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The major goal of this project is to use available tropical and sub-tropical food resources on Guam to process and market fresh-cut produces to benefit residents and consumers with "safe, healthy, fresh, and convenient" products, reduce high food imports, and improve the agricultural sustainability on the island. The objectives of this project are to: Determine the optimum cultivar, maturity or ripeness, and post-harvest storage of locally-grown vegetables and fruits for processing high quality fresh-cut produces; Determine optimum conditions for processing selected fresh-cut vegetables and fruits; Determine the respiration rate of fresh-cut produces for the optimum conditions of modified atmosphere packaging;Determine the shelf-life of fresh-cut produces by evaluating sensory, nutritional, and microbial quality; Develop extension educational curriculum and conduct workshops in the community to teach target audiences to process and market fresh-cut produces. This project will address the USDA National Priority and Outcomes: Local and Global Food Security and Hunger, including Outcome #1 "Enhanced capacity of a sustainable global food system", Outcome #2 "More sustainable, diverse, and resilient food systems across scales", and Outcome #3 "Improved local, national and global capacity to meet growing food demands"; Food Safety, including Outcome #1 "Increase number of viable technologies to improve food safety", Outcome #2 "Reduce incidence of foodborne illness", and Outcome #3 "Increase adoption of recommended safe food handling practices at the individual, family, community, production, and supply system levels."
Guam greatly depends on imports in agricultural products. About 90% of foods are imported from Asian countries and U.S. mainland. Due to long-distance international transportation, the produces consumed by residents are often not farm-fresh, easily spoiled, and poor in quality. Replacing 10% of imports of foods with locally grown fresh produces and processed products is a goal to change the situation. Guam can cultivate more than one hundred kinds of vegetables and fruits. Wisely processing these tropical and subtropical crops is one of strategies to address the critical issue. Applying modified atmosphere packaging, vegetables and fruits can be processed into safe, farm-fresh, healthy, and convenient products¾fresh-cut produces. The objectives of the project are to: (1) determine the optimum post-harvest storage and processing conditions on the safety and quality of fresh-cut produces; (2) determine the shelf-life of fresh-cut produces based on sensory, nutritional, and microbial quality; and (3) delivery science-based knowledge of processing fresh-cut produces in the community. We expect that the project will promote processing and marketing fresh-cut produces on the island; benefit farmers, food processors, residents, and consumers; and reduce the food imports and improve the agricultural sustainability on Guam.