top of the canopy, which typically require use of ladders for conventional harvest. The unit was field tested for two years, with the first year focusing on identifying the components that caused apple bruising, and the second year focusing on identifying the performance of this unit. After being identified as the major component causing apple bruising, the distributor (a rotating disk used to distribute apples evenly in the bin) was improved and then tested in the second-year experiment. Apple downgrade incidence was reduced to 0% using an optimized distributor rotation speed of 28 rpm. For the apples located in the upper portion of the trees, the harvest-assist unit increased apple harvest efficiency (apples picked per second) by 95% compared with the conventional apple harvest method using ladders.

Swine is an economically important livestock, yet pork consumption and close contact with pigs are associated with the risk of hepatitis E virus (HEV) infection. Limited data on the prevalence of HEV in Southeast Asia have mainly examined farm animals. To investigate the potential zoonotic transmission of HEV from dietary consumption of pork and variety meats (i.e., offal or organ meats), we obtained 1090 liver, 559 pork meat, and 556 intestine samples from fresh markets in the Bangkok metropolitan area between November 2014 and February 2015. The presence of HEV was assessed using reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction. Concurrently, 720 bile and 553 fecal samples from a slaughterhouse were also examined. Overall, HEV RNA was found in 0.23 % of the market samples and 3.93 % of the slaughterhouse samples. Fecal and bile samples were more likely to test positive compared to liver, pork, and intestine samples (p

Tomato is one of the most economically important vegetable crops in the world. Objective of this study was to determine the genetic diversity of tomato based on its horticultural traits. Seventy-one tomato genotypes were planted and grown in two replications with randomized complete block design for two years. Diversity analysis produced six distinct clusters based on average-linkage method. Five principal components (PC) explained more than 92% of the phenotypic variation. Clusters produced in this analysis can be of importance for breeding programs developing specific fruit types based on consumer’s demand.

The fresh market berry industry in Santa Cruz and Monterey counties has contributed significantly to the agricultural vibrancy of the two counties and the state of California. Dramatic growth in strawberry, raspberry and blackberry production has been documented over the last 50 years, and most notably since the 1980s. Factors influencing this growth include innovations in agricultural practices and heightened consumer demand. Here, we review the historical context for the berry industry in Santa Cruz and Monterey counties. Organic production, production economics and challenges for the future are also discussed.

An online choice experiment was conducted to investigate U.S. consumer preferences for attributes of fresh market strawberry fruit. Using a latent class logit model, three different groups of consumers are identified: “Balanced Consumers,” “Experience Attribute Sensitive Consumers,” and “Search Attribute Sensitive Consumers.” This information on consumer segmentation can help the fresh market strawberry industry identify target markets, and provides valuable information to breeders, growers, and retailers to prioritize fruit attributes in their breeding, growing, or product sourcing decisions.

Thailand has experienced dramatic growth of large national and international modern food retailers, such as supermarkets, hypermarkets and convenience stores in large cities and regional centres in the last two decades. Nevertheless, Thai consumers continue to purchase perishables (fruits, vegetables and animal products) from fresh markets (wet markets, talat sot) contradicting predictions from analysts that modern food retail chains will rapidly replace fresh markets as the preferred venue for purchasing all types of foods. This paper examines trust in food retail systems as an under-explored dimension lying behind the continued patronage by Thais of fresh markets to purchase perishable items. It derives from a research program commenced in 2005 that includes fieldwork visits, interviews and questionnaires. In the context of the Thai food retail transition, we propose that trust affects relationships between consumers and (1) individual fresh market-based vendors, (2) the food products sold at fresh markets and (3) the food retail system more broadly. If fresh markets can be maintained in the face of sustained pressure from modern national and international food retailers, Thais will continue to use them. Meanwhile, trust is a relatively unrecognised dimension that is supporting the continued existence of traditional food retail formats.

