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<ol><li> To gain a greater understanding of how postharvest handling and fresh-cut processing conditions affect plant metabolism, microbial growth and their interactions; <li>To develop techniques to improve quality and safety of fresh and fresh-cut fruits and vegetables; <li> To develop and correlate imaging technology and postharvest handling procedures for quality maintenance of fresh and freshcut produce.</ol>
Our cooperative appoach will be to: (1) evaluate produce quality using gas chromatography, colorimeter, and imaging technology; (2) study the effect of package atmospheres on the texture of fruits and vegetables; and (3) use biotechnological approaches to investigate the mechanisms of quality maintenance with various postharvest techniques.