[permaculture-oceania] Fwd: Packaging Keeps Cut Produce Fresh

[Robyn Williamson]

Begin forwarded message:

> Message: 6
> Date: Thu, 6 Jul 2006 10:26:51 -0500
> From: "Doreen Howard" <gardendiva at charter.net>
> Subject: [GWL] Fw: Packaging Keeps Cut Produce Fresh
> To: <gardenwriters at lists.ibiblio.org>
> Message-ID: <003801c6a110$9baf1850$1202a8c0 at Doreen>
> Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1";
> 	reply-type=original
>
> This forward is in response to Debbie Leung's query about food 
> scientists.
> The USDA is always helpful, and if the people named in the article 
> cannot
> help you, they will find an expert for you.  Use the link near the 
> bottom to
> go to the entire article online.  It should contain emails and phone 
> numbers
> of people to contact.
> Doreen Howard
> ----------------------------------------------------------
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "ARS News Service" <NewsService at ars.usda.gov>
> To: "ARS News subscriber" <gardendiva at charter.net>
> Sent: Thursday, July 06, 2006 7:02 AM
> Subject: Packaging Keeps Cut Produce Fresh
>
>
>> STORY LEAD:
>> High-Tech Packaging Keeps Cut Produce Fresh
>> ___________________________________________
>>
>> ARS News Service
>> Agricultural Research Service, USDA
>> Rosalie Marion Bliss, (301) 504-4318, rbliss at ars.usda.gov
>> July 6, 2006
>> --View this report online, plus any included photos or other images, 
>> at
>> www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr
>> ___________________________________________
>>
>> An Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientist has identified 
>> specific
>> packaging wraps, called films, which provide several fruit and 
>> vegetable
>> varieties with a long shelf life.  Food technologist Yaguang Luo, 
>> with the
>> ARS Produce Quality and Safety Laboratory (PQSL), Beltsville, Md., 
>> led the
>> project.  The technology she used is known as "modified atmosphere
>> packaging," or MAP.
>>
>> Fresh-cut fruit and vegetable varieties are still alive, and each 
>> respires
>> at its own unique rate.  Therefore, a film's permeability and the 
>> amount
>> of oxygen initially infused into a package are key.
>>
>> Manufacturers have produced hundreds of different types of films, and 
>> each
>> type has its own oxygen transmission rate, which allows sliced 
>> produce to
>> continue breathing throughout storage and distribution.  If a film's
>> oxygen transmission rate is too high for the variety it's wrapping, 
>> the
>> product inside will brown; if it's too low, the product will 
>> prematurely
>> decay.
>>
>> Luo's research findings led to developing a balance of oxygen and 
>> carbon
>> dioxide inside select packages that permits a particular fresh-cut 
>> produce
>> variety to respire slowly and stay fresh for the longest possible 
>> time.
>>
>> For example, fresh-cut cilantro--a leafy culinary herb that's a 
>> popular
>> flavor component of tomato salsa--has a high respiration rate that 
>> makes
>> storage a challenge.  Leaf yellowing, dehydration and loss of aroma 
>> can
>> set in quickly after cutting.  The packaging film Luo has identified 
>> for
>> wrapping cilantro provides a 14-day shelf life.  So the cilantro has
>> plenty of time to be plucked from the grocery shelf and chopped to 
>> enliven
>> a fresh batch of salsa.
>>
>> Using similar advanced packaging technologies, Luo has been able to
>> prolong the shelf life of romaine lettuce, iceberg lettuce, carrots 
>> and
>> salad savoy, a nutritious new vegetable crop that is a close relative 
>> to
>> kale and cabbage.
>>
>> Read more about this research in the July 2006 issue of Agricultural
>> Research magazine, available online at:
>> http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/jul06/produce0706.htm.
>>
>> ARS is the U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief scientific research
>> agency.
>>
>>
>> ___________________________________________
>>
>> * This is one of the news reports that ARS Information distributes to
>> subscribers on weekdays.
>> * Start, stop or change an e-mail subscription at
>> www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/subscribe.htm
>> * NewsService at ars.usda.gov | www.ars.usda.gov/news
>> * Phone (301) 504-1638 | fax (301) 504-1486
>>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
CONTACT DETAILS:

Robyn Williamson
Permaculture Design Consultant
Urban Horticulturist
Local Seed Network Coordinator
NORTH WESTERN SYDNEY COMMUNITY SEED SAVERS
mobile:  0409 151 435
ph/fx:  (612) 9629 3560
http://www.seedsavers.net
http://www.communityfoods.org.au
http://www.communitygarden.org.au
http://www.bidjiwongcommunitynursery.org.au

I think we risk becoming the best informed society that has ever died of
ignorance. *-Reuben Blades*