Quality and Safety of Fresh-Cut Vegetables and Fruits

1.Evaluate methods of sampling and measuring flavor and nutrition of fresh-cut products to facilitate comparison to traditional shelf life factors. 2.Develop new strategies to improve and better maintain inherent fresh-cut product quality and nutrition. 3.Improve understanding of physiological mechanisms that affect fresh-cut product quality. 4.Determine critical factors in controlled inoculation studies with human pathogens and surrogates that influence the outcome of quantitative microbial risk assessments. 5.Evaluate and control unintentional and intentional microbial contamination of intact and fresh-cut produce. In order to ascertain food safety risks involving fresh and fresh-cut produce, it is critical to be able to determine the survival and persistence of viable or infectious human pathogens under environmental conditions occurring in produce handling and processing facilities, on harvested crops, and on intact or fresh-cut products. Therefore, methods for detection and enumeration of target microbes, including bacteria and viruses, are of core relevancy to this project. <P>Approaches for detection and enumeration of microbes on fresh produce can play an important role in mitigation of fresh produce-associated spoilage or foodborne disease, as well, providing decision makers with timely and actionable data, especially on the presence of human pathogens in these products (Brehm-Stecher et al., 2009). These data could help guide interventions such as: refusal of contaminated product from the field, cessation of processing for line or equipment sanitation, destruction of contaminated product held in inventory pending testing results, or product recall. <P>Due to the relatively short shelf lives of most types of fresh produce, rapid methods for detection and enumeration are of special relevance to the goals of this work. Integration of physiological, pathological, food safety, and instrumental and sensory quality measurement concepts is essential for developing the most effective handling procedures and innovative, new technologies for maintaining quality and shelf stability of fresh-cut products. Much experimental work is needed to optimize and integrate new and emerging treatments in diverse fresh-cut products. This fact supports the proposed integrated approach of having parallel projects in different states and of focusing the research into specific areas of importance. Alternative and emerging technologies for maintaining the quality and shelf stability of fresh-cut produce are being introduced at a rate that often precludes thorough evaluation of instrumental and sensory quality attributes, and their impact on product nutritional value, microbial quality and food safety. To do so, a multidisciplinary approach as proposed herein also will be needed to optimize the new and emerging treatments.