Currently, no commercial success has been achieved for mechanized or automated harvesting of fresh market apples. Automated or robotic harvesting systems have primarily been limited by the speed, accuracy, robustness and cost of the machine. Bulk harvesting has a potential to address these challenges but the technique suffers from a high level of harvest-induced fruit damage. To gain an understanding of bruising potential during fruit-to-fruit collision that occurs during bulk harvesting, apple-to-apple impact tests were carried out in a laboratory using a specially design pendulum-type apple bruising test device. This device could attach a half-apple on its pendulum impactor with its middle zone as the impacting surface to apply an impact force on different surfaces of a whole apple placed on a stationary platform of the device to quantitatively study the effects of different impacts. Three impact patterns of middle-to-top, middle-to-middle and middle-to-bottom zone between two apple specimens were tested using “Granny Smith” apples. Six to seven different levels of impact forces were applied for each test pattern. Obtained results revealed that if the impact force were less than 16 N it would result in no bruising on apple specimen in all test conditions. This particular variety of apple could tolerate a moderate impact force of ~28 N and still maintain an “Extra Fancy” quality over 98% for all tested fruit. This study also showed that, if the impact force could be controlled on a level less than 53 N, about 94% or more apples could still meet a “fresh-market” quality threshold.

This article reviews the research and development progress of mechanical harvest technologies for fresh market apples over the past decades with a focus on the predominant technologies of shake-and-catch, robots, and harvest-assist platform methods. In addition, based on the review it points out the bottlenecks and future trends of these three technology categories. Major progress in the shake-and-catch method is related to theoretical studies on the effective removal of apples and catching mechanisms to minimize bruising. The unacceptable bruising conditions hinder the shake-and-catch method from commercial application. Two startups of apple harvesting robots are in the stage of commercializing their products based on vacuum and three-finger end-effectors, respectively. Economic benefits, as well as technology reliability and robustness of both robots, are pending for validation before they are on the market. In addition, a key obstacle faced by both robots before commercial use is to find a solution to pick apples grown in clusters. Harvest-assist platforms are gradually adopted by apple growers, but at a very low rate due to their doubts on economic benefits. Validation of harvest-assist platforms’ economic benefits and incorporation with more functions (e.g., sorting) would enhance their adoption. With the rapid development of sensing and automation technologies, such as novel sensors, embedded systems, and machine learning algorithms, and the progress in new tree canopy structures that are friendlier for fruit visibility and accessibility, it is believed the robots for fresh market apple harvest would be realized and commercialized in the near future. Currently, more efforts should be invested in analyzing and validating the economic benefits of harvest-assist platforms, as well as adding more functions to the harvest-assist platforms, to increase their application rate for the benefit of the apple industry.

This 4-page fact sheet written by Ariel Singerman and published by the UF/IFAS Food and Resource Economics Department presents the cost of production per acre for growing fresh grapefruit in the Indian River region during 2018/19. Estimates reflect costs and cultural practices for a panel of growers, particularly important information at this time because, since citrus greening (HLB) was found, growers have been modifying their practices from year to year in an attempt to cope with the disease. https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/fe1078

Microalgal biomass produced from the phycoremediation of wastewater represents an important protein source, lipids, and natural antioxidants and bioproducts. Therefore, the microalgal biomass and their derived compounds are used in animal and aquaculture feed as well as human nutrition and health products. Many microalgal species have shown promising potential for many bioproducts. However, significant processes to find the optimum quality and quantity of microalgal biomass are still required especially when it is used as a replacement for aquaculture feed. The limitations lie in the selection of microalgal species and their production. The present review discusses the potential generation of bioproducts from microalgal biomass resulting from the phycoremediation of wet market wastewater. The consortium approach in wastewater treatment and the comparison between biomass production and available common feeds for aquaculture were reviewed.

This 5-page fact sheet written by Ariel Singerman and published by the UF/IFAS Food and Resource Economics Department presents the cost of production per acre for growing fresh grapefruit in the Indian River region during 2016/17. Typical users of the estimates include growers and consultants, who use them as a benchmark; property appraisers, who use them to compute the taxes for property owners; and researchers, who use the estimates to evaluate the economic feasibility of potential new technologies. http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/fe1037

Zebra chip (ZC), a new and economically important disease of potato in the United States, Mexico, Central America, and New Zealand, is caused by the bacterium “Candidatus Liberibacter solanacearum”, transmitted to potato by the potato psyllid, Bactericera cockerelli. The disease has caused millions of dollars in losses to the potato industry. Whole crops have been rejected because of ZC, occasionally leading to abandonment of entire fields. Plant growth and yield are severely affected by the disease. Chips or fries processed from ZC-infected tubers exhibit dark stripes that become markedly more visible with frying, and hence are commercially unacceptable. Additionally, the disease causes serious losses to the fresh market, tablestock and export potato industry. ZC-infected tubers generally do not sprout and if they do, produce hair sprouts, weak, or short-lived plants. Furthermore, there are indications that ZC symptoms might develop in tubers during storage. All commercial potato cultivars are susceptible to ZC, thus management tactics targeted against the potato psyllid are currently the only means to effectively manage the disease. An overview of ZC history, geographic distribution, biology, epidemiology, and management are discussed.

This article focuses on the costs of managing exotic citrus diseases as they become endemic or established within a citrus industry, and Florida is used as an example. In particular, the figures in this article represent the cost of production for processed juice oranges in the Southwest Florida region and fresh market grapefruit in the Indian River region.

To ensure that freshly harvested crops or slaughtered animals have a uniformly high quality for subsequent processing or for sale in the fresh market sector, it is necessary to cool them to reduce metabolic activity and microbial growth. It is also necessary to remove contaminants and to sort foods to produce uniform quality characteristics. This chapter describes treatment of raw materials using the unit operations of cooling, cleaning, sorting, grading and peeling.

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether the food retail transition underway in Thailand, a transitional middle-income setting, is associated with increased consumption of processed foods high in fat, salt and energy. Such “problem foods” are important risks for avoidable cardio-vascular disease and diabetes burdens.Design/methodology/approach– The source population were members of the nationwide Thai Cohort Study (TCS) followed since 2005 (n=87,151) for a study of the health-risk transition. For this report we used a multi-region sub-sample (n=1,516) of TCS members responding to an additional questionnaire about food environments, shopping patterns and food consumption. By using a TCS sub-sample we gained access to four years (2005-2009) of longitudinal observations on a wide array of variables related to health and wellbeing from an informative group.Findings– Overall 85 per cent of the sample now have access to supermarkets; ten years ago the figure was 47 per cent, and when aged ten years, 5 per cent. Now half the participants regularly visit supermarkets and convenience stores, especially urban dwellers with higher incomes. Frequent shopping at supermarkets and convenience stores associated with consumption of six “problem foods” (soft drinks, snack foods, processed meats, western style bakery items, instant foods and deep fried foods). Frequent fresh market shopping was associated with increased vegetable intake. There was no association between food shopping and body mass index , diabetes or hypertension but supermarket shopping was related to hyperlipidaemia.Research limitations/implications– Modernization of food retailing is changing Thai diets and creating diet-related health risks.Originality/value– The paper addresses a knowledge gap on links between modernizing food retail in Asia and consumption of unhealthy foods, revealing strong linkage in transitional Thailand.

Sweet corn is one of the most common fresh market vegetable crops grown throughout the north central and north east regions of the United States. In 2008, the Great Lakes Vegetable Working Group measured integrated pest management (IPM) practice adoption by growers of this crop using online and hardcopy surveys over a 10-mo period. The survey asked growers from nine states and Ontario, Canada, which pest management practices they used on their farm operation in the following sections: education, preplant, at-plant, in-season, postharvest, scouting, and demographics. Each individual survey question was ranked by a panel of university specialists and designated as a low, moderate, or high IPM valued activity, with points assigned accordingly. On survey completion, the total points accumulated by the grower would place them into one of three categories; low, moderate, or high IPM adopter. Of the 407 respondents, 130 were placed in the low IPM adoption category, 251 were deemed moderate IPM adopters, and 26 were placed in the high IPM category. Some key general attributes of a high IPM adopter include someone who has grown vegetables for at least 10 yr and has a farm >51 acres (67%) and raises between 21-50 acres of sweet corn (44%). Some key general attributes of a low IPM adopter include less experience on smaller acreage, with 56% having grown vegetables for fewer than 10 yr with 57% on farms smaller than five acres.

Imported from the Andean region to Europe in the 16th century, today tomato is widespread throughout the world and represents the most economically important vegetable crop worldwide. Tomato is not only traded in the fresh market but is also used in the processing industry in soups, as paste, concentrate, juice, and ketchup. It is an incredible source of important nutrients such as lycopene, β-carotene and vitamin C, which all have positive impacts on human health. Its production and consumption is increasing with population growth. In this review, we report how tomato was already domesticated by the ancient Incan and Aztec civilizations, and how it came to Europe, where its breeding history started. The development of genetic, molecular biology and plant biotechnology have opened the doors towards the modern genetic engineering of tomato. The different goals of tomato genetic engineering are presented, as well as examples of successfully engineered tomatoes in terms of resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses, and fruit quality. The development of GM tomato for biopharming is also described.

This 4-page fact sheet written by Ariel Singerman and published by the UF/IFAS Food and Resource Economics Department presents the cost of production per acre for growing fresh grapefruit in the Indian River region during 2017/18. The methodology chosen to collect the data consisted of surveying growers directly to closely reflect growers' costs in the era of citrus greening. Typical users of the estimates in the fact sheet include growers and consultants, who use them as a benchmark; property appraisers, who use them to compute the taxes for property owners; and researchers, who use the estimates to evaluate the economic feasibility of potential new technologies. http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/fe1066

fruit grown commercially in Lithuania, and is planted in a area of 2900 ha. The climate of Lithuania is suitable for blackcurrant production (Sasnauskas et al., 2012). Blackcurrant fruit is rich in many bioactive compounds. Buds and their essential oil extracts have become increasingly important (Dvaranauskaite et al., 2008; 2009). The main targets of Ribes breeding programmes are fruit yield and quality, resistance to pest and fungal diseases, suitability for processing and fresh market, and adaptability to local environmental conditions (Pluta and Zurawicz, 1993; Trajkovski et al., 2000; Brennan et al., 2008; Libek et al., 2008; Paprstein et al., 2012; Yareshchenko et al., 2012; Strautina et al., 2012). Since 1946, the breeding programme for blackcurrant has been carried out at the Institute of Horticulture, Lithuanian Research Centre for Agriculture and Forestry (IH-LRCAF). Seventeen new IH-LRCAF cultivars are included in the National List of Plant Varieties 2012 and recommended for commercial growing in Lithuania (Sasnauskas et al., 2012). There is still a strong need for new blackcurrant cultivars, because some European cultivars are not winter hardy enough and susceptible to fungal diseases, but they have good berry quality. On the other hand, investigations of new blackcurrant cultivars are important for cross-combinations.

Fruit picking is a tedious, time-consuming operation which accounts for the largest part of the labor employed in the production of fruit crops. Fruit picking requires decisions for selective harvesting (color, size and maturity) and maintaining high fruit quality throughout the picking process. Mechanization can reduce harvesting costs and dependence on seasonal labor so growers can stay competitive in the future by increasing harvest productivity in a timely fashion. However, fruit crops are affected by a diversity of factors such as climate, soil, market, utilization, fruit variety, tree or plant type and a lack of uniform maturity, all of which can slow the acceptance of substituted machines for human judgment and dexterity. This complexity has made commercial adoption of harvest machinery relatively slow. During the last 60 years of intensive R&D by industry, academia and the growers themselves, some significant implementation has occurred primarily with fruit destined for processing and/or fruit not sensitive to mechanical damage. Mechanical harvesting utilizes shaking of limbs, trunks and foliage of all nut crops, olives for oil, citrus for juice and grapes for wine, as well as deciduous fruit destined for processing that can tolerate a high level of mechanical stress including prunes, cling peaches and blueberries. A major hurdle to overcome in the future is the harvesting of soft, perishable fruit destined to the fresh market such as apple, pear and avocado. This will require a concerted effort and focused R&D on modifications of trees and orchard configuration along with further development of advanced technologies such as robotics, machine vision and artificial intelligence algorithms to facilitate selection of appropriate mechanization.