Search

The research aimed at analyzing several facets of innovation management in the field of fruit and vegetable preservation. The analysis was based on a review of the trends using the Web of Science database and a questionnaire survey to assess the potential influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on the condition of innovation management in the field of fruits and vegetables preservation. A thorough analysis and evaluation of 256 journal articles retrieved from the Web of Science database were done. The results show that there has been an imbalance in the distribution of researchers by region and that research on fruit and vegetable preservation innovations did not increase until recent years. A total of 18.04% of the papers on the subject that the investigation could locate were generated by Italy and the USA, accounting for around 9.02% of them each. Furthermore, the results showed that, in terms of the demand for innovations and investment level in fruit and vegetable preservation, the COVID-19 innovation disruption had a bigger influence on large-scale firms than on small businesses. It is also worth pointing out that the research findings to now, which have primarily been based on laboratory-scale studies, have not fully taken into account the cost-effectiveness of the suggested preservation technologies. The goal of a cost-effective therapy can only be partially met by the different approaches that have been proposed. If sustainable innovation management in the field of fruits and vegetables preservation is to be achievable on a global scale, an effort must be made to fund more research activities, particularly in the cold and arid and semi-arid regions. Practical considerations dictate that small-scale research that uses readily available and affordable materials be encouraged. This will make it possible to do a logical cost-benefit analysis of a particular technique or strategy for addressing fruit and vegetable preservation.

The food industry is one of the sectors that produces considerable amounts of solid waste on a daily basis. Handling such waste has been a significant issue of worldwide concern. As a result, research into developing low-cost and effective technology for the recovery of food waste is critical in order to keep pace with the rapidly developing world. This research investigated the potential of maggot production on the recovery of food waste. Four different food waste materials (banana, starch, pineapples, and oranges) were taken into consideration. Additionally, the effect of the fly attractant on the production system’s overall performance was assessed; the fly attractant was a mixture of cattle blood and meat waste. With a correlation index of 0.96 (without fly attractant) and 0.87 (with fly attractant), the number of days before harvesting and the average maggot weight had a very high (positive) correlation. Moreover, it was observed that using a fly attractant increased maggot yield substantially. For instance, the banana materials produced up to 94 g/kg of maggot weight on the eighth day, which is approximately a 32.4% increase from the same material without fly attractant. On the other hand, the trials’ relative dry weight reduction ranged from 52.5% to 82.4%. The results of this study also showed that producing maggots can be a practical method for recovering food waste, particularly when combined with the use of a fly attractant. The residue from the maggot production process can be applied as an organic fertilizer.

Major losses of fresh tomatoes happen during post-harvest storage due to prompt senescence and diseases. The aim of the research was to evaluate the effects of different spectra of LED lights on the post-harvest preservation of ascorbic acid, lycopene, and total soluble solids, the weight and size of tomato fruits, as well as to determine the optimal exposure time and distance of irradiation and extension of shelf-life. Therefore, experiments were carried out in a climate chamber with shelves equipped with three different light spectra: red light-emitting diodes, red–blue–white light-emitting diodes, and ultraviolet-light-emitting diodes. Light treatment had a certain positive effect on the firmness, size, and mass of samples. Thus, tomato fruits (Panekra) exposed to the spectra of LED lights demonstrated a better quality of firmness and mass compared to the control samples (non-preserved) of tomatoes. The treatments with RL significantly improved the concentration of lycopene than FL and UV-LED lights, although the highest concentration of lycopene was observed in the control samples for the first 7 days of the storage. After 21 days, the ascorbic acid content in the red spectrum was found to be much higher than in the other two spectra and control samples, coming in at about 1.8 mg/100 mL compared to 1.0 mg/100 mL for the control samples. Total soluble solids also increased significantly after preservation, rising from 3.9 °Brix in the control samples to roughly 7.3 °Brix in samples preserved using the full spectrum after 21 days. Overall, the results of the study demonstrated that tomato preservation using the investigated techniques induced lycopene concentration, ascorbic acid, and total soluble solids concentrations. The results derived from this study provide highly useful information in the field of post-harvest preservation.

The efficiency of microbial inactivation in water is highly dependent on the type of treatment technology used as well as the characteristics of the water to be treated. Wastewater from poultry slaughterhouses carries a significant number of microorganisms posing threats to humans and the environment in general. Therefore, the treatment of poultry slaughterhouse wastewater requires the use of appropriate purification systems with high removal efficiency for microbial agents. In this study, the performance of an integrated treatment plant with electrolysis, ultrafiltration, and ultraviolet radiation as the principal treatment units was investigated in terms of microbial inactivation from poultry slaughterhouse wastewater. In this case, total microbial number, total coliform bacteria, thermo-tolerant coliform bacteria, pathogenic flora, including salmonella coliphages, spores of sulfite-reducing clostridia, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Staphylococcus aureus and Enterococcus were studied. Approximately 63.95% to 99.83% of the microbes were removed by the electrochemical treatment unit as well as a 99.86% to 100% removal efficiency was achieved after the combined treatment. However, Pseudomonas aeruginosa was the only microbial agent detected in the final effluent after the combined treatment. The phenomenon suggests that an upgrade to the treatment plant may be required to achieve 100% removal assurance for Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

The efficiency of microbial inactivation in water is highly dependent on the type of treatment technology used as well as the characteristics of the water to be treated. Wastewater from poultry slaughterhouses carries a significant number of microorganisms posing threat to humans and the environment in general. Therefore, the treatment of poultry slaughterhouse wastewater requires the use of appropriate purification systems with high removal efficiency for microbial agents. In this study, the performance of an integrated treatment plant with electrolysis, ultrafiltration, and ultraviolet radiation as the principal treatment units is investigated in terms of microbial inactivation from poultry slaughterhouse wastewater. In this case, Total microbial number, Total coliform bacteria, Thermo-tolerant coliform bacteria, Pathogenic flora, including Salmonella coliphages, Spores of sulfite-reducing clostridia, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Staphylococcus aureus Enterococcus were studied. About 63.95% to 99.83% of the microbes were removed by the EC treatment unit, as well as 99.86% to 100% removal efficiency was achieved after the combined treatment. However, the Pseudomonas aeruginosa was the only microbial agent detected in the final effluent after the combined treatment. The phenomenon suggests that an upgrade to the treatment plant may be required to achieve 100% removal assurance for Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

Light qualities are considered to affect many plant physiological processes during growth and development. To investigate how light qualities make an influence on tomato seedlings under greenhouse conditions, the growth and morphological parameters of tomato seedlings (Fortizia F1RC hybrid) were studied under three supplemental light irradiations such as light-emitting diodes with nanoparticle coating (LED 1—Red light-emitting diodes), Blue, Green, Yellow, Red light-emitting diodes (LED 2), and traditional high-pressure sodium (HPS) lamps with different photosynthetic photon flux density and the same irradiation time for 33 days. Morphological appearances of three groups of tomato seedlings were different between light treatments, that is, the plants under LED-1 and LED-2 were shorter than those under HPS, while stem diameter, leaf area, dry and fresh weights, and health indices of tomato seedlings grown under alternative light sources were higher than of those cultivated under traditional HPS lights. However, the higher plant height was in plants containing traditional high-pressure sodium lamps treatment. Photosynthetic pigments were shown to have a significant difference under respective light irradiations of LEDs. The levels of photosynthetic pigments were higher in the leaves of seedlings under LED 1 and LED 2, and lower in those that underwent HPS control treatment. Based on the data of morphological and statistical analysis, LEDs with nanoparticle coating proved to be beneficial factors for the growth of tomato seedlings under greenhouse conditions.