London, United Kingdom
June 11, 2007A simple,
cheap treatment using just oxygen could allow growers to store
organic produce for longer and go a long way towards reducing
the price of organic fruit and vegetables, reports Lisa Richards
in Chemistry & Industry, the magazine of the
Society
of Chemical Industry.
Currently UK shoppers have to
pay twice as much for some organic products. Organic apples, for
example, are around double the price of conventionally grown
apples in Sainbury’s, Waitrose and Tesco.
One of the major contributing
factors affecting the price is the short shelf life of organic
produce. Conventional produce can be treated with inexpensive
chemicals to aid preservation. But these cannot be used for
organic produce, as by definition no artificial chemicals are
used during processing.
‘With some organic fruit and
veg, there can be large losses [during storage],’ Claudia Ruane,
spokes person for Abel & Cole organic produce retailers told
C&I. Ruane explained that although many organic farms do have
reasonably sophisticated refrigeration units, there are very
expensive and used only for brief storage before collection.
‘These are important and costly but if paying out for these
facilities can ensure a whole crop is not rejected by a retailer
because it is a little limp or dehydrated, then it is a cost
that has to be absorbed,’ she said.
Edna Pesis and her team at the
Volcani Center, Israel,
have devised what they expect to be an effective and cheap
technique to keep apples in cold storage for longer. A simple
week long pre-treatment with low levels of oxygen at 20ºC was
shown to prevent scald formation - a type of chilling injury
associated with prolonged cold storage. Pesis said that 90% of
the treated apples were ‘saved from the scald problem in
addition to other physiological diseases,’ after eight months of
cold storage. (Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture
DOI: 10.1002/jsfa2873). 100% of untreated apples were lost after
eight months.
Pesis says that the technique
can be tweaked for use with avocados, tomatoes and other organic
produce.
Although price is an issue,
organic produce is becoming more and more attractive to the
consumer because of increasing evidence that it may be the
healthier option. Organic peppers for example have been found to
have 33% and 26% higher levels of vitamin C and phenolic
compunds, respectively, than conventional peppers(JSFA DOI:
10.1002/jsfa2966). A recent study also revealed organic
kiwifruit to be healthier than conventional (DOI
10.1002/jsfa.2820; C&I Issue 8 March 2007).
Other news
from
the Volcani Center |